MN to OR

On Wednesday afternoon, my meetings were over but my flight out of MN wasn't until Thursday morning. Doug, aka Coopdway, of Coop's Corner, who was in St. Paul for the day, stopped by the hotel and took me to a wonderful restaurant called Q. Cumbers. Huge salad bar, wonderful soups and tons of fruit. They pride themselves as one of the healthiest restaurants in Minnesota. We have so few places with salad bars in Alaska that it was a real treat! It was great to re-connect with Coop since we initially met him last November at their motorcycle group's Saturday coffee. A good opportunity to get to know him a little better.

I headed to the airport very early Thursday morning for a 7 o'clock flight to Seattle. At least I got a complimentary upgrade so I was able to get at least a little sleep. It was just a short hop on a commuter turbo-prop to Portland. After picking up a car and a diner lunch (no pics so it didn't haappen, right? 0 Cal lunch!), I stopped at Raceway Ural in Salem, OR. They had some bits and pieces and I figured that I could save shipping costs by picking stuff up in person. Plus, look around. They have quite a collection of rigs in their show room. Both EFI and carburated versions.

I got a few tips and asked about rain getting in the air cleaner housing and gathered that it wasn't, at least for them, a common complaint. One of the tips from Raceway is how to increase the spring tension on the reverse shifter to help it stay in reverse. Now, if I pause while in reverse, it drops back into neutral on its own. One of the tips from ChrisL from everydayriding.org is the part number for a Napa tractor air filter that fits the Ural housing and is a small fraction of the price. On Amazon, you can find them for about ⅛^th the cost of the Ural part.

The air cleaner housing on a converted diesel Toyota pickup that I used to own had fins inside the air cleaner housing that guided the air in a circle before being drawn through the filter. This allowed a lot of the particulates and water to not get sucked in through the filter and fell to the bottom of the housing where it ended up in an easily emptiable cup.. The advantage, in addition to the element not getting wet, was that it seemed to last forever. After 100k miles, the air cleaner element was still clean. Another reason it was clean is that I didn't have the engine crankcase vent connected to the air cleaner housing. One of the things that I picked up at Raceway was a different crankcase vent system.

I'll be here in Oregon visiting family and friends into the beginning of next week.

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