Thanks guys I have successfully swapped the stator. Getting the nuts off was an adventure and now I have a giant unused strap wrench. I guess its there for next time when I can have the elegance factor. So for anyone stumbling on this thread... What eventually worked sans a giant strap wrench? The Twin II: The rope trick! I would suggest this to anyone over the strap wrench. With the torque I had to put on that thing to get it loose I seriously doubt the cooling fins would have come away unscathed. On top of that it leaves both hands free to apply torque, heat and PB to the nut. Yes I ended up firing it up with a torch and blasting it with the PB several times. One thing to note when buying rope, don't confuse 3/4 with 3/8 or you'll be buying two chunks of rope over two trips. ;) On a similar thought if you got the 3/4 and tried to use the inner bit to do the trick and the engine turns over with the rope in there; you didn't shear the rope core in the engine. You just mushed it flat. Now you wont have to take of the cylinder head and go looking for proper torque speck to put it back on. Just start with 3/8 rope. The vanguard that had no connection to the pistons: Like I described above a piece of angle iron bolted to the flywheel and another sturdy part of the engine worked the charm. As for re-installation I followed Mownie's advice. Thanks for that. The last thing I want is more problems down the road.

I haven't tasted the jam. My mom opened it today, and she wasn't to keen on it, but she's not into Amaretto..I on the other hand LOVE the flavor of it. I'll have to give it a try tomorrow. I don't usually eat alot of bread or bread products though, so I'll have to remember to make a piece of toast. LOL Oh and the balloon bombs are GONE! 90 degree weekend made the boys need them.

Wow. That is a mess. You have your work cut out for you. If you were going to use a semi transparent sealer of a different color you would positively have to strip that deck with something much stronger than RAD. If yu are okay with blotchiness (it may not even be too bad if you use a Cabot's decking stain). Back to the prep.. There is so much mold and it is so deeply ingrained you are going to have to let the RAD dwell for about 45 minutes and keep the wood saturated with cleaner the entire time. This will remove a decent portion of the sealer that is on there and make sure the mold spores are gone. Make sure you neutralize/brighten right away while the deck is still wet. Re-rinse. Let dry and apply Cabot's oil based penetrating deckin stain. It is a semi-transparent but it is opaque. Seacoast gray should cover the deck well and make it look pretty sweet.

Not a lot of progress in the last week, as I went out of town for a wedding. Mr. Weedy and his dad ended up cutting a couple days off their trip to get back to Iowa because grandma was fading fast. So no side trip to OK this time to meet the famous Jon Mon in person. :-( Anyway, we're back from wedding and funeral and have 3 days before we go east to help one sister put a bathroom in her basement and paint another one's house. So today I finished up the big flight of stairs. The decking is kind-of squeaky, presumably because all the expanding and contracting from the rain/sun. So Mr. Weedy tightened up all the screws that aren't yet plugged. I guess that's what using Liquid Nails under the decking helps prevent? I've done that on the stairs and they feel very solid, so I'm sold on that technique for the next deck, should there be one. Our goal is to finish the plugging tomorrow and the wood part of the railings on Saturday. There are two of us, so it should go faster than my solo act the past 3 weeks. The staining will hopefully follow soon after we get back from my sisters'.