test of iPhone uploads

has this been the longest primary season ever? I mean, at this point all I hear when the candidates on CNN start talking is, for Hillary, chalie brown teachers (wah wah wah), for obama, “the fierce ungency of now” ( I know he says other things but it just ends up as that in my brain ) and mccain just says (white noise). I’m switching back to cartoons.

Happy Easter !

So I voted today.  Those Diebold touch-screen voting machines are awesome… unless you get the wrong voter access card.  For some reason I dont fully understand, you must declare what party you are voting for or “issues only” and get the corresponding “voter access card”.  Why the machines cant simply be configured to only let you vote for one or the other and not both, or prompt you to choose at machine level I dont know.  I suppose that would be too much decision making on the part of the voter, but I digress.  So I tell the very helpful poll workers I’d like a democratic card, I get a card, and go to vote… and the machine asks me if im blind and need big letters or high contrast screen and I say no and it proceeds to ask me which republican I’d like to vote for, crap.  Turns out, soon as you put that card in the machine and tell it yes youd like to vote and decide whether or not you are visually challenged it locks the card into the machine.  so long story short, the poll workers were very helpful and got the machine to release the card, but only after it filed a blank ballot, and let me vote as I had intended to in the first place.  I dont know if it was just the machine I used or its more widespread than that, but the Diebold I used looked like it had fallen off a truck, the case seemed to be made of pretty cheap plastic and the whole thing overall seemed pretty rough around the edges. strange.

much to talk about today, so much im not doing it from the iPhone. (also because I cant use my console to browse the phone to get at pictures either)  been crazy busy with work, easter set and all, new peeps are in this year.  Also been car busy.  I need to update the list of cars to reflect Ann’s 1990 Honda Accord, my 1988 Lincoln Town Car, my 1976 Ford LTD wagon, and my new Nissan Sentra.

 Pictured Above: My old Town Car, now belonging to my friend Bill and still in need of a transmission, and my 89 Accord up on the hoist getting a new exhaust after my brother ripped it off on a chunk of ice.  This Accord is a prime example of Honda longevity.  It began life as an LX-i automatic and is now an LX-i 5-speed, it destroyed its transmission, toasted an alternator, limped home from Florida on a “donut” spare, had an axle pop out on the freeway, and its still here.  170,000 miles on the clock and its still solid, still starts right up every day.  As much as I like this car, I do miss having a nice big chunk of American steel as a daily driver.  End of the summer last year my beloved 80 chevy citation popped a metering seal in the carb and now it barfs gas all over the engine bay, not a hard fix but im not driving it in the snow and the cold since it wasnt rebuilt for it, soon as it warms up it’ll be back on the road sporting its proper historical registration and hopefully taking part in some autocross events with the optional citation X-11 springs i have been hanging onto for years.  I am actively looking for another x-body car however, since i have enough driveline bits on hand to build 2 more of them.  For any that may not know the GM “X-body” im referring to is GM’s first generation FWD transverse mounted engine cars.  This includes the 1980-1985 Chevrolet Citation, Pontiac Phoenix, Oldsmobile Omega, and Buick Skylark.  These cars also had sport models known as Citation X-11 (or just X-11), Phoenix SJ, Omega ES 2800, and Skylark T-type.  I would like to find a solid donor body of one of these, probably not running but who knows, that I can build another fast X-car out of.  I have on hand a 2.8 V6 and a 2.8 High Output V6 and can get my hands on a 3800 series I V6.  If anybody reading this is vaguely close to NW Ohio and has an X-car they dont want anymore leave me a comment on this post!

redevelopment is slowed temporarily due to the new hd being a dud on anns computer and my computer being unable to manage my iPhone. My g4 was actually in-op for more than 6 months and subsequently missed enough system updates that the iPhone is not able to be managed. Bummer. I’m off work early so hopefully be able to get this rolling better.

I am quite glad to see that the last six months of inactivity has not doomed ironduke thanks all!

