Failed again

The tank patch failed again. I am getting pretty good at taking the cart apart. As I stated before, in order to remove the gas tank I have to remove the entire rear body. This involves removing 8 bolts to remove the roof, 6 bolts to remove the seat assembly, 2 clamps to remove the motor air intake, 2 bolts to remove the battery, 4 bolts to remove the shifter assembly, and 4 bolts to remove the body. Now I can remove the, 3 bolts securing the gas tank, and now I can finally remove the gas tank. I can actually get all this accomplished in about 20 minutes. I think this tank is hopeless.

Patch #3

I finally got pictures of the gas tank the guy wanted to sell me. It looks worse than mine. Well I guess it doesn’t leak. Today I had another idea. I called all the golf courses in town to see if they had any parts carts that they could pull a tank out of. Nope! I sealed the crack in mine a while back with a soldering iron but it’s just a surface seal so I decided to get some JB Waterweld and attempt to reinforce it. This time I applied it to the inside and outside of the crack.

Since it is only a reinforcement and not necessarily a patch maybe it will hold. At least until I can find a suitable replacement.

Unbelievable search

I just can’t believe that my search for a used gas tank for my golf cart is so difficult. I have checked all the local golf shops, golf cart forums, craigslist, and internet search engines. I found one through a golf cart forums but that seems to have turned into a dead end. I recently found one by searching ebay’s completed auctions that didn’t sell. I emailed the seller and he still had it. I made him an offer and made me a counter offer. I called him today to get more details and after agreeing to purchase he raised the price. So I turned him down.

Laughlin

We took a cruise over to Laughlin Nevada today, just for something to do.

Landen has been bugging us to take him there even though we told him it was a gambling town and there is nothing for him to do there.

Well we were wrong. Every casino has a game room for the kids too.

On the way through Bullhead City AZ I spotted a used golf cart shop and stopped in to see if they might have a gas tank. They did but it had a hole in it. I just can’t believe I can’t find a used gas tank anywhere. The guy in Illinois that said he would sell me one has not gotten back to me in a few days. I’ve just about written him off.

Sprinkler Day

Yesterday was Sprinkler Day in the park. This is the second time they have done this. At 12:00p they turned the sprinklers on for an hour and let everyone play in the water.


Landen had a ball and after that he jumped in the lake for a while. This was refreshing since the temp today was about 106.

We almost didn’t make it to Sprinkler Day though. I was in the bathroom smearing myself with sunscreen when I heard water spraying. I looked down and the bathroom floor was filling with water. The water valve in the toiled decided to crack right then. Good thing I was standing there because otherwise it would have filled the motorhome before someone noticed it. With both roof airs going, you just don’t hear things like that. Well anyway, someone had given me a valve a few years back so I dug it out. Unfortunately that one was about to crack in the same spot so off to the parts store I went.

When I got back it was about ½ hour before sprinkler time so I plugged the water line to the toilet, turned the water back on and told Susan I will put it all back together when we get back. A few months ago I replaced the flush valve so now I got all new parts in the toilet.

Not as easy as it looks

The heat gun thing was not as easy as it looked on TV. I decided to go ahead and buy a heat gun and attempt to melt the crack back together. I started with low heat and nothing was happening so I switched it to high. On high the tank started folding in on itself and the crack not only got wider but new cracks started to open up. They gave me no problem taking the heat gun back and giving me a refund. I finally got out my soldering iron. That worked pretty well but smoothing over the cracks only made a surface patch and I really don’t think it is strong enough to hold. I did put some gas in and it held pretty well. I was thinking about reinforcing it with some JB Weld (Waterweld putty). But then I posted another want ad on a golf cart site for a used tank and this time I got a response. Someone in Illinois has one he is offering to sell me for a good price. I inquired as to year and condition before I make the purchase. Hopefully it will work for me and I can get this job done.

Good thing our friends left plenty of carts and cars for us to use while they are gone for the summer. The only problem with that is, their carts are much nicer than ours and Susan is getting spoiled driving them around. She is going to have a hard time going back to our classic.

