Deferred maintenance.....

 7:32 am - Saturday - January 7th - GNHS - 45° F, humidity 64%, wind 2 mph out of the east by southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were watching a storm arriving at the Anza Borrego Desert......↴

We had no bookings for Friday, and that is how the day ended....no bookings.  Hey, look, this is the weekend after the New Years weekend blowout, and there are very few people in the park, so we were not surprised, or disappointed.  As a result I had the chance to tear into some non-critical deferred maintenance I've saving for just such a day.  The Blue Kawasaki KRX has had a inoperative steering wheel adjustment shock for a few weeks now.  The RZR steering wheel adjustment shock only has two bolts to remove to remove it, however, just to get at the two bolts on the KRX steering wheel adjustment shock you must remove the dashboard, and instrument panel.  There are approximately 12 screws, and 6 plastic fasteners which must first be removed, and some of them are hidden.  Oh well, I had 4 hours to do the job, so why not, right?

Whenever I begin a job like this where I have no idea how to get the thing apart (I do now), or if I will successfully get it back together, I am a little apprehensive to even start, but the deeper I descended down the rabbit hole the more determined I became, and eventually I got everything out of the way.  Removing the shock was relatively easy.  Once I had it out I took it into my trailer workshop and began to disassemble it to see how it worked, and what was stuck. Eventually I exposed the small pin which must be depressed by a small lever actuated by the driver, and when pushed in by the lever will release the shaft on the shock so the steering wheel can be adjusted up and down.  I applied some Aero Kroil penetrating oil to the pin, and then using a punch, and a small rubber mallet, was able to depress it into the shock, but it would not pop back out.  I applied some more Aero Kroil, then tapped it again using the punch and mallet, and suddenly the pin popped back out....the problem was solved!

I quickly reassembled it, then took it out to the KRX where I reinstalled it using the two bolts.  Then the fun began.....putting the dashboard, and instrument panel back together. I finished around 12:30 pm after 3.5 hours of labor, and there were no screws, or plastic fasteners left. Now it is quite easy to adjust the steering wheel.  In addition to that I applied some lube to the door latch mechanisms on both doors, as well as to the seat rails so the seats can be moved forward, or backward with much more ease

By 1 pm I was finished with #10 KRX, and after putting my tools away, retired to the Newell to change into non-work clothing, then had some lunch, followed by a short nap.  If we have no customers on Saturday (still no bookings as I write, but we may get some walkups) I'll spend  time on the other two KRXs lubing their door latch mechanisms, and the seat rails.  To lube the door latch mechanisms one must partially disassemble the door to have clear access to the door latch mechanisms.

We had a visitor to our UTV staging area....the first one we have seen since we arrived back in mid October....

....this wasn't the biggest tarantula we've seen, but it was at least as big as TLE's hand.

The day had begun quite cloudy, but by the time sunset rolled around it was pretty cloudless to the west, so I drove to the top of Snob Hill, which is about 75' higher than where the Newell is parked, to take pictures and video of the sunset.  I got there just after the sun had set, but got these great shots, nonetheless...

.....eventually you could see the lights of Salton City on the west shore of the Salton Sea.....

.....then Mr. Moon made an appearance.....he is full of himself, for sure......

.....being that it was 'Bacon Friday' TLE made bacon and eggs for dinner....who doesn't like breakfast for dinner?  We spent about an hour on the 'lido deck' playing Backgammon.  The dice were favoring me this night, and I won all four games we played.....the first three games came down to the last roll of the dice, but the fourth and final was kind of a blowout. Kind of makes up for the drubbing TLE gave me a few nights ago in 'Phase 10'.

Thanks for stopping by!