The SX/4 money pit

[OntarioEagler]

Smitty!

When your beloved Skeezix is well, bring her up to Ontario for a while --- after the current 30" of ice covering the inlet in front of my place goes out.

That way I could pick your brains for all the good stuff that you know. 
WOW!

T

[IowaEagle]

I don't think they can put in a non locking converter into a locking tranny.  But, like you say it could be defective too.  Tell us what your young tranny guy finds.  Sounds like an awesome engine project.

Stay safe in your travels with Skeezix.

[Smitty]

Smitty!

When your beloved Skeezix is well, bring her up to Ontario for a while --- after the current 30" of ice covering the inlet in front of my place goes out.

That way I could pick your brains for all the good stuff that you know. 
WOW!

T

Just might take you up on that someday.  I used to go through your area on my way back and forth to the U P when I was stationed up there.  There was a Holiday Inn in Sudbury where we would spend the night if the weather was non cooperative.  Depending on health issues I would like to get Skeezix up to Mackinac Island this summer.  Of course, the chance to see your flock and witness your ministry to them would be an added treat.  BTW, got an email from your friend Gordon.  Asked what my best offer would be on the Eagle we talked about.  Oh for more $$ and space.

Enjoy your travels.

[OntarioEagler]

It would be great to see you folks up here.  I suspect  that the HI was in downtown Sudbury when you went through.

Were you at Oscodo/Kinross/Kincheloe AFB in the UP, just east of I-75? 

In my RCAF days I did a tour on CF-101Bs on a squadron out of Ottawa in the early 1960s.  Used to hold alert at North Bay and do excercises and intercepts north of Lake Superior.  I often used Kincheloe, as it was then called, as an alternate.  Canadians didn't like to go there because of the SAC presence which required a lot of special permissions and follow-up paper work.  But they did have hi-volume hi-pressure air, which we needed to get a start.  We did carry a bottle on the Voodoo, but it often malfunctioned and we were stuck, waiting for land or air delivery of a start unit if we landed at a non-NORAD base.  In those days the folks from Kincheloe in their F-106s and we would play with the SAC heavies coming back from Thule or England.  I believe that there were some SAC tankers there in those days also.

There is quite a famous accident involving an F-89 Scorpion out of Kinross which was lost on a night hot scramble.  UFO folks often refer to it, and I remember hearing about it 10 years after it happened.

Just found a reference to the accident:
http://www.cufon.org/kinross/Kinross_acc_rept.htm

Good luck with the Eagle.  I just looked through my image file.  I will be sending you some pics after I reduce  their file sizes. (lovely dial-up!)

Good luck in Atlanta.  Hope everything goes well.

T

[Smitty]

Actually, I was at KI Sawyer over near Marquette.  You were in the area a little before my time  But we were the heavies you guys "played with"  We had 106's and FB111's too so it was a good mix.  Had tankers and B57's too.  SAC was fun wasn't it?  When I was there we lost one buff, one tanker and 2 106's along with a Canbera.  The last was messy as debris landed in the weapon storage area where I worked.  SAC did not like burning parts and debris landing on our nukes.  We really had to clean up the area and repair the cortina wire before we could pull any nukes out of the storage igloos..

That place was where I sure could have used an Eagle.  Lots of snow.  Snowed every month of the year but August.  Coldest I have ever been too.  Had a weaps problem on one of the alert birds and during the night it got to a recorded -75F with the wind chill.  They let us work 10 minutes outside and then had to come in for 20 minutes.  The best part was  when the base commander came out to find out why we were in the red at the big board at SAC headquarters.  He was out there about 15 minutes and inquired how long we all had been there.  I got there at 1600 along with the load crews and it was now about 0330 or so.  He immediately got on the phone and had them open up the alert facility for us and they fixed us a nice hot meal and we had a great BS session with the Wing King.  Great to get somebody else out of bed at that ungodly hour.

Anyway, look forward to sharing old war stories.  BTW, my brother retired as a light Colonel and had the pleasure of visiting downtown Hanoi 90 times in his F105.  At least we stayed high in the buff's and had lots of little friends escort us north.

[OntarioEagler]

Yeah, those were the days, eh?  We were young and full of p and vinegar!  NOTHING would daunt us as we KNEW that we were invincible.   NO ONE would get into our six.  Times change.

We had Genie capability but carried dummies with recorders.  I understand that only one has been detonated to yield about 2 kilotons.  We used to debate whether or not WE would survive the blast or the EMP. 

