DanD

Donkeys Can't swim. Dan

Would fishing a new wire not be easier then actually finding the corroded section? I guess that would depend on what else is running on that circuit eh? But if its just the graph; kill that wire at the source and run a new wire. Dan.

And how many Toyota truck frames have rusted out; due to the recycled fish bones they used for metal Every manufacture has a few skeletons in their closet. Dan.

Thanks Bernie That’s what I was trying to say; it’s not what we know as techs; it’s what the regs say, as to what we are allowed to do. Yes we can refuse to certify anything but we cannot charge for an inspection and then force repairs above the regs. I hate it at times and I document everything on my invoice that I have concerns with. Just like the lighting issue you mentioned; a vehicle under a certain length and width (most all light duty vehicles), only require high & low beam headlights and a license plate light and that's it. But a diver’s side window must be able to go down; so the driver can perform hand signals; there’s nothing about the window having to go back up. So you have a vehicle with the window that doesn’t operate (go down) smash it and now it passes????????? Talk about outdated regs. Sorry about hijacking the thread Mike. You still have a decent truck; fix her up to where you like her and have fun with it. Dan.

The next time you see something like garbage bags left there and as discussing as this may sound; have a look through. You’d be amazed what people throw into a garbage bag that can identify them. I know your experience out in the woods isn’t the same as this one; but I constantly have people throwing garbage in or around my dumpster here at the shop. Open up a bag or two and I almost always find a name and address. I then call and tell them they have 20 minutes at the end of the phone call to come and get there crap or I’ll call the cops and have them charged with trespassing; along with whatever else the cops can come up with. If that doesn’t get a reaction: I deliver the garbage bags back to their front stoop. If no one is home; I leave a note saying; just being a good samaritan returning what is rightfully yours. This doesn't stop the next idiot but I've never seen the same name twise. Dan.

I agree with you 100% that we shouldn’t be allowed to certify a vehicle with an air bag light on or know that the air bag system has been deployed or disabled. Believe me I checked into this; when a customer that had purchased a vehicle with air bags that were deployed; I said it shouldn’t have been certified; boy did I end up with egg on my face. The Ministry was called in to check the vehicle and they quoted me this section of the regs. Schedule 1; The body work subsection (L) - if fitted with a seat belt assembly or assemblies, each belt anchorage shall be secure, each buckle and retractor shall operate as intended, and no belt webbing shall be visibly damaged so as to reduce its effectiveness. There’s absolutely no mention in the safety regulations regarding the air bag system. Right or wrong; until the regulations are up dated, we cannot (or not supposed too) fail a vehicle for an air bag issue. We won’t even begin talking about ABS systems; because they also fall through the cracks and are not part of a safety inspection. Dan.

Here’s my 2 cents on this. Before doing anything else on the truck; get all the legal requirements looked into first. Safety inspection; even if it’s a “pre- safety” from an accredited safety inspection station; then you’ll know what’s required too meet minimum safety standards. Emission test; before you’ll be able to plate the vehicle you’ll need a past emissions test that has not expired. For transfer sake the test has to be with-in 1 year old; plate/sticker renewals the tests are good for 2 years. I have seen so many young people buy their first vehicle; spend a bunch of money on odds & ends; just to find out the thing needs hundreds of dollars of repairs to meet standards. Get it tested and checked for safety; then there won’t be any surprises. Dan.

Sure stop in Brian; not sure how much help I’ll be though? Never had much to do with magnetos and charging coils; but if you can come up with a wiring diagram; we together might make sense of it? I’ll do what I can to help; but not guaranteeing we won’t let the smoke out of the regulator. and that's not a good thing; because I've never been able to figure out how they got all that smoke into those little electronic boxes in the first place? That’s if there is one; I know some outboard’s charging systems were self limiting; via the design of induction charging coils? Dan.

