FloridaLife
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #261
My ash tray has parking meter and pay phone change. It also still has the pipe plug in case the tubing fails on my direct read oil pressure line - so I can easily cap it off. For many years I had the replacement freeze plug I took out to install the block heater. Well one hot as hell day in July in between McCall and New Meadows I'm cruising along 55 or so and I get a whiff of antifreeze - look in the mirror and I'm like crop duster with a green mist spraying down the road. With in a couple hundred yards there is a wide spot to pull off. Open the hood, look around, there is the block heater laying there. I'm sure at that point it had been there over 10 years. It turns out the little wing strut that holds it in with the screw failed at the screw hole. I get my freeze plug from the tray, and a with a close fitting socket and a 6" extension. Use my 3# lead hammer and seat the plug.
I have 2 gallons of water with me - the cooling system hold 4 gallons. I'm looking way down the hill and there might be some water in the creek - I'd likely drink 2 gallons of water trying to hike back up. So I'm thinking I might be able to go back to New Meadows - its closer and more down hill. Then some long haired friend of Jesus stops. He ask me if I'm saved. I say yes and he has 2 gallons of water too. I make the rest of the trip no issue. Dad brazes up the wing on the block heater with a stiffener and I put it back in - still there. That would have been around 1990. I need to buy another freeze plug to put back in the ash tray.
New tires will be here next week, then plates and insurance and a few electrical light issues and Elsie will be on the road again.
That's a great story! You may have talked me out of putting it in the ash tray spot.
How long has Elsie been off the road? We've been trying to come up with a good name for my FJ40. My wife named my motorcycle Jolene after the song, "don't take my man..." because she was afraid I'd get killed on it. LOL. I've got a smart speaker in the garage so I can listen to music out there and I put a 99 cent smart plug in the ceiling where the outlet is for the garage door opener, hung an LED light that looks like one of those long florescent lights, plugged it into the smart plug and named it "Jolene's Light, so I can walk in the garage and say "Alexa, turn on Jolene's light" and it lights the garage up great. But I sold Jolene (and my Gen 3 4Runner) to help find the FJ40. So... All that to say, unless the FJ40 speaks to me and tells me another name, I could name it Jolene too so I don't have to rename the light. LOL!
Someone on here mentioned using their phone and a smart speaker. But I want really great sound with at least 4 speakers + my subwoofer & amplifier I pulled out of the 4Runner.
If I delete the heater I could put it there. If there's 1 thing I will not need in Central Florida it's a heater. Put the heater in the storage shed in case it ever needs to go back in.
Someone else posted a pic of theirs installed in the glove box. That could work too, especially if it has voice control so you don't have to reach over while driving.
Someone put a rack / mount for a CB radio hanging from the hard top, but I'm going to remove it and repair the holes. I don't want leaks, and I want to be able to take the top off.