One winter we played with some B-57s up in Bagotville, northern Quebec and got to know the crew.  Following year had to ferry a couple of Voodoos to the west coast. AFHQ didn't give us a route or an arrival time.  So we went the long way:  St Louis (Home of F-101 and F-4, Gemini spacecraft and good jazz. So sad to go u/s and have to stay there a couple of days), Salt Lake City, Reno (oops, Oxy problem, have to land and visit the ANG  Canberra Sqn on THEIR home turf.  Had to wait for a couple of days to bring start units over from Sacramento. Saw the sights courtesy the Sqn Commander who had some sort of interest in Harrahs), Klamath Falls, finally Comox BC, where we had some explaining to do.

Hats off to Thud drivers.  Dangerous and difficult job in those days.  HEAVY pilot work-load.

We used to work both 47s and the Big Ugly Fat Fellows.  The Buffs were good at ECM and we used to have lots of fun.  In CAVU they'd let up come up and formate on that big flapping wing.  We kept our distance though.  Couldn't let the paints merge for the folks in the darkened rooms or they would get anxious and would start dialing right away.


I see that I have email.  Sorry for pulling the Money Pit into the war story pit.  A break from all that practical technical stuff.

T

[Smitty]

Fired up the money pit today after a long winters hibernation and managed to get it into the toy garage under its own power.  I had put the carter carb back on it so that I could work on the motorcraft.  Figured I would put the motorcraft back on it now that the leaks are fixed in the throttle shaft.  Made more work for myself!!!  Lost a nut for the carb mounting and can not find it.  It MIGHT have dropped into the intake as I pulled the carb.  I thought it was wedged into the linkage and that I would get it loose once the carb was on the bench.  As soon as I got it over the fender I noticed the nut was missing.  It is nowhere to be found.  I dropped a magnet down the intake but it came up empty.  It is probably not in the intake but I will not chance it.  Lost an engine in my Vette that way years back.  Not me doing it but there was a small phillips bit that got dropped into the TBI.  Cost me a new engine.

If I have to pull the intake I might as well change out the head.  I have a fresh one on the bench and this one is blowing a little oil out the breather.  Guess I will order the gaskets tomorrow.  Have to bring Skeezix to a Doc about 70 miles away so that will shoot the day tomorrow and we will be gone this weekend as she goes to Tufts Hospital in Boston.  Maybe some night next week I will take about 3 hours and R&R the head and find that nut.  I know where the nut is that lost the nut but can't find the nut that the nut lost.  Make sense?

[IowaEagle]

Your the second person here to have that happen.  There is an interesting thread here entitled something like a crunchy object? 

Maybe it was the nut telling you that the car told it that it wanted a fresh new head?

[Smitty]

Got everything together to do the head.  Hope to get to it this weekend.  Have to go to college and fetch one of the kids on Saturday.  That will shoot half a day.

I have a question for someone with an 82 IPB.  I still have not figured out the brake issue with the pedal assy on the pit.  looking through the factory manual it shows 2 diagrams for predal arrangements - one for auto and one for stick.  The bracket that the pedals swing from look different.  Are there two different part numbers for the metal frame that the pedals mount to?  If so, it might lead me somewhere.  The pit was originally a 5 speed car and was changed to auto before I got  it.  John Rosa always said he had brake issues with car so me thinks this might be an issue.  To recap from post whatever  , the MC is bench bled and holds pressure - put it on the car with the ports plugged and the MC does not hold pressure. 

Maybe the pedal can not travel far enough cause it is an auto pedal hanging from a standard bracket.  I'm guessing here so can someone with access do a part number lookup?  To better understand what I mean look in M. R.251 pages K-15 and K-18.  The standard and auto brackets are clearly different in the pics.

[IowaEagle]

Let me do some checking later, if I remember.

[T5258]

Looking @ the parts catalog, all models 80-up use the same bracket, part # 3224980

[IowaEagle]

Thanks T5258.  I thought there was only one, but wanted to make sure before saying anything.

[Smitty]

Makes sense that the same bracket would be used.  Chearper and consistent with RM.  Wonder why the bracket in the two pics from the manual are different then?

Thanks for looking that up.  Brings that idea to closure.

[IowaEagle]

From an earlier AMC model???

[T5258]

Any idea what year the brake pedal is out of??? or what model???