HipMF

New company, same problems... Still sitting on this. Practically a barn-find at this point. It's underground parking power-washing time again, so I had to move it. The old battery was beyond junk, so I bought a new one. Started right up. Parked right outside my door, so now I'm forced to sit and look at it for a couple days...

""F" your gravel bike" -1991 Bridgestone Catalog

I rebuilt my mountain bike again this spring. I got a clean 1991 Bridgestone frame from the Brazen Dropouts swap meet. Lugged steel, Tange tubing. I think the only original parts now are the brakes, rear derailer and shifter. Mostly use it for commuting and riding around Pheasant Branch, although I did take it to Cam Rock a few weeks ago. I don't miss my suspension fork as much as I thought I would, but my wheels don't come off the ground as often as the used to either...

About as often as this car get touched. I feel you though.

Even before this virus hit, my wanderlust has been creeping up on me. I've got a little change in my pocket again, and there's still nothing holding me down, so it's looking like it might be time for me to hit the road again. This time I've got my eyes on Mexico. Years ago when I thought about doing this I thought I'd travel by bicycle. Pedaling all day burns a lot of calories, which means you can eat as much as you want once you get somewhere. One of the biggest attractions to Mexico is the food, so in theory, this works out perfectly. However, the northern part of Mexico is pretty spread out, similar to the southern US, so my current plan is to fly to Cancun, and buy a bike there, then start pedaling my way back north. The towns in the Yucatan peninsula are only 20-30 miles apart, so it's a reasonable way to travel that part of the country. Once I get farther north I'll either be in better shape and able to handle the longer hauls, or I'll be sick of biking and ditch it in favor of a bus. My last trip was really poorly planned, but I've got a pretty good head start on it this time. Lot's of pins in my map and bookmarks in my browser. I resubscribed to Duolingo and have been hitting it hard the past couple of weeks. Last summer I was biking 25 mile round-trips to the Dane county farmers market every weekend; not sure what I'm going to do this summer to get in shape... It's a long way off, and it's hard to tell what will happen between now and then with the way things are today, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 🤞

Pulled the car into underground parking Sunday night, no issues. Tried to start the car Monday morning. Popped once like it was going to start, then nothing. On subsequent attempts it would occasionally would pop once right when it starts cranking, but that's it. Pulled plugs and they weren't wet. Verified spark. Tried to verify fuel pressure without hosing fuel all over the basement. Pump was getting voltage, but wasn't making noise or vibrating, so was assumed to be bad. Replaced fuel pump. Still no start. Not a single pop or sputter. Pulled plugs again and they're soaked. Dried them out with a torch. Now while cranking it will fire here and there if the pedal is to the floor, but won't start. Plugged in OBD scanner to verify that I'm getting a sane signal from the MAF, which I am. However I'm getting intake air temperature of 200F or more. IAT sensor appears to be working when tested with an ohm meter and a hair dryer. I tried disconnecting the IAT sensor, and replacing it with various size resistors, but the OBD still says 180-210F. Bad wiring? Or Is it getting this data from the MAF? Any other ideas? What am I missing here? Seems very strange that it would run with no issues one day, and then be a useless turd the next day...

Well, it's that time again... Time to rip a bunch of stuff apart, spend half the winter with my hands saturated in engine degreaser, and maybe put it all back together in time to have some fun next summer. This years plan is to do coilovers, wheels and tires, and a little bodywork. If there's time, I might start working on that turbo I keep saying I'm going to do... So far I've built a shelving unit/workbench, pulled the rear subframe and started de-rustifying it, and sized up some borrowed 225/45/15s. I'm thinking I'll weld on some flares off a mark one vw golf, but not 100% sure about that yet. Should be fun!