Success!!!!

I fiddled around with the drive gear shaft(screws directly into the transmission.....I don't know if this is the correct technical term for it, but that's what I call it) for quite a while Thursday trying to get the small broken piece of the 'drive tang' out so I could insert the new drive tang and put everything back together, but, alas, was not successful. I decided to soak the broken fitting with penetrating oil overnight hoping that would loosen it up a tad, but even after an overnight 'soak' it was still STUCK!  It was time for more brain power, and a different perspective, so I found Tom in his herculean garage first thing Friday morning and asked him to take a look at my problem, and see if he had a solution.  His first idea was to double down on my idea of using a magnet to try and pull it out.  He has some Rare Earth magnets that are several times more powerful than mine, but even they were not up to the task.

Next he suggested we heat up the gear drive to see if we could get it out that way......he lit his small propane torch and applied the flame to the threaded end of the gear drive shaft (see picture directly below) and then began tapping it (the threaded end) on a small 2 x 4 piece of wood.....on the third attempt the little, tiny 1/16th" piece of broken drive tang fell out......SUCCESS!

Next we disassembled the 'gear reduction shaft' (below), cleaned it inside and out with carb cleaner, then repacked it with grease and reassembled it. 

Cleaned, greased, and reassembled

Next I had to file the square end of the 'drive tang' a tad to get it to fit into the square slot of the 'gear drive shaft' properly.  Once that was done I re-installed the 'gear drive shaft' into the transmission then attached the 'gear reduction shaft' with new drive tang to it, and then screwed on the generator.

I won't be able to test it until we 'roll' on Sunday, but I'm 99.99999% sure we are good to go!  So, you might be wondering why this is such a big deal to me when I have been living without a speedometer since last September?  My GPS navigation program tells me how fast I'm going, and that is how I have gotten by all these months, but, simply put, I need an operating speedometer for my cruise control to work.  My cruise control taps into the speedometer signal generator and uses that signal to operate.  Without the signal I have no cruise control.  As much as I love driving the Newell, I love it even more when all I have to do is hang on to the steering wheel!

Around 11:15 TLE and I drove into Peoria to meet my niece, Heather (TLE's sister's daughter), and her daughter, Dawn, for lunch at Rock Bottom Brewing.....as you may recall TLE and I have visited this location on more than one occasion and like their brews, food and service.  Everyone was on time and we had a delightful time catching up on family news.

We were back on the road home a little after 2 pm.......made a brief stop at Fry's to do a small shopping, and arrived home a little after 3 pm.  We had dinner sometime after 6 pm with Tom and Darlene and spent the better part of the meal laughing at stories Tom was telling us about his experiences over the years at the dentist.  Tom is a great story teller.

We are all fans of 'Amazing Race', so we watched the recording of Friday's show and then bid each other adieu for the evening.......next comes Real Saturday and the Wittmann Flea Market!

Thanks for stopping by!