Getting kind of tired of this

The second attempt to patch the gas tank has failed. I did an overnight test (like I did the first time) for leaks before putting everything back together. The next morning, it was leaking. I didn’t even get a chance to put it in the cart this time. I have decided that I need to weld it back together. This seems to be the only, and correct way, to fix this thing. I was watching a car show this morning. They were doing a modification on a truck and had to mod the coolant overflow tank. They cut a portion out and welded it back together with a heat gun. Man, they make it look so easy so I decided this is what I will do. Now I found that locating a heat gun is just about as difficult as finding glue that will stick to polypropylene or finding a used gas tank. If I knew for sure I could fix it this way I would spend the $25 for a heat gun. Possibly I will buy the gun and give it a try. If it works, I will keep it and consider it a $25 repair. If it doesn’t work I will take the gun back and get a refund. I would also like to find some filler to add to the joint for added security. I was hoping to use something on hand like a milk jug or plastic water bottle but I found they are made of Polyethylene. It is best to use similar plastics. It’s amazing how much knowledge you can gain on something you will probably never do again.

Second attempt

I pulled the golf cart apart again today in a second attempt to repair the gas tank. I considered getting out my soldering iron and attempting to weld the crack shut but I am afraid of making it worse. I think I will leave that as a last resort. This time I will try Seal-All. This stuff is good for use with gasoline and they say it will repair gas tanks. The problem is gas tanks are made of different materials and mine is polypropylene. There is not much that will stick to polypropylene. I figured since it dries flexible, it has a better chance than the ridged gorilla glue I used the first time.

Fixed that too

For as long as I can remember the heater/ac fan in the Saturn has been a bit noisy, especially on high. I just figured that’s the way they are. Well we went out to dinner tonight and after leaving the restaurant, I jumped in the car, started it up, and it sounded like a card in the bicycle spokes. All the way home I was thinking, this is going to be a pain to get to. When we got home, I lifted the hood…No the fan doesn’t go through the firewall…Must be on the inside. I opened the passenger side door and contorted myself to take a peak under the dash. WOW! There it is! Three screws and it will drop right out. So off to the toolbox I went. I grabbed my nut driver handle and a hand full of metric sockets and headed back to the car. WHAT! Not metric! Back to the toolbox I headed. Finally after lying on my back on the floor I had the fan in my hand. One parking ticked and lots of sticks and leaves. After I put it all back together I switched on the key and thought, I must have forgot to hook something back up…wait, it is running. Man that thing is nice and quiet now.

Earlier today we headed over to Bullhead City with the in-laws to do some shopping at Sam’s club. That storm I took pictures of last night went right through there and there was still small lakes all alongside the roads from the standing water. They got a lot of water out of that storm. After returning home I realized I still had the windows up in the Saturn so I rolled…huh, who “roles” a window down now a days…anyway, I “rolled” them down a bit. A few minutes later I was sitting under the awning enjoying this cooler day then past few when I heard a noise. Took me a minute to realize it was raindrops hitting the awning. So up the windows went again. Five minutes later you wouldn’t even know it ever rained. Everything dried up very quickly. You just don’t know around here.

Not again

I thought it was over. The weather report said we were done with the thunderstorms. So today I spent a couple of hours cleaning up all our patio stuff. I washed and polished the BBQ, cleaned the table and chairs and cleaned the patio set including the cushions. Then this rolled in tonight.

It mostly went around us but we did get some raindrops out of it. Hopefully since I got the dirt and dust off of everything there should be no spotting.

One more time

This should be the last of the thunderstorms and the humidity for a while.

We are surrounded again buy thunderclouds. It is supposed to move out tonight and start drying tomorrow. I am a bit tired of the humidity. I don’t mind sitting in the heat but when I start to sweat just sitting…that’s not good. It’s actually supposed to be a bit cooler tomorrow than it has been for the last couple of days. It’s only supposed to get a tad over 100.

Well the cart gas tank has started leaking again. The patch is holding somewhat since the leak is only seepage. Not even enough to drip on the ground before drying up but enough that I can smell gas. I am hoping it will hold long enough to run this tank dry, and then I will pull the tank again. I think this time I will do a little plastic welding with my soldering iron and then go over it with either Seal-All or JB Weld to seal it.

