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Got bored. I have no idea what I'm doing. 
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Oct 2, 2014 01:47
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I learned something today. A Harbor Freight bearing puller is stronger than a 30 year old Hon bearing.  Still managed to get it pulled off by flipping the puller over and pulling on the outer lip of the cone. The other carrier bearing and the pinion bearing came right off without any drama at all. Guess I had to have one stubborn one to fight with. Wouldn't be a project otherwise. Things are moving right along. 
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Oct 6, 2014 03:36
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Aw yisss... Kinda sucks that I'll be out of town all weekend, but I'll probably get the front lines on some time this week.
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Oct 7, 2014 01:33
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Powershift posted:Hah, i had that happen to me, except i was using a foot long 3 jaw puller and i had so much pressure on it when it let go, the bearings hosed off all over the garage. When I was pulling it, I actually got 3 out individually before the rest fell all over my feet. Now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't have been doing it with my wife's car 6 feet away, but oh well 
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Oct 7, 2014 01:54
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Little bits are coming together here and there as the weekends roll by. Figured I'd assemble the new rear brake lines to get them ready to go on when I finally get the diff put together. New hardlines from The Right Stuff and new stainless line from Kore3.  I got the new bearings onto the carrier and as I was putting on the ring gear, I realized that my torque wrench only measures torque one way. Why the gently caress would you make it reversible if it only reads torque one way? Dicks. Anyway, once I track down a torque wrench that will measure left-handed torque, I'll get these bolts finished. Vise-chat: that's a Wilton 5.5" and it is awesome. I need to buy some jaw pads for it, but I always forget when I go out.  On Saturday, I got a wild hair and decided to take the wire wheel(s) to the radiator support to get it cleaned up. I managed to actually back a screw out with the grinder and send the star washer that was on it into low orbit, so I need to get another one of those. Need to get one of the plastic headlamp adjuster nuts as well. 40+ year old plastic doesn't take well to steels wires hitting it at 10,000 RPM. Anyway, got a coat of paint on one side of it on Sunday. Looks good so far.  I should get the paint finished this week and hopefully track a wrench down to finish that ring gear.
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Oct 27, 2014 14:06
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Today is the day. Got my inch-pound torque wrench, got my dial indicator, got a garage that won't be a frozen wasteland. The rear end will be assembled. Now, I'll probably have to run over to the CarQuest machine shop to get the pinion bearing pressed on before final FINAL assembly, but I've got everything else ready to go. I'll try to snag some pictures of the process. Edit: Even though no one reads this thread, I'll update the cliffhanger of a last post anyway. The HF torque wrenches read torque on left-handed nuts/bolts so I used my 3/8 and an adapter to get the ring gear torqued down. On to the show: Some tools and parts for the day: Brass punches for slamming home shims, dial indicator, 1/4" torque wrench, carrier bearing races, and lots of shims (carrier and pinion).  Step 1: Install the pinion with the temporary bearing and old nut. Bearing preload should be between 12 and 15 inch pounds. I hit right around 13 so I'm happy with that (picture not accurate)  Step 2: Devise a workspace tall enough to get the housing high enough off the ground to not be resting on the yoke. All my jackstands are currently in use, so I had to get creative.  Step 3: Juggle the carrier, bearing races, and carrier shims and eventually manage to get it all put back in the housing. Proceed to somehow lose the draft that you literally JUST loving HAD IN YOUR HAND WHAT THE gently caress. Important note here: make sure there's some backlash between the ring and pinion gears here. You should be able to slightly rotate the carrier and hear a *ping* when the teeth touch before it actually starts turning the pinion. If you can't move it at all, rip it out and decrease your carrier shims because you'll break poo poo if you don't. Once you have it settled and have a little play, torque down the caps to 55-60 ft-lbs.  Step 4: With your caps torqued down, check your backlash. Spec is .006-.010". I checked mine before and after torqueing the caps town and hit .009" both times. Happy with that.  Step 5: Paint on some marking compound on a few teeth and spin your carrier 2-3 times in each direction. Check your patterns. Drive side:  Coast side:  Looks like I've got some adjustments to make. I think the pinion needs a little more shim. Probably bump it up .005". Anyone have any input? Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Nov 29, 2014 |
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Nov 29, 2014 16:28
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Looks like I overshot it.   Crap
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Nov 29, 2014 20:47
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Well, I got it, but I forgot to take pictures of the last pass. Pattern looks good and backlash is at .008". Now I just need to get the good bearing pressed onto the pinion and I can do final assembly. It's currently all cleaned up and ready to go, so I should be able to install it sooner rather than later.
