Urban Camoflage

 This custom patina is brought to you by the angry ball of fire in the sky...

 

Iron Skillet Refurb

 Look, Shiny...

 I'm diggin' the Non-Woven Wheel for this purpose, uh re-purpose.  The non-woven wheel is a hybrid, or maybe composite is the right word.  These are specifically used to remove paint from surfaces.  It can clean the pits in the metal without re-surfacing the iron in the pan.  The idea about non-woven is that you get a random assortment of material intermittently contacting the surface to be cleaned.  The way I understand the non-weave is a selection of long nylon fibers which are coated with glue, rolled in an abrasive, packed into a mold, then cured until the glue is rigid.

 The finished wheel is then mounted to an arbor, so it can go fast...  This is by far the fastest method I have found to strip and renew the seasoning on my Iron Pans.  This one is my Goto Griddle and it was in pretty sad shape right before this.  Taco Taco...

RX300 Shifter Bushing

 What is more unnerving than Transmission Problems?  When the transmission starts doing something weird and the repair costs start circulating in my head it gets me thinking this may be the end of this vehicle.  But, as the initial reaction starts wearing off, I start analyzing the issue, and look at it rationally I realize that I picked one of the vehicles with the best reliability.  So, is it really that bad?

The first symptom happened at the grocery store this morning.  I shifted into reverse to back out of the parking spot but the engine just revved instead of moving the Truk, *not* in gear.  But then the transmission fell into reverse and the Truk started moving with a klunk.  Right as this happened my mind is already spinning with WTF is it now?  Then I didn't have any problems until the next time I drove the Truk.

The next time I drove the Truk everything was fine until we parked at home again.  I shifted to park, but the transmission was still in reverse.  At this point the shifter was doing nothing.  I could move it to any position, but the actual transmission remained in reverse.  I wound up shutting off the Truk in reverse, and setting the parking brake to keep it in place.

When the Truk is in gear it runs completely normally, and the issue is in shifting to the gears.  After pondering this for a moment I figured it must be a shifter issue, and not the transmission.  Then I dug into the diagnostic materials, and found some common problems.  It turns out this is a problem with a lot of different makes and models.  The automatic transmission shifter bushing issue is pretty common, but I have never had it happen to one of my vehicles.

The repair is fairly easy.  You have to get to the base of the shifter.  So, you need to remove the trim around the shifter.  In this case you can get to the linkage by removing that one trim piece.  In front of the shifter, and down a little you'll find the linkage.  Then it is just a matter of removing what is left of the old bushing, and installing the new one.

Iron Pan Refurb

 I've had this 14 inch Lodge Fry Pan since the 1990's.  So many foods in a couple decades.  All they typical stuff like Bacon, Breakfast Sausage, and Fried Chicken, but also many other things like Pan Pizza.  Well all the diversity has left it with a really thick layer of seasoning which is kinda funky.  It doesn't smell bad, but there is something I don't like about it.  Maybe its the mixture of spices, or fats give it a smell I just don't like.  So I decided to refinish the pan, and remove the seasoning layer.

 

 

I researched this a lot before doing it.  There is an abundance of opinions about cleaning, seasoning, stripping, and then maybe polishing an iron pan.  I really do not want to resurface the pan.  I like the rough texture of the Lodge Iron Pan because I think it helps brown the meat in a searing process.  Want I want is to strip all the carbonized fats from the surface of the iron, and then lay down a new, fresh layer of carbonized fats on the freshly cleaned iron.  Easy right?  LOL! 

 I started with this little stripping wheel.  It is a Non-Woven Mesh Abrasive.  You use a junior version of this at the kitchen sink, the Scotch-Brite pad.  Non-Woven abrasive a popular in industry for all kinds of things.  At the hardware store you find them for tasks like stripping paint.  So the carbonized fats that are stuck to the pan are very similar to the polymers that are used to make paint.  I had this tool available and thought I would give it a try.

The carbonized fats from the pan, the seasoning, are very sticky, and were building up on the abrasive wheel.  The tool was becoming ineffective because of the buildup, and I was not able to clean the wheel very well, so I found another one.  This one is considerably bigger, but that worked to my advantage.  

 

I had removed most of the seasoning layer with the smaller wheel.  The bigger wheel was more effective at getting down to the metal.  I was able to make the pan bright and shiny, but not resurface the iron.  I'm looking to preserve the texture of the pan, and not machine it.  And I think that worked good. 

Now we have to re-establish the seasoning layer.  There are so many suggestions out there about what oil to use to season your iron pan.  I think the two factors that are important to me are the smoke point, and the stability of the oil.  I am sure I do not want to use an oil that will go rancid.  So we can scratch most organic animal, and plant oils.  You might want to pick an oil that is used to finish cutting boards.  But there is also the heat factor, we're going to cook in the pan.  So I would want an oil with a high smoke point.  Other factors are cost, and availability.  You picked something, does your local store have it?  If they do, is it expensive?  So, after all the factoring I picked Avocado Oil, cheap, plentiful, high smoke point, and resistant to rancidity.

 Seasoning is a process.  There is an initial seasoning, but then it keeps going every time you use the pan.  You'll have to oil the pan before using it.  Then wash it, and oil it again when it is waiting to be used.  I like to cover the iron pans when they are not in use.

For he initial seasoning I coated the cooking surfaces of the pan with Avocado Oil, and then wiped off all the excess oil.  Then I put the pan in a 450F oven for an hour.  Then pull the pan out of the over, and let it cool.  Then for the second coat of oil I fried a pan of Bacon.  The pan looks much better now, and that weird smell is gone...

