But back to the Swamp Rat. Yesterday was "Remembrance Day", when we all take a minute to think of all of our veterans who fought and died in battle. My grandfather, my great uncle and their father, my great grandfather, all fought in WW1, and were still there when the guns fell silent on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, 101 years ago.
For me, it started out a great day, but turned to sh1t fairly early. It was a beautiful day, sunny, warm, and I couldn't get out of the office soon enough, so I could attack the clutch on the old rat. I removed the cover and it didn't look too bad, but on closer inspection, it was pretty awful.
Swamp Rat Clutch 11 Nov 2019 3 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Yes, there was rust..........
Swamp Rat Clutch 11 Nov 2019 4 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I couldn't be bothered cleaning it when I've got plenty of spares, so I found a better one.
Swamp Rat Clutch 11 Nov 2019 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I thought about doing the same thing with the plates, but this clutch had the special ant-rattle spring already installed, so I elected to clean the plates. Big mistake.
Swamp Rat Clutch 11 Nov 2019 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I separated the steels from the friction plates, and as the steels looked pretty good, so I decided to use the wire wheel on my pedestal grinder to give them a cleanup. All was going well, and I was just doing the last one, when, "BANG!" something hit me in the face, really hard. I'm not sure if I blacked out, but I do remember kneeling on the floor and reaching up to turn the power off, and I could see blood. I staggered towards the house and my oldest son came running out and helped me into the house, and my other boy called an ambulance.
Terry's broken face 11 Nov 2019 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
The paramedics put a bandage on my nose and eye, and took me to the nearest hospital, and for some reason an "administrator" put me on a chair in the waiting room, for 2 hours. I was feeling pretty lousy, but the hospital was really busy, so I figured there were folks ahead of me who were in worse shape, not that I could see much as my left eye was particularly sore, and I couldn't focus.
Anyhoo, a nurse eventually came to collect me, and she freaked out. She quickly took me into the ER, and got me some painkillers. The doctor came in, a young English bloke with a toffee accent and asked me "So what brought you in tonight?" I couldn't help myself, I said, "An ambulance?" Zing! The nurse pissed herself laughing while he looked at me like I was an idiot, which, in hindsight, I probably am. Anyway, he told me that I had some pretty good injuries, and would need a CT scan to see what was wrong with my beautiful face, and while we were waiting, he dressed the wound on my poor old nose, and did a vision test to see what was wrong with my left eye.
It turned out that I have an abrasive trauma on my cornea, but that's Ok, it'll get better with some drops, and he cleaned out my eye to make sure there was no wire or crap in there. That was the easy part. They took me in for the CT scan, and it turns out that my nose is broken, and so are some other bones around my nose. Bugger. Tomorrow I have to go see my GP and have the dressings changed, then when the swelling goes down, I have to see a plastic surgeon to see if I have to have surgery on my schnozz.
Oh well, it could have been worse, I could have lost me eye. My son found my glasses embedded in the garage wall, with the left lens missing, it was probably the lens that hit me in the eye, while at the same time, it probably protected me from the clutch disc. Luckily my glasses had plastic lenses, so it didn't shatter, I presume. I say "I presume" because we haven't found the lens yet. Anyhoo, it was a day that I'm unlikely to forget in a hurry. Hopefully I'll be allowed back outside to play with the old swamp rat again soon.
Terry's broken face 11 Nov 2019 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
