What did YOU do today?

[pentode]

Ok, I try not to overdo the smart ass thing, but usually I fail. I didn’t want to insult any foreigners, so I looked up “poutine.”

“Poutine (Quebec French: [puˈt͡sɪn] ⓘ) is a dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy.”

Sounds “Yuk” (but I bet it’s pretty good).

A guy who worked for me out of Brunswick, Georgia, took his Boy Scout troop up to Michigan for some jamboree about 30 years ago. When they went in the local hash house and ordered grits, the gal behind the counter told them “grits” was a myth.

My buddy sent the restaurant a 50 pound bag when they got back (I probably paid for it on his expense account).

I think they put it on top of some stones on top of the hill, and they make sacrifices to it on April fools day.

Man, I'm telling you, it's shockingly good. Of course, there are good ways to make it and less good ways, but they're pretty much all great. I'll be honest, Burger King poutine is just about my favorite, which is probably sacrilege.

My wife is from the town where poutine was invented. I could tell the whole story but I'll spare you. Suffice it to say there was a guy who used to go into this restaurant every day and order a bag of cheese curds and an order of fries to go. One day, when he placed his order, the guy at the counter said "oh sorry, we only have one bag left." and he goes "ah, no worries, chuck it all in the same bag."
The counter guy says "that's going to make a hell of a 'poutine'" (which means mess in Quebecois french.) The rest is history.

It's gotta be fresh, crispy fries, and critically fresh curd cheese, which I've never seen outside of Quebec but I'm guessing they have it in Wisconsin too.

Oh, and you won't offend me, I'm a US citizen. I should probably start a thread with the handful of secret ways to offend Canadians though... It's relatively hard to do.

 

[Rick W]

@Rick W what size vacuum pump is that? When we were doing the AC in my 99 we tried the auto parts store rental first, but it wouldn't pull enough vacuum. After much reading I opted to purchase the 3 CFM two stage pump from HF. Worked perfect. Not sure if the 2 CFM single stage that they offered would have done the job. The rental pump was a 1.8 CFM single stage and looked new, but who knows how it had been previously used.

The only other thing I could recommend for your project would be a small digital scale for weighing the freon. I picked up one from walmart. Allowed for weighing the cans before and after to track how much we added. Would have been good to have for measuring the PAG oil too, but dad had already done that part before I had gotten the scale.

It’s the earlier edition “2.5 cfm.” The guy (who is pretty knowledgeable) from Harbor freight said it’s the same one they sell now rated at 3 CFM, it hasn’t been changed, but they just realized that it pulled more than 2.5. It’s “two stage” which is apparently what’s most important.

It came with a small jug of vacuum pump oil (from harbor freight), but they don’t sell it anymore. I looked online, and two local auto parts houses said they have it in stock. After riding to both in the Missing Linc with the windows down (Lincoln loved it, I roasted), I finally went up to the Napa regional warehouse, which is the closest parts house to my home, and got it for half the price the others were advertising it for. Some day I’ll learn.

I bought a new dryer/accumulator with all the O-rings for the whole system, and the expansion tube. The crossover hose that bolts to the back of the compressor is the obvious culprit, since the Schrader valve near the radiator has been covered with some kind of epoxy. I have a new one.

My basic philosophy on antique contraptions like this is if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The system would get cold when I added Freon in 2020 when I bought it, but it leaked out in a couple days.

Question, and comments, please:

My plan is to replace the dryer/condenser with all new O-rings on those connections. Replace that crossover hose with all new O-rings on those connections. As regards the rest of the O-rings, and the compressor, I plan to leave it alone. I’ll dribble in the amount of oil that is supposed to be in the dryer/condenser and that crossover hose. Then, after pulling a vacuum (assuming it holds), in the following order:

One can of the PAG OIL/Refrigerent (2oz Pag, 10 oz 134a).
One can of PAG/leak detector (1 oz PAG, 2 oz 134a and special sauce to condition the O-rings)
Freon 134a until the pressures are correct

@snoranger provided me all the basics (thanks again), but I don’t know why I am intimidated by AC systems. It’s my understanding a little extra PAG oil may compromise the peak cooling capacity, but too little PAG OIL, and the compressor will eat itself.

If it works, but leaks down quickly, I will either go looking for the yellow dye, and/or just replace the rest of the O-rings. If it leaks down very slowly, I may just top it off with 134a once or twice and during nationals until the weather gets cooler, and then fix it correctly.

Yes/no? Where am I crazy and off track. (Please confine your answers to my air conditioning system plans)

 

[Blmpkn]

Man, I'm telling you, it's shockingly good. Of course, there are good ways to make it and less good ways, but they're pretty much all great. I'll be honest, Burger King poutine is just about my favorite, which is probably sacrilege.