Just so I understand what you are calling a voltage drop; you’re taking a voltmeter reading at the source (battery terminals positive and negative) and then at the device power terminal to ground? If so; what you are seeing is total voltage usage over the entire system not of a particular device or portion of its circuit. Taking readings at a device with it turned on and the meters leads connected between pos & neg, will show you a lower voltage because the device is using voltage. If you want to test a circuit to determine if (and where) there is high resistance; connect the voltmeter leads in parallel of battery positive and that section of the circuit or at the device in that circuit power (positive) input. Turn the circuit on and take a reading of the circuit; anything above .2 of a volt “Voltage Drop” is considered high resistance and needs to be repaired or replaced. Let me show you in the diagram below of how to perform an actual voltage drop test. In diagram #1 shows how to connect the voltmeter to check the circuit’s entire positive side; which contains the connecting wiring, fuse, switch right up to where the positive lead going into the device. With the switch closed (circuit turned on and device functioning) there should be less then .2V showing on the meter and that is the maximum voltage you would ever want to see, preferably less than.1V. Diagram #2 shows that there’s a corroded section in the wiring (circled); causing some resistance to current flow. The meter connected same as in #1 (dotted line) shows a voltage of .28volt. Move the voltmeter lead to the out-side of the switch and it shows the same voltage drop. This tells us the problem is still closer towards the battery. Diagram #3 the meter is reading .26V this tells us that there is some resistance across the switch but only.02V not our main problem. Diagram #4 we’ve moved the voltmeter lead to the out-side of the fuse and the voltage reading now is .06V which is more then acceptable. Now we know that the high resistance is in the wire between the fuse & the switch. The negative side of a circuit can be tested in the same manner; which is just as important; especialy on boats, that should have the ground of all its electrics hard wired to the battery. Like someone else here stated; the one fish finder might be turning off because the starting circuit might be dragging the voltage below the finders turn off point. Any 12V DC circuit can be voltage drop tested the same way; including the starting circuit, the same values apply. These tests must be performed with whatever device turned on or actuated. Testing the circuit like in #1 but with the switch open will (or should) give you source (battery) voltage readings within the .2V max. That’s because the circuit is incomplete, no current flow so no voltage is being used; that’s also if the ground side of the circuit does not have any issues. Hopefully I didn’t confuse the issue even more. I’ve been using voltage drop testing rather then ohmmeter tests for resistance checking for years. An ohmmeter testing a braided wire; that has all but one or two strands of wire not broken; could still give you a low resistance reading on the ohmmeter; but a voltage drop reading on an active (turned on) circuit will show you every time. Dan.

Thanks for the plug guys; but like anything else; it’s a two way street and dealing with reasonable people makes things go soooo much easier. Let alone the potential new friends you meet alone the way. Thanks again. Dan.

If you stored/froze your fish according to the ministry it should never take any more then a few minutes and some cold water to thaw the fish. “Ensure fish can be easily counted, package each fish separately, or arrange fillets spread flat in a clear freezer bag. DO NOT freeze fillets in a milk carton, margarine tub or other container. A large lump of fillets frozen together in bags is also unacceptable.” That means in your freezer at home too, while the fish is being stored. I’m just saying a fish in the middle of a lump of ice might also be considered unrecognizable; let alone the extra thawing time? I’ve been using a vacuum sealer for years and it does exactly as what the water does; keeps the air from getting at the meat; no freezer burn. Take out what we want; oh lets say 10 or 15 minutes before we want to start cooking; stick them in a sink of cold/room temp water and we’re good to go. And for the people that are worried about spoiling the meat during the thaw; bacteria would take a long time too form because the filets are still in a vacuum. Dan.

Here's a link to a couple of wood stoves that are on kijiji; 50 bucks for two of them? http://ontario.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-other-Ice-Hut-Woodstove-W0QQAdIdZ233146867 Dan.