Over the weekend I determined that the hard drive issue was just that, a defective hd. That got sent back to tiger direct today. Also have some pictures of new exhaust on the white honda on the iPhone which I have yet to figure out how to upload directly. Well off to work, more later

So I sold my sataion wagon, at a sizeable profit even. As a result I paid some stuff off and caught up on some technology, hence the new iPhone. I also ordered some parts to limp my girlfriends computer into today. The biggest thing it needed was a new hard disk. It has dual onboard SATA channels which are evidently a joke. After ordering a 500gb sata hd I find out that the cheesy via controller is old and senile. Sweet. This does not even take into account that windows is convinced that sata is raid first and individual drives second. So I sit here staring at her computer, a computer warehouse amd powered pc, and my computer, a dual processor power mac g4 dv, really wishing I had the optional sata controller, because I think my mac would appreciate the storage more and on the mac, I’d be done setting it up by now.

I’m hoping to revive ironduke.net using my new toy, my apple iPhone. If successful this will be the first post done entirely from my iPhone. I have a new data plan that will allow me free roaming Internet access so I will be able to post from anywhere. Wish me luck!

It lives. After two years of toil and almost 3 years of butchering other cars for parts, it lives.

Citation video here if plugins and stuff dont work for ya.

to recap:
“ollie” is an original 1980 Chevrolet Citation I Notchback Coupe. I purchased it from a relative of the original owner for $400 because it was shifting badly. The original TH-125 3-spd auto held up for a little while but the problem plagued first generation transverse mount gearbox finally gave up when the fluid was lost through the problematic passenger side axle seal after an amazingly low 35k original miles. From the factory it has an interesting set of options. Stock was the auto trans, 2.8L 2bbl V6, power steering, front disc brakes, windshield glass radio antenna, no A/C, Duo-tone paint, and generous amounts of chrome for an economy car. Since then 2 other Citations have been gutted to amass parts, an ‘84 X-11 and an ‘84 X-S. Ollie received big hefty 14″ X-11 alloy wheels factory etched with “Citation” on the wheel lips, a beefy late 80’s 125 auto trans with a shift kit, and the biggest change, an new motor. Up from the stock 2.8L Ollie got a 1990 3.1L block bored .030″ over, Edelbrock Torker 60 intake, custom 1″ carb spacer, and a Holley 390 4bbl carb throwing air and fuel down its throat. Spark is provided by a Hypertech HEI system and the Holley is fed by a new electric fuel pump instead of the old cam driven mechanical setup. This powerful new engine setup is too big and the carb too tall to fit under the heavy stock steel hood so a lightweight fiberglass cowl induction hood from an X-11 was swapped on (flat black right now). It is now running exceptionally well and is in the final stages suspension re-calibration.

PS. look for more about my newest vehicle that puts a whole new spin on “newest vehicle in the fleet” my EFI 5.0L 1988 Lincoln Town Car, tentatively dubbed “Northwestern” or “Farwest Leader” or any other massive crab fishing boat you can think of from deadliest catch.

I am aware that it has been a month since i posted last. It has been a busy month. I have been working full time and then some and much more has been happening besides. As is explained by the following pictures!

I got a motorcycle! A Yamaha Maxim 550. Its a 550CC inline four cylinder DOHC six speed. Has roughly 14k miles.

and yes that is colour shifting paint on the tank and plastics.

it is shown here with my brother’s motorcycle. yeah, matt got a bike too! (actually he had the idea first then i jumped on the bandwagon) Matt’s is a ‘77 Honda 400-Four. 400cc inline four with single overhead cam and a six speed gearbox. The sportbike of the 70’s complete with trademark 4-to-1 exhaust.

that be the 400’s instrumentation. 10k rpm redline aint bad for a 30 year old bike!

remember this little guy?

well he’s almost done! I am just waiting on a special throttle cable i had to special order to connect the go pedal to his hefty new 3.1L +.030 V6

its in, wired, plumbed and ready to go. it runs perfectly well and will be on the road again next week, and will be on the track before the end of summer. (we have to see what those go fast bits can do dont we? )