Sunday, November 27, 2005
Fuel lines through crossmember
The original steel fuel line runs through a hole drilled in the Dart's front crossmember. I tried to copy that with aluminum lines - big mistake. There were two problems with that: One, my 9.6V Black & Decker Firestorm drill's batteries are almost completely shot and so is its chuch, and two, aluminum fuel line gets so scratched up if you run it through imprecise holes in a steel crossmember that I'm afraid it might be damaged. So I'm going to try instead to run short lengths of steel line through the crossmember and connect it to aluminum lines for the rest of the fuel line.
I also went out and got a more serious drill - a Makita, and it's not a cordless. Ironically, it's one of the few drills you can get that are put together in the USA. Lowe's wanted as much for a single new battery pack for the Firestorm as for a new drill. I'm going to see if I can modify the Firestorm to use off the shelf NiCads - battery packs shouldn't cost as much as the whole tool with batteries. Stay tuned to see if I can pull this off.
I also went out and got a more serious drill - a Makita, and it's not a cordless. Ironically, it's one of the few drills you can get that are put together in the USA. Lowe's wanted as much for a single new battery pack for the Firestorm as for a new drill. I'm going to see if I can modify the Firestorm to use off the shelf NiCads - battery packs shouldn't cost as much as the whole tool with batteries. Stay tuned to see if I can pull this off.