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Nov 29, 2014 23:32
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All I need now is some fluid and some new u-bolts and it's ready for installation. Hopefully I'll get some rotors for Christmas and then I can call the rear end finished. I'm feeling pretty damned accomplished today.  
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Dec 6, 2014 23:24
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Slung Blade posted:Way to go man. Differentials are loving hard. Is there anything to set end play with in the axle shafts? Technically, there are end play specs, but there isn't much to worry about or adjust. They're C-clip axles. Slide in, pop on a clip, then shove them back out to seat the clip. They're held in place by the pin going through the center of the diff. If the end play gets excessive, SOP is to replace the axle shafts from what I've seen. Not my picture, but it gives an idea of what's going on back there: 
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Dec 8, 2014 20:13
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Mmm, yeah, dem's some fine lookin' bolts.  Weekend's supposed to be pretty nice so I'll probably get the calipers bolted on (minus rotors) and get the new soft lines on, fluid in, and get the rear end installed. I'm thinking I'll probably need to pick up a 3rd quart of diff fluid since the general consensus is that a dry diff will take 2.5. Any opinions here on whether or not the LSD out of a '80 Trans-Am needs the friction modifier? The fluid I'm using claims that it has the Limited Slip additive and it doesn't need it, but I've heard yea and nay on this. I'll get some more shots this weekend for another update.
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Dec 12, 2014 03:09
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Grabbed a couple quarts of Valvoline conventional 80w90. Opinions on that?
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Dec 12, 2014 19:48
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Holy poo poo, there is actual progress happening in my garage! I didn't even get to touch a wrench yesterday due to other fuckery (including getting my AISS stuff together), so I wanted to spend some time out there today. I got a later start than I wanted, but I still finished everything that I set out to do. Plan for today was to get the calipers and soft brake lines on and then get the rear end back on the leaves. I'll be replacing these leaves before too awful long, so pay no attention to their scumminess. Same goes for the shocks. Obviously, I didn't put the rear rotors on. This is mainly because I don't have them yet. I have a strong suspicion that I'll be getting them for Christmas so I've got my fingers crossed for that. I didn't fill the diff with fluid yet because I want to make absolutely sure that the rotors will fit over my axle shafts. If I have to pull the shafts to get them machined down, I don't want to have to fill the diff twice. Once I got the brackets and calipers on, I got the stainless lines to the calipers and the soft line that goes to the feed from the master cylinder installed. With all that buttoned up, I moved the rear end moved to the floor jack and eventually wrestled it into place on the leaves. I didn't get many pictures of the process but I can assure you they would all be incredibly boring. Here are the results:    Looks pretty stupid without the rotors, but I'll get a shot up when I get them installed.
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Dec 15, 2014 01:55
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IOwnCalculus posted:I've never heard of any conventional oil that supposedly has the friction modifiers built in. Nothing wrong with running one but the only oils I've seen that claim to have the right mix are all full synthetics (Mobil1, Lucas, Royal Purple, etc). It's their "high performance" oil, but now that I look, I don't see any mention of it being specifically conventional. No synthetic label either. Kinda strange.
