Antique-Tractor (ATIS) Community

Success!

Th trick was not to get a socket that would fit the bore - the trick was getting a socket that was too big - one big enough you could get the lip of the seal tucked up inside of, but small enough so that the inside edge of the socket caught the metal.  Even 6point socket was no good - I had to use  12 point socket.  You could use this to get it seated, then switch to a socket that would fit the bore.  So I started with a 1-1/8 socket.   Then drove it further with a 1-1/16 , then drove it home with a 1".

Here is the finished product.  Thanks again for all the help!

Spencer

[ATTACH=CONFIG]607[/ATTACH]

I am stumped - the green is the seal itself and the seal is oriented correctly in the photo.  I assumed I could hand press this seal but I cannot.   Click on the link below to see a picture.  Using force is sure to ruin the seal and the metal is very thin and I can't walk the seal into place by catching the metal with some sort of thin driver, like a screwdriver, and then tapping along the circumference.

What do you folks think?

Spencer

Here is the full story, for anyone who is interested in ugly technical details.....

The server went down the evening of 1-3, but interestingly so did my  home computer (on the same power backup).   The power backup was fried,  but the house computer came back up when plugged into the wall.   The  ATIS server did not.   I replaced the ATIS server power supply about a  year ago, so I figured the cheap Chinese replacement couldn't handle  whatever the power backup did.    So I replaced the power supply again,  but the server would only boot intermittently.    After a few of these  power cycles, it wouldn't even boot.   In the afternoon of 1-4 I took it  to the local techs and a quick check of the motherboard confirmed the  motherboard was dead.

To be honest, I don't know if the power backup fried the board, or a bad  power supply fried the power backup and the board.  In the end, it  didn't matter.   It was dead.


Thank Goodness data was OK, as disk was good.

I bought a new server on 1-5, installed the old drive along the new one,  and began the process of re-building.  It only took me a few days to  install a new operating system, get my security, BIND and mail services  running.  But I ran into serious problems with the mailing list  software(Mailman).     So I punted Mailman for the moment and worked on  everything else.  Within another day I had web services up.   BTW - as a  tip to all the other systems folks reading on:   The latest version of  Apache and PHP do NOT work together on Fedora 14 machines.  Just a word  to the wise  (-:  Within another day I had the database software  upgraded and that meant I could upgrade the bulletin board software and  get that running.  So for all intents and purpose the system was up in  less than a week; except for Mailman.    

While I luckily had a vacation day 1-4,  the rest of the time I am  working, and commuting, a total of 12 hours a day.  So by now, I am  running on about 4 hours a sleep a night.

The mailing list software was another matter.   The language Mailman  uses is called python.  Unfortunately, they never updated the current  version of Mailman to use the most current versions of python.   The  previous versions of Mailman obviously didn't support the new pythons  either, so downgrading python was the only answer.  Unfortunately a lot  of system utility, scripts, and other software use python, and many of  them make use of the newer features in the latest versions of the  language.  So downgrading ended up not being a possibility.    I was  stuck - no way to downgrade either software, and no upgrades that solved  my problems were available.  

So my only option was to run  parallel copies of python.   So I rounded  up an old copy of python that was compatible with Mailman and built and  installed that in a completely separate directory structure, outside of  normal system paths.   Then I modified all the headers, make files,  import statements, etc in Mailman to use that parallel copy.  At this  point, Mailman was working but required extensive additional tweaks  inside a bunch of other utilities it includes.  In addition, there were  some re-configurations of both the old version of python and Mailman.   This ended up taking me a few days.

In the end - the system is a BUNCH faster, very, very up to date, and should serve us for years to come.


I think I am going to get more sleep now.....


Spencer

ATIS is the one of the first sites in the world, and definitely the only one in old iron, to run the newest version of vBulletin.   Hope you like it - The CMS/Blog section hasn't been fleshed out yet but never fear, I'll get to that in my customary 2-4 months

The spamming we endured a few months ago was because of a small security precaution that was turned off by an upgrade.  This allowed spammers to register as legitimate users very easily and in an automated fashion.  I applied the patch from the developers so it doesn't happen anymore.  The spammers can't know this about the boards they have been trying to attack without trying to register though.  Of course the hole isn't there and they can't spam the board or our personal messages but unfortunately the Spammers are not courteous enough to delete their accounts on the way out.    So the crazy names and high account totals reflect the spammers registering and still hoping the email verification hole is still in place.  


Hope this explains things,

Spencer

A security upgrade broke one of the enhancements I loaded. This prevented new threads from being posted to the forums the enhancement was NOT applied to(it worked on the one forum I originally added it to - go figure).
 
Sorry the delays and problems,
 
Spencer

Feel free to nominate and to vote for as many as you like.   You can only vote once, so you may want to wait to vote until all the nominations are in!.   Also, when you do vote be sure to check all you want since you can only vote once!

Place any nominations as a new thread.   I'll include the first four nominations that gets a second and a third nomination.

Thanks and take care!

Spencer

Thanks, Spencer, for kicking off this new forum.

Maybe some of you would be interested in seeing photos I took at the Fred Heidrich auction in Woodland, CA in September 2005.  Fred was a lifetime collector and accumulator of old iron from all over nothern CA.  The auction lasted two days, was conducted by Aumann Auctions, and bidders came from all over the globe, drawn by the rarer items, like the English steam cable plow.

Whoops, I was trying to post nine images and just got my knuckles rapped through cyber-space!  So I'll have to settle for four.  Spencer, is there any reason to limit us to only four images?  The two antique Caterpillar forums I'm on (likewise run by v-bulletin) are set up for a lot more per post. Could you maybe bump that up to at least eight or ten?  Not a very strong complaint, just a suggestion.

 -  Richard Walker

Just upped it to 12 - Thanks for letting me know about the limit.