Wilsons Sandbox

> wrote: >OK, the wind tunnel report on motorcycle fairings is finally up. You >can view it at http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/~stingray/awt/mcreport.html >You'll notice a sudden change in image size and format at photo page 4, >because I had done the scanning in two separate sessions, and somehow >forgot how I was doing it the first time! I still haven't actually read >much of the report myself, but it sounds like a good way to waste a >Friday morning. If anyone has any questions about the methodologies, >please post to the list, and I'll try to answer as best as I can. Or at >least make up something that sounds good. Apologies for taking so long >to post this, esp. to Rev. Chuck, who was very interested. However, I >now have a 700-hp fan installed in my wind tunnel that wasn't there >Wednesday. > >Speaking of bad mechanics, we've been using the same rigging company for >all of the wind tunnel installation, and they're generally great guys. >However, one came yesterday who had never been here before, and kept >going on about how he's been a millwright for 42 years. This immedately >turned into a battle between the "crusty old expert" and the >"thinks-he-knows-it-all-young-engineer." Now, I respect the fact that >this guy has been a millwright for 42 years, and he did make a couple of >good points. However, I've been working on this tunnel and this tunnel >alone for over 2 years now. First, we have to wait for this guy to mark >a centerline on the concrete fan pad. I try to explain to him that >we're not centering the fan on the pad, we have to align it with the two >mating parts of the tunnel. No, we have to have a centerline. Did we >ever look at it after that? No. I won't get into the rest of the >arguments, but the final straw was with the leveling bolts. To level >the fan, there are four 1-1/2" nuts welded along either side, to accept >1-1/2" bolts. Unfortunately, three of them weren't properly centered >over their holes, and the bolts bound up as they tried to cut threads in >the plate underneath. First of all, I had to listen to this guy bitch >that we didn't have a 1" drive ratchet. (We had a breaker bar.) I was >using a big-mother cresent wrench on my side. Then, one of the bolts >starts binding up on his side. Now, when we first lowered the fan, we >set it on wood blocks so we could run the bolts through easily. There >was paint on the nut threads, but it still didn't take much to run the >good bolts in. However, when this guy feels the bolt bind up, what does >he do? Instead of stopping to think about what's happening, he puts a >cheater bar on the socket, and gets another person to help him run it >in! They got about an inch through, and couldn't go any farther. Now, >I'm going to have to spend all morning getting this thing out so I can >make a reducing bushing and run it in there. Man, I was almost doing >time in San Quentin for assault with a deadly spud wrench! So much for >42 years of experience. > >One other thing... Last night, I was inspecting my dickhead. Much to >my chagrin, I found that it's only a single-valve model. Does anyone >know of a 4-valve aftermarket replacement? Will I need a stronger cam >chain with that? Thanks! > >Chris > >-- >Dr. J. Christopher Krok Project Engineer, Adaptive Wall Wind Tunnel >Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories, California Institute of Technology >MS 205-45 Phone: 626.395.4794 >Pasadena, CA 91125 Fax: 626.449.2677 > >Visit the KLR650 archives at >http://www.listquest.com/lq/search.html?ln=klr650 >Support Dual Sport News... dsneditor@... >Let's keep this list SPAM free! > >Visit our site at http://www.egroups.com/group/DSN_klr650 >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: >DSN_klr650-unsubscribe@egroups.com