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Dec 15, 2014 05:49
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lolricecamrylol posted:Holy poo poo, I can't believe I didn't see this thread until now. Neat! Could have used an extra pair of hands yesterday, but oh well. Don't know how far west you get, but I'm over by McHenry county. I checked out that yard in Zion a while back and was thoroughly disappointed. I'll be dropping the engine back in it in the spring (hopefully) and my dad's volunteered to come up and help, but another pair of eyes and hands couldn't hurt. May drop you a line then.
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Dec 15, 2014 23:43
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Astonishing Wang posted:How long did setting up the gears actually take, from first try to final install? From what I've seen it looks like it's not HARD, but it's tedious and potentially frustrating. Thoughts? That's pretty accurate. Not necessarily hard, but it was tedious and a bit time consuming. Once I finally sat down with everything ready to go (setup pinion bearings ready to go, carrier assembled, new races, etc.), it took me a few hours to get everything right: - Get the pinion in - check the bearing preload - drop the carrier in - torque carrier caps - check backlash - shim as necessary (this involves multiple installs and removals of the carrier and torquing the caps every time) - apply compound and run a pattern - check pattern against diagrams and pictures - pull everything apart and clean off compound - repeat patterns as necessary (while checking the correct preload on the pinion and backlash on the carrier EVERY TIME) That was the majority of a Saturday. A week later, I got the actual new bearing on the pinion and did final assembly. That was another hour or two since I took my time. I wouldn't call the process hard, but I definitely wouldn't call it easy.
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Dec 16, 2014 22:21
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PARTS! Well I struck out on a possible T56 at the yard today, so that was disappointing, but my wife got me some rear rotors and new front shocks for Hanukkah, so I'm pretty pumped for that. I'll get the shocks slammed in tomorrow and then shift focus to the brakes. Those rotors are the last actual parts that I need, so there's nothing stopping me from getting the brakes actually loving DONE now. Expect another update with pictures tomorrow night.
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Dec 21, 2014 06:02
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Well gently caress. Turn out the shocks that my wife bought me - the shock that I put on my wishlist because I was under the impression they would fit - don't loving fit. Not even close to fitting through the lower control arm hole. Crap. They will be returned to Amazon and I will use that refunded money to buy a wheel without taking it out of my budget, so that's nice. The rear rotors on the other hand... ...TOTALLY loving FIT HELL YEAH.  I did have to hog out the center hole just a hair to get it to fit around the middle of the axle shaft, but that was a very small inconvenience. Once I got the new rotors on and got the pads and calipers back on, I rechecked all the brake fittings, bled the master cylinder (used these and some clear tubing. Worked like a charm), and started bleeding brakes. Luckily, my in-laws were coming over for dinner so I had my father-in-law do the pumping while I watched the fluid. Sadly, because I'm a dumbass, I didn't have enough new fluid on hand and ran out before I could do the fronts. Once I get the front brakes bled, I can actually call the brakes DONE. Until I find a wrecked CTS-V anyway... 
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Dec 22, 2014 05:47
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Waiting on some new parts to get here, but I had the day off so I figured I had to get something done. Did some general cleanup of the garage and workbench and then realized I had three quarts of gear oil to pour. Got my 2.25ish quarts in, tightened the fill plug, then proceeded to notice a very tiny drop forming at the bottom of the diff cover. Mother. Fucker. I must've missed a little spot with the rtv when I installed the loving thing. I'll be attempting to catch as much lube as I can to re-use and reseal the cover tomorrow. Hopefully those parts will be here soon and I'll have something to show you guys.
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Dec 27, 2014 04:59
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Got the differential cover installed. AGAIN. Made sure to put a fat bead of RTV around the whole thing this time and did a double line on the bottom half. I'll hit it with the fluid next weekend to give it a full 7 days to cure. In the meantime... 
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Dec 27, 2014 23:26
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Just RTV. I did my Mustang the same way a few years back and it's had zero leaks. I have a paper gasket that came with the rebuild kit, so that's an option if I need it.