My wife is from the town where poutine was invented. I could tell the whole story but I'll spare you. Suffice it to say there was a guy who used to go into this restaurant every day and order a bag of cheese curds and an order of fries to go. One day, when he placed his order, the guy at the counter said "oh sorry, we only have one bag left." and he goes "ah, no worries, chuck it all in the same bag."
The counter guy says "that's going to make a hell of a 'poutine'" (which means mess in Quebecois french.) The rest is history.

It's gotta be fresh, crispy fries, and critically fresh curd cheese, which I've never seen outside of Quebec but I'm guessing they have it in Wisconsin too.

Oh, and you won't offend me, I'm a US citizen. I should probably start a thread with the handful of secret ways to offend Canadians though... It's relatively hard to do.

....burger King poutine? Good lord it's time to move north!


Offending Canadians though.... we've done it. Perhaps western Canadians are more touchy than eastern Canadians but.. we've done it whoever named that town really brought it upon themselves though.. that's all I'll say.

 

[pentode]

....burger King poutine? Good lord it's time to move north!


Offending Canadians though.... we've done it. Perhaps western Canadians are more touchy than eastern Canadians but.. we've done it whoever named that town really brought it upon themselves though.. that's all I'll say.

Haha, I'm certain I know which town you mean. Let's just say I'm not worried about offending any Canadians on here but I am worried about possibly offending any women by asking if it rhymes with _____.

 

[pentode]

It’s the earlier edition “2.5 cfm.” The guy (who is pretty knowledgeable) from Harbor freight said it’s the same one they sell now rated at 3 CFM, it hasn’t been changed, but they just realized that it pulled more than 2.5. It’s “two stage” which is apparently what’s most important.

View attachment 113137View attachment 113138

It came with a small jug of vacuum pump oil (from harbor freight), but they don’t sell it anymore. I looked online, and two local auto parts houses said they have it in stock. After riding to both in the Missing Linc with the windows down (Lincoln loved it, I roasted), I finally went up to the Napa regional warehouse, which is the closest parts house to my home, and got it for half the price the others were advertising it for. Some day I’ll learn.

I bought a new dryer/accumulator with all the O-rings for the whole system, and the expansion tube. The crossover hose that bolts to the back of the compressor is the obvious culprit, since the Schrader valve near the radiator has been covered with some kind of epoxy. I have a new one.

My basic philosophy on antique contraptions like this is if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The system would get cold when I added Freon in 2020 when I bought it, but it leaked out in a couple days.

Question, and comments, please:

My plan is to replace the dryer/condenser with all new O-rings on those connections. Replace that crossover hose with all new O-rings on those connections. As regards the rest of the O-rings, and the compressor, I plan to leave it alone. I’ll dribble in the amount of oil that is supposed to be in the dryer/condenser and that crossover hose. Then, after pulling a vacuum (assuming it holds), in the following order:

One can of the PAG OIL/Refrigerent (2oz Pag, 10 oz 134a).
One can of PAG/leak detector (1 oz PAG, 2 oz 134a and special sauce to condition the O-rings)
Freon 134a until the pressures are correct

@snoranger provided me all the basics (thanks again), but I don’t know why I am intimidated by AC systems. It’s my understanding a little extra PAG oil may compromise the peak cooling capacity, but too little PAG OIL, and the compressor will eat itself.

If it works, but leaks down quickly, I will either go looking for the yellow dye, and/or just replace the rest of the O-rings. If it leaks down very slowly, I may just top it off with 134a once or twice and during nationals until the weather gets cooler, and then fix it correctly.

Yes/no? Where am I crazy and off track. (Please confine your answers to my air conditioning system plans)

I used to be intimidated by AC systems too. No need, once you understand the basic physics it's pretty elementary. Your plan sounds good. Just replace your suspect parts, pull a vacuum on it and fingers crossed it holds. If not, use dye to find the leaks, patch those up and repeat.
I would agree that a little bit too much oil is better than not enough, but I think if you're pretty close, you'll be fine. You don't want the compressor drowning in oil nor running dry.

 

[JoshT]

If it works, but leaks down quickly, I will either go looking for the yellow dye, and/or just replace the rest of the O-rings. If it leaks down very slowly, I may just top it off with 134a once or twice and during nationals until the weather gets cooler, and then fix it correctly.

Yes/no? Where am I crazy and off track. (Please confine your answers to my air conditioning system plans)

Per your request, sorta. Not a lot of o-rings in the system. You're replacing the condenser and dryer which covers several. There are only a couple more.to get the compressor, evaporator, and change the oriface valve. IMO it's worth taking a little extra time to change the rest. Cheaper to replace a few orings now than replace Freon several times. Quicker to do it now than having to top off the freon when it isn't convent and still having to replace them later.