RX300 Door Lock Actuators

 Possibly the most irritating problem I've had with the RX300 is the door lock actuators failing.  This is not a problem that is obvious at first.  You have to press the key fob buttons a little more at first, and wonder why.  Then the lock on one door might stick a little.  When you lock the car it may take several attempts to get a locked signal from the car.  Eventually the actuator loses it automatic control, and you are locking doors manually.  Then in cold weather the car may refuse to lock, or unlock.  Ultimately I was having to use the key manually, in the door, which wound up setting off the alarm until I could get the key in the ignition.  These are all symptoms of the door lock actuators failing.  Once you find out that these are $10 parts the stress from the part failing is alleviated temporarily.

 Then you find out that the labor is rated at 3 hours each!  Wut!  The door lock actuators live at the latch of the door.  So they are in one of the least accessible spaces.  To replace four of these door lock actuators you have to disassemble all four doors.  So, the labor makes sense, you have to get through all the trim, and replace the parts that are inside the door.  The first door did take a full three hours, but each successive door went quicker with experience.

 The door lock actuator itself, bone colored piece above left, is part of the latch assembly.  This is the latch mechanism for the door, and it connects to both the exterior handle, and the interior handle.  Once you get the latch assembly removed then there is a little more disassembly to get to the door lock actuator.

 You can see it a little better in the picture above.  These actuators are servo mechanisms which have a motor, and a gear set that do the lock, and unlock functions.  The motor drives one way to lock the door, and the other way to unlock the door.  This module is separate from the door latch, and door handle interface functions.  The door lock actuators also provide feedback to the computer for the status of the lock.  These $10 parts are the sensors for the security function.  If the car has trouble locking a door, and the door is not in a locked status, then the lock the car function will not return the car locked status beep when you press the lock button on the key fob.  These modules are an important part of your security system.

RX300: Replacing the Media Display

 Well, Debugging the Information Display yielded little results.  There are issues with the original unit for sure, and maybe a little beyond my capabilities at the moment.  But, a replacement part was available, and not too expensive, $225.  It is worth it to have a legible display.

In the old display the is cracking on the touch screen where I press it frequently.  The display itself is also kinda weirdly distorted.  Then the backlight is another issue.  At first I was thinking that the backlight was failing, but at the end the screen was mostly white, like the data wasn't getting to the screen, and the backlight was full on.  The old display is out of Truk now, so I can troubleshoot it without having to take Truk apart.

 Replacing the Media Display is relatively easy once you are acclimated to working on Toyota interiors.  The place to start is learning where to pry up the trim.  The head unit is held by four bolts, and there are like 14 connectors to remove.  Toyotas are neat in this way, each of the connectors for the head unit are unique, and that makes getting them reconnected wrong nearly impossible, except for expert repair people like me.  The operation was around 15 minutes, and now I can see things like the temperature outside, and the vent settings again, oh, and the 23 year old GPS Map...  Whoo Hoo!

Tap, Stud, Nut, and Cap

 I had ordered 1.25 inch threaded rods for the studs.  Once I got them I realized that the pilot holes needed to be a little deeper.  Then there was another crossroad, cut the rods, or deepen the holes.  At this point I had already tapped fourteen holes.  So, well, the easiest rework was to make the holes deeper which was cutting aluminum.  Otherwise I would have been cutting twenty four steel rods.  Also, I am thinking I want more steel content around the periphery of the rotor for a little flywheel effect.

When I first cut the pilot holes around the periphery I made them 800 mils (0.8 inch) deep.  Then, after picking, and buying the threaded rods I realized that the pilot holes needed to be right at 1 inch.  So I have to rearrange the Mini Mill to do radial indexing again, and align the rotor to make all the pilot holes 200 mils deeper.  This went fairly quickly because I had already set up this operation.  After making the pilot holes deeper, I could tap all the holes deeper, then install the hardware.  I did have the issue of drilling holes that were already tapped.  This did work well because the original pilot holes are still there, and the threads are cut into the walls of the pilot holes, so you just have to be careful to run the drill bit between the existing threads, and not chew on the walls of the pilot holes.

The last task on the rotor was to increase the size of the center hole so that I can mount the rotor on the arbor that I will use to hold the rotor on the motor.  I have used this center hole as a center in all the machining processes.  So I want to change the size of this hole without affecting the position in the X, and Y axes.  The right thing to do would be to put the rotor on a lathe, spin the part, and use the center chuck to hold a drill bit to bore out the center hole.  So, instead, I used drill bits on the drill press to do this.  I didn't firmly clamp the part so that the drill bit could center itself in the hole.  Then used a series of bits to increase the size of the hole incrementally.  So, in about six steps I increased the size of the hole from around 230 mils to 375 mils.  Then gave it a test fit on the arbor.

The completed rotor weighs 22 ounces, which is heavier than I thought it would be.  I've also been thinking about things like the flywheel effect, and the gyroscopic effect.  When I spin it the torque effect from the spinning rotor will drag the frame in the same direction.  So, having mounted it, and spun it a little, like five minutes ago, it does seem to be reasonably balanced to spin at low speeds.  As the speed goes up, it does vibrate a little more, so when I start finishing the part I'll pay more attention to the balance on the rotor.

So, now I need to start thinking about fabricating the stator which is the collector for the system.  Yeah!  It Spins...