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Dec 28, 2014 20:11
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I've had this method work in the past without an issue. I've heard the 8.5s like to leak with the paper gasket as well, so I figured I'd stick with what I know. Unrelated, but how the gently caress can a package be picked up in Ohio at 10:00 on Friday night and still be in loving Ohio at 4:00 on Monday morning? Ohio isn't that big.
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Dec 29, 2014 14:44
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OH gently caress  YES.  Cragar Soft 8 in 17x8. I only ordered one wheel at this time for test fitting purposes. The 8"s will go on the front and I'll be getting some 9"s for the rear. I plan on running 245/45s up front and I'm pretty sure they'll fit, but I may have to trim my brake line bracket just a hair. It's going to be pretty close at full lock. That won't be a big deal at all. Based on measurements, I should have plenty of room out back as well for the 9"s and the 275/40s that will be going on them. I'll be getting some new lugnuts as well. I'm so loving excited to be buying wheels. I'll probably order a tire tonight and get it mounted as soon as it shows up. I need a shower. Edit: I think they may need a stripe... Edit the second: Tire and 4 shiny new lug nuts are coming and should be here early next week. Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Dec 31, 2014 |
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Dec 31, 2014 02:37
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mafoose posted:It's going to look sweet! I was thinking about sizes too, but my wheels are in the range listed by the manufacturer so I think I'll be ok. The 275s are on the low end, but they tested it on a 9.5. Thanks for the concern    I can't not make those first sentences sound sarcastic. I actually appreciate the input.
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Dec 31, 2014 16:50
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First one's here! I'll get it mounted tomorrow and get it on the car. I got some new lug nuts and I'm very happy to see that they're long enough. Annoyingly, they're sold in packs of 4 and not 5. Oh well.  
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Jan 3, 2015 00:04
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Raluek posted:5 sets of 4 will still do the whole car. Makes sense if you're doing the whole car since you have 4 wheels, and the manufacturer doesn't know how many lugs per wheel you've got. Oh, I totally get it. Buyer is guaranteed to have 4 wheels, but not necessarily 5 lugs. Doesn't make it any less annoying.
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Jan 3, 2015 02:31
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Tire is mounted. Verdict is:    Obviously, the suspension is at full droop so it looks a bit weird, but I think it will tuck up very nicely once it's on the ground. Edit: 2 minute PS hackjob: 
Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 19:38
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Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not dead. It's been a slow month as we've had some expensive poo poo going down and funds need to be shifted a bit. I'll be getting a rear tire ordered in a couple weeks and should have it mounted the first weekend in February. Based on some educated guesses and some measuring, I think it's going to be tight in the back, but I should still be ok. Maybe have to massage the quarter panels a bit. Assuming I can dip into the tax return a bit and maybe get some money for my birthday in April, I hope to have the car on the ground and the engine in process of going back in come summer. Maybe I'll drag it to a local show. Once it's moving under its own power again, I'll start looking at suspension parts... ...which leads me to a question for the masses: What order do you think I should start installing suspension? I'd like to go rear leaves first as the passenger side is shot. Right rear liked to rub on big bumps when I drove it home. I've got a tentative order that I want to buy parts in, but I figured I'd get a second opinion from the experts. 1 - Rear springs (again, right rear is currently thrashed) 2 - Front springs 3 - Shocks 4 - Front swaybar 5 - Rear swaybar 6 - Subframe connectors 7 - Control Arms Thoughts?