Here’s a good one to add to the tread. My son’s restored 79 Firebird was stolen from him twice. The fist time was in May of this year; all we have found of it are pieces of the smashed steering column and the license plates; that were returned to us, after the police found them in another stolen car. The second time was just a couple of weeks ago; that’s when the insurance company informed us that they were NOT going pay the claim. They said because of the “performance enhancements” that were installed on the vehicle they are within their rights to deny the claim. The specific enhancement item that they are talking about is nitrous oxide. Nitrous according to the highway traffic is legal to have installed on a street driven vehicle; as long as the system cannot be charged (bottle opened) from the passenger’s compartment. My son sure as heck couldn’t the nitrous bottle is still sitting in the basement at the house! It only went into the trunk after we were at the race track for “test & tune” nights out at Sparta or Grand Bend. So be careful; check with your insurance as to what constitutes performance enhancements in their dictionary. It could be anything from an “up-graded set of spark plugs, too a free flowing exhaust system” according to the insurance adjuster. So, just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that the insurance company won’t try and snivel out of paying your claim. At least with the second set of thieves we know who they are and our lawyer has been informed. Dan

I have the foodsaver as well; work great, things last a long time when they’re sealed this way. With fish I lay the fillets on a cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer for about twenty minutes and let the flesh firm up before sealing them in the bags. There’s enough vacuum with this thing to squash the flesh if you don’t. Dan.

Try disconnecting the unit from its power source and then push the power button a few times. There maybe a build up of unwanted voltages on the electronics. You could go as far as disconnecting both power and ground wires of the unit at the battery and touch them together for a moment; that will definitely discharge any residual voltage in the unit. If this works but the problem returns; you can try shielding the power wire with tinfoil wrapped around the outside of the wire’s length and then ground the tinfoil. This will hopefully stop unstable voltages from being induced into the unit. This is just a guess on my part; but I had issues with my finder and VHS radio; the finder would do all kinds of crazy things, every time I keyed the mic on the radio. After shielding the power wire, my problem with the systems disappeared. Dan

This might sound dumb but I can see it happening some day. You plan on going fishing; you’ll have to go to a licensing outlet and buy tags for whatever species, you plan on targeting? If there’s a fish in the live well or on a stringer it better have a tag on it; that's registered to you or who ever claims it. Dan.

True enough; but when you still have three lines out; you’re fighting a fish with the fourth and your fishing partner is more interested in watching your rod then your balls things can happen. LOL Dan.

It’s not the clutch setting that’s the issue; it’s when you’ve spooled the rigger is when you get that puckered butt feeling, while you’re scrambling for the side cutters. LOL Dan.

Can’t help you with your question; but I still have a spare prop from when I had an 88 Suzuki model # DT40CRLJ. Can’t remember whether it was new or reconditioned when I bought it; but it has never been in the water since I did. After reading your post; I went and dusted it off from sitting on a shelf here at the shop for the last 6 years. It’s ½ x 13 three blade and if it’ll work on yours’ (bushing spine and depth?) you can have it for the cost of a bottle (26er unless you're thirsty) rye. With a bit of googling (Is there such a word? LOL) you should be able to find out if it’ll fit? Dan.

That could happen regardless of where the riggers are installed; have you not ever seen the movie JAWS. Anyone that is running riggers had better have a very sharp pair of side cutters, ready at all times. You never know what’s down there to get hung-up on and stringing new cable is a lot better then screwing up the riggers, the boat’s mounting area or worse case sinking. On my 16 foot tiller; my electric Big Jons are about mid way up on either side and even when I’m running my in-line plainer boards; I haven’t had much of any trouble with getting tangled? Oh sure when a bow decides to go ballistic from 40 feet down anything is likely to happen; but again no worse then if the riggers were at the back. My concern when installing mine was, how bad the boat would pull with just one side down; but it’s hardly noticeable. Dan.

Man that is a nice job; the time you spent staining the board, was well worth it; gives it a professional touch. And it’s great that you made the board removable; with no sign that it was there. So when’s the plainer board mast going in Dan.

Now I didn’t say no fish; just not as many as other years. LOL We had more then enough to fill our bellies a couple of times but you just had to work for them a little (some days a lot) harder the usual. You know your in trouble when you can sight fish pike; drop your offering literally on their head and they take no or very little notice. Also thanks for the kind words for my brother; there’s no real “cure” for this one; he goes in every three months and gets zapped and that has seemed to hold it a bay for the time being. But like he has started saying to us; I aint dead yet and I’m not missing any more fishing trips. LOL Dan.