 

[Rick W]

I used to be intimidated by AC systems too. No need, once you understand the basic physics it's pretty elementary. Your plan sounds good. Just replace your suspect parts, pull a vacuum on it and fingers crossed it holds. If not, use dye to find the leaks, patch those up and repeat.
I would agree that a little bit too much oil is better than not enough, but I think if you're pretty close, you'll be fine. You don't want the compressor drowning in oil nor running dry.

To be clear, I am not trying to single out Canadians and be offensive. The majority of my career has been international, and I believe in equilateral defamation and sarcasm. My experience is that people are people everywhere, very good people, sincere and helping, and it’s the idiots in charge that mess up everything.

Let me also offer, I’m the first to poke fun at myself. We unfortunately live in a world where everybody has rights and everybody is offended by who knows what.

One of my greatest achievements is to make a pompous German (a good guy, but arrogant like me), make him laugh - through a Chinese interpreter - with a play on words. I don’t speak German or Chinese. Humor and humility is the universal language.

We all need to put our feet on the ground, we all need to understand that we are far from perfect, but we also need to understand that, even if we are a universe apart, we are in the same boat, and we need to work together to move forward. A little sarcastic humor can get us miles down the river…

Mostly, I appreciate all the tolerance from all the little people…

 

[pentode]

Before I post a slew of pictures in the wrong place, should I post my pics of the Atlantic Nationals here or start a new thread somewhere else? Want to follow proper etiquette.

 

[JoshT]

I'd say start a thread I'm down in the meets and greets section. They would just get lost posting in here.

 

[sgtsandman]

Before I post a slew of pictures in the wrong place, should I post my pics of the Atlantic Nationals here or start a new thread somewhere else? Want to follow proper etiquette.

There is a meets and greets section as well as a reguonal section that may be in the merts and greets. If there isn't a reguonal one specific or correct enough, just do it in the general meets and greets. I think, but I'm not sure that most of the reguonal stuff is US based

 

[pentode]

There is a meets and greets section as well as a reguonal section that may be in the merts and greets. If there isn't a reguonal one specific or correct enough, just do it in the general meets and greets. I think, but I'm not sure that most of the reguonal stuff is US based

I put it in "events and gatherings", that's what I found that made the most sense to me.

 

[Rick W]

With all deference to those who have made The Ranger Station a great thing, why not start a new thread in your area, and highlight Ranger/bronco, etc?

Sarcasm aside, it sounds like it’s a great show, and I’ll bet there are a bunch of Ranger’s that would love to get together as a group.

But what the hell do I know…

 

[pentode]

Rangers were underrepresented from what I saw, sadly. I'm not a fan of crowds so I didn't see everything. Usually I tell myself I'm not paying the $15 for the big Show tomorrow but usually I cave in and go. It's a huge space in a big park so if I find a Ranger I'll definitely post it.

Did I post the lonely Toyota pic? Definitely all vehicles are welcome. It's just an event for people who love their cars. At least half the people around aren't even in the show, they just came to town in their rides to enjoy the atmosphere.

 

[sgtsandman]

I stopped at Lowes and got the materials to start making the boxes to replace the plastic bins. Since cargo straps go over them as part of securing the load, I chose to go with poplar instead of pine and they will have a lid so that load forces are spread out through the structure of the box instead of two pressure points on the sides.

The initial rough cutting to length and cutouts for hand holds have been made. The lid and bottom boards have been glued together and clamped as well. These are meant to hold kindling and sticks. So, they won't be fine furniture pieces (I'm not upto that skill level anyway). Plus, with these having a lid, I might be able to put them under the coolers, rather on top. That will also make access easier for getting at things and putting ice in them.

Tomorrow, assembly should start.

 

[sgtsandman]

Rangers were underrepresented from what I saw, sadly. I'm not a fan of crowds so I didn't see everything. Usually I tell myself I'm not paying the $15 for the big Show tomorrow but usually I cave in and go. It's a huge space in a big park so if I find a Ranger I'll definitely post it.

Did I post the lonely Toyota pic? Definitely all vehicles are welcome. It's just an event for people who love their cars. At least half the people around aren't even in the show, they just came to town in their rides to enjoy the atmosphere.

Most people view the Ranger like a Honda Civic, Ford Focus, or a Dodge Neon. Nothing special and just basic transportation. So, they don't bother to do much with them.

Not that they are wrong necessarily. One normally doesn't think of a Ranger the way us odd balls do. Such as the sport truck or as a better than average off road vehicle as examples.