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Jan 20, 2015 02:59
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Thelonious posted:I'd check out the Hotchkis TVS kit. Looks like that'd knock out a good portion of your list in one swoop. Yeah, I'll be using their springs and maybe their swaybars. It'd be hell on my budget though. Plus, I already have pretty new tie rod sleeves. I keep thinking of more and more things that I want to do. Hard to not get ahead of myself. I've been reading up on Gen III/IVs a lot.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:39
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So I'm pretty much over the stupid cold/flu hybrid that was kicking my rear end earlier this week and my garage is a balmy 48 degrees, so I figured I'd do a little work even if I don't have any new parts. First step was throwing a third of a bottle or so of diff fluid in the rear end and let it try to leak out. If it's still dry tomorrow, I'll put the other 2 bottles in and call that done. Something that's been nagging at me for a while is the meeting of the rear end and the leaf springs. Something I failed to take into account when I bought the 8.5" was that the car that it came off of had multi-leaf springs. My car has single leaf springs. The perches for multi-leaf cars are a lot deeper than on single leaf cars and my sad 40 year old rubber bushings weren't going to be able to fill the gap between the spring perch and the bottom plate. Pitiful bottom rubber pad:  When I mounted the rear end up originally, I got pretty ghetto with it and just used some stuff to fill that gap, but it wasn't really substantial enough. I figured I had about an inch or so of space to fill so I started hunting around for some thick rubber mats. I found some options around, but they were all pretty steep and this is a temporary solution anyway. Eventually, I ran across some commercial flooring site that offered free samples of their 1" thick recycled rubber flooring. Jackpot. Ordered a couple sampled and crossed my fingers that they were going to be big enough. Hell yeah.  So I trimmed it down and put a hole in it so it will lock in nicely to the corresponding peg on the perch. Not as long as the original pad, but it's long enough:  Combined with the original top and bottom pads, the fit was perfect. U-bolts are torqued down and that axle doesn't budge. A resounding success.  Like I said, this is a temporary solution. Once I get the new rear leaf springs, they are multi-leaf springs and will come with all new pads. While I was out there, I flipped around the parking brake arm on the driver's side so it will pull forward instead of backwards. The Camaro that I got the brakes from runs the parking brake cables backwards and up over the rear axle and then to the front of the car. That's a big dumb pain in the rear end so I'm going to just run them straight to the front of the car like the originals. Once I pick up some cables, I'll have another update. Until next time.
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Jan 24, 2015 22:59
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jhcain posted:I'm digging the ingenuity here, I wonder how well that new rubber pad will hold up in actual use - I'd drive cautiously and keep an eye on it. I don't plan on driving on that for too long, but it didn't cost me a dime and it makes me feel a little better. Rear leaves will be the first purchase after wheels and tires, so I can't imagine many miles getting put on them.
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Jan 29, 2015 06:05
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Halfway there.  That 275 is pretty wide and I'm probably going to have to do a bit of massaging on those quarter panels to get everything happy. All good though. I figure I'll get the other front wheel and tire purchased and installed then I'll set the front down on ramps and start prepping for getting the engine back in. Parents are coming into town in April for my birthday, so I'm going to take advantage of another pair of hands and eyes and get it in that weekend.I think I'm going to scrub and paint the inner front fenders. They look pretty gnarly next to the nice pretty subframe. Until next time. Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Feb 14, 2015 |
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Feb 14, 2015 21:20
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SouthsideSaint posted:Love those ford racing fender covers. Goes perfect on a nova. But in all seriousness those rims with that paint job is superb. I live by ohare and am free most weekends. If you ever need some help I feel helping you would be a better experience then when I went and help sperg. I was wondering if anyone would pick up on the fender cover. Once I start ripping the suspension apart, I may drop you a line. There's another goon over in Zion that offered a hand as well. Worst case Ontario - we all hang out and drink beer.