Landen and I tried to go into the pool today but after a minute or so we were driven out by the 90 degree water. We ended up going over to the second pool here at the resort. That one was only about 85. What a difference 5 degrees can make. We missed sprinkler day at the park here in Havasu Friday. I didn’t read about it until Friday night. This is where they turn on all the sprinklers in the park for an hour and let everyone run through them. Landen would have had a ball with that. There will be another one in 2 weeks though.

WOW! Not again

We had another hell of a Monsoon storm last night. It woke me from my sleep around midnight. This one was worse than the one Sunday night. By looking at the clouds all around us last evening I knew we had a good chance of getting something so I secured everything before turning in for the night. The winds were clocked at 70 MPH. Even though I thought I had everything battened down, I didn’t expect that kind of wind. Things started moving around outside so I went out to secure them even more. I could barely get out the door because the wind was blowing it shut. Then the lightning and rain started. Rain hitting me at 70 MPH hurts. It felt like hundreds of needles poking me. I had to make a few trips out to secure stuff because even thought I thought I had it secured I under estimated the wind. Landen was enjoying the show for a while but then started getting a little worried. It was crazy. There were at least 3 trees down in the resort and a few roof shingles missing from some park models. We faired OK this time. There are more to come.

I didn’t want to say anything until I found out for sure but it looks like I may have dodged a bullet for now. About a month ago Susan and I had our blood test done and I had an elevated PSA. An elevated PSA is an indication of the possibility of Prostate Cancer. I made an appointment with a urologist and was thinking the worst. The Dr wanted to rule out all other possibilities before doing a biopsy so he put me on 2 weeks of antibiotics among other things. Then I did what is called a Percent of Free PSA Test. This measures the percent of free PSA (not bound to a protein) in relationship to total PSA. This test indicated I am at a 24% risk of having the cancer. My Dr says he looks at it as a 76% chance I don’t have cancer and feels that this and the fact that my PSA went down that it’s worth waiting and rechecking in another 3 months. He says as long as my PSA doesn’t go back up that I am good. After getting my good news I got an email that a friend lost his battle with cancer on the 4th.

Weather change

The weather has changed around here. The other day the monsoons showed up. It is a bit early in the season but nothing is normal this year. We were sitting inside the motorhome Sunday evening and around 9:30p the motorhome started shaking. Being a California guy I thought it was an earthquake, then I remembered we are in Arizona. I went outside and could hardly stand up. The wind was gusting about 50 MPH. I started securing everything so it won’t blow away then went around and checked on our neighbor’s lots. Then the lightning came, then the rain about midnight. The next morning, I took the golf cart for a ride around the resort to check for damage. Surprising, things were looking pretty good. I think people have learned from the past and are securing their lots more when they leave. The weather is still very humid and with the heat you can’t do much before you are drenched. This is supposed to last through the week with the temp getting hotter and hotter each day.

Hot and muggy

Well as you know it has been hot here. Today the humidity came around due to some early thunderstorms in the area. There really is a difference between dry heat and humid heat. One thing that doesn’t change though, no matter what the weather is, it’s always the same when you are in the pool.

Landen went out today with the bug box he recently built. After a while he came back and said he caught something. He reached inside his bug box and pulled out this guy.

That’s right he is as flat as a piece of paper. I asked where he found him and he said under the leg of the rocking chair. HA! That explains why he is so thin.

Still holding

I went down and got another 2 gallons of gas for the cart today. Seem to be holding so far. While out we picked up a few fireworks. Of course Landen wanted to fire them all off tonight. I let him do a few and we will save the rest for the 4th.

Actually the law in Havasu permits only ground fireworks like fountains, sparklers, and showers of sparks, but nothing that shoot into the air. And the law says they are only to be fired off on the 4th…Oops, we broke the law. We had to take Papa’s Convertible (the half assembled golf cart) and drive outside the resort because they are not allowed here. For cheap fireworks he had a ball. We did saved some for the 4th.