The one time before this that I went through big cut, I was at the wheel of a 40 foot pontoon; during an “ecological tour” held by Saenchiur flechey. Rick the owner of the lodge and I were out on the main lake fishing and got back to the lodge late. There were about 15 people waiting for him at the dock and his wife was pissed that he was late for the tour. He looked at me and said; HELP! You drive and I’ll entertain the guests. So off we went; I didn’t have a clue of where we were going; he pointed in the direction to go, as he was showing the people the different sites. When we got to the cut; which I didn’t know was there; he said, trim the motor and turn right into the channel. Man was that a time for a fresh pair of shorts; this pontoon just fit and there was only about 8 feet of water under us in the centre of the cut. LOL. This year in my tinny we had no problem; even in the shallowest part we still had at least 4 ½ to 5 feet of water under us. It did seem a little tighter though; at the narrowest part there was less then 10 or 12 feet of water surface between the rocks. We had a number of good hits with pike about a ¼ mile before the cut; on the north side just before the last turn to the cut. There is a small bay with a couple of large rocks at the west end of this small bay. Full of weed and the not too cooperative pike were lying in there; you could sight fish them; but they sure were lazy and only taking half hearted swipes at our offerings. Dan.

Yea I'm just back from the West Arm had a good time, spent a lot of time on the water fishing; but the catching was on the bit of the lean side. Not that it makes any difference but talked to a number of people at the camp (Memquisit) and out on the water and they all had the same report. Now don’t get me wrong it was still a great fishing trip; we had a good time just being there and enjoyed spending time together. Along with exploring new waters to us; waters that we have never bothered trying, when the main (larger) areas were producing well. Places like the length of water between big cut and little cut; a bit of a boat ride but well worth it; for the scenery if anything. That is where we caught most of our meals of pike and pickerel (walleye LOL). Here’s a few pic’s; not so much of the fish we caught but of the trip in general. After leaving home our first few stops were; well what can I say you have too stop; you can’t drive by. LOL Needless to say I left a few dollars at BassPro; talk about a kid in a candy store. Heading up Hwy69 we seen a number of these classics pulling trailers; looked pretty cool but what a shame putting a trailer hitch on a hot rod. LOL After getting to Memquisit we launched the boat, loaded it with our supplies and then unloading it at our dock. Our home for the next week; a bit of a climb from the dock but what a nice view from the cottage’s deck. From left to right are Owen my nephews’ step son, then Adam my nephew and then my older brother Morris (Adam’s dad); resting after organizing the cabin. Owen (12 years old) has really never been on a fishing trip before let alone being away from the city for a week. Going “up North”, seeing the different landscape, staying in a 1920 built log cabin, feeding the chipmunks from his hands, fishing from an open boat, building his own camp fire; the kid was in a dream world. It made the week for me; seeing the look on his face with every turn we made. I have to post this picture of my brother and his annual sheephead; I don’t know how he does it but he always seems to get at least one of these, every year. LOL Here are a couple of the entrance and of the channel of big cut; what did they do with all the rock they dynamited out of there to make the cut? The last couple are of the thunder storms that rolled through; they don’t screw around on the West Arm, when it storms it storms big time. This trip was a little extra special for us; my brother Morris has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer that there’s no treatment for; only chemo to hold it a bay. He wasn’t strong enough for the trip last year but was this. My Son Andy gave up his spot in the boat for his cousin Adam; so that Adam could be there with his dad. Andy knew how important it was to me and Adam to spend some one on one time with Uncle Moe. Dan.

Sorry people I was up at the West Arm last week and just got back home. I cheaped out again and I just used my old stand by; one of those yellow pieces of crap rubber/vinyl suits. Not sure if it was last week’s thunder storms or me sweating to death that soaked my back and legs and . LOL I’ll try and put up a report later; it won’t be much of one it was tough fishing. Dan.