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- #221
It's been a while since I've been on the 40 - lots going on with the 60 and other projects, notably learning CW and getting on POTA and changing over my whole ham setup to QRP (I have an Elecraft K2 and a K1 on the way, very exciting!) But took today off to finish out a few projects, namely to finish the garage cleanout and hauling a bunch of bulky items to the recycler, and getting over to Mark's @65swb45 to drop off the roof rack and pick up a donation to the rear tire carrier cause.
It was a good day, but overall kind of a half-win. The earlier spare plate is much thicker and constructed much better, but unfortunately the hinges on the earlier rigs are different than the ones on the 9/71 to 12/74. The plate itself at the mounting point is slightly thinner than the earlier plate, as seen below:
And the earlier plate. Note the missing "divot". Plus, from a little sleuthing on $OR, it looks like the setup is different, with the castle nut on the bottom of the hinge and the body mounted portion of the hinge is female, instead of male like on my 72.
So... without replacing the hinges, it doesn't look like this works. I'm not sure if the mounting points on the body are the same. Presumably yes, but who knows.
However, Mark did point out that I was missing a few bushings from the earlier hinges, so I got after getting some brass bearings from the hardware store and filed them out a little to get them to fit. This was kind of a do, but worth it - zero slop at the hinge. The washer at the top is also an brass thrust bearing.
The last thing was to build some stand-offs for the spare tire carrier. These are grade 8 bolts and locknuts running through some very solid 1" steel spacers. These stupid things were over $5 each, yikes.
At the end of all this, it's much more secure and there's zero wobble where you'd expect it. The only place it seems to wobble is right at the top left corner where it has zero support, and that's an artifact of the thinness of the plate and the lack of reinforcement throughout. I'll just run this for a little bit to see how it goes, but most likely it'll have to either be reinforced or replaced entirely.
It was a good day, but overall kind of a half-win. The earlier spare plate is much thicker and constructed much better, but unfortunately the hinges on the earlier rigs are different than the ones on the 9/71 to 12/74. The plate itself at the mounting point is slightly thinner than the earlier plate, as seen below:
And the earlier plate. Note the missing "divot". Plus, from a little sleuthing on $OR, it looks like the setup is different, with the castle nut on the bottom of the hinge and the body mounted portion of the hinge is female, instead of male like on my 72.
So... without replacing the hinges, it doesn't look like this works. I'm not sure if the mounting points on the body are the same. Presumably yes, but who knows.
However, Mark did point out that I was missing a few bushings from the earlier hinges, so I got after getting some brass bearings from the hardware store and filed them out a little to get them to fit. This was kind of a do, but worth it - zero slop at the hinge. The washer at the top is also an brass thrust bearing.
The last thing was to build some stand-offs for the spare tire carrier. These are grade 8 bolts and locknuts running through some very solid 1" steel spacers. These stupid things were over $5 each, yikes.
At the end of all this, it's much more secure and there's zero wobble where you'd expect it. The only place it seems to wobble is right at the top left corner where it has zero support, and that's an artifact of the thinness of the plate and the lack of reinforcement throughout. I'll just run this for a little bit to see how it goes, but most likely it'll have to either be reinforced or replaced entirely.