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Feb 16, 2015 23:51
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Another front wheel showed up this morning. Hopefully I'll get a tire on it soon and get the front end back on the ground for the first time since October of 2013 (I think). The temperature reached a nice balmy 31 degrees today so I hit the garage for a few hours this afternoon. It's been way too long since I've actually worked on the car so it felt good just to be out there. I don't see it as a chore so that must be good, right? I've been thinking of doing this for a while and today was the warmest day we've had in quite some time so I figured I'd better go for it. The inner fenders are pretty nasty and I wanted to clean them up. Like most things, this could easily be solved by throwing money at a set of new inner fenders, but gently caress all that. I started with a good wipedown and vacuuming to get all the loose crap off. I then hit it with some Simple Green and a scrub brush to get some of grimier poo poo. Cleaned up the Simple Green and hit it hard with the wire brush on the grinder. Wiped it down with acetone and did a little masking and that brought me here:  I should have taken a picture before I touched it at all. It looks tons better in that picture than when I started. Once all that was done, I hit it with 2 coats of semi-gloss Rustoleum. This picture is not long after the first coat so it's pretty glossy.  In that second picture, keen eyes may notice that you can see a bit of the wheel well through the opening there. It's the part that looks like poo poo. It caught me a bit by surprise as well. Better clean those up, too. Before:  Now, I had already scrubbed these up a while back with the SG and a brush, so I went straight to the grinder and wire brush. This was a huge pain in the rear end as my face shield would fog up near instantly as I was under there running the grinder. Anyway, got it cleaned up the best I could, masked off the fender lip, and hit it with the semi-gloss.  Pretty happy with the results of today's work. In-laws were coming over so I had to wrap it up and hit the showers, but hopefully the weather will hold out a bit and I can get some work done on the drivers side tomorrow. I doubt I'll paint the engine bay side as it actually looks pretty good and there's a ton of poo poo in the way. I really don't want to take my master cylinder off again. Even if it's too cold to paint, I'd like to go pick up some grease and hit all the front suspension zerks so I can cross that off my list. Topic for discussion: How upset do you think the greybeards will be that I spent "all that money on a stupid four door" when I start dragging this pig to shows?
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Feb 22, 2015 06:34
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 IT'S BACK ON THE GROUND. Sort of. The front is, anyway. Suspension is barely compressed as it's still missing 700ish pounds of drivetrain. Once that was done, I spend a few hours cleaning more poo poo up. I took the grill apart and started scrubbing that up when I started to run out of daylight and warmth. Green Scotchbrite pad is quite the tool. No pictures unfortunately, but I'll be sure to get some once it's all freshened up. 40 more days until the engine goes in so I'll try to keep myself occupied until then. Or who knows, maybe I'll lose patience and put the drat engine in myself. Dad might be a little disappointed, but I think I can live with that. One point of aggravation: I broke a stud off the exhaust manifold when I was taking the exhaust off originally. I've got about a quarter inch of stud poking out of the bottom of the flange and I just can't seem to get a tight enough clamp on it with the vise-grips. I hit it with a little heat today with a propane torch, but I don't know if propane has the heat to really get the job done. Any suggestions from the experts?
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Mar 8, 2015 23:14
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Weather was too nice today to not spend some time in the garage. Since I'm basically killing time for the next few weekends, I've been doing more cleaning and minor restoration. Big ticket items of the day were the headlight bezels and the grille. I didn't take any before pictures because I completely spaced, but both grille and bezels were pretty much bare of paint after 40 years of exposure. I scrubbed them up the best I could with a brillo pad and hit them with the black. Used the brillo pad to take the paint off the appropriate areas as well.  Now the grille on this car was all silver with the exception of the far right and left vertical bars. That's the base model grille. The SS grille was blacked out with the exception of the top and bottom horizontal bars. I really like this look and I figured I could pull it off easily enough. I'm extremely happy with the results.  Big swap meet tomorrow at the Lake County Fairgrounds so I'll hit that up and see if I get lucky with anything. I probably won't, but oh well.
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Mar 15, 2015 03:42
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Swap meet was a bust. Kinda figured it would be. I was hoping to get lucky with some trim pieces or something, but no dice. Came home and changed the oil in the wife's car (allen key drain plug? Wtf Mazda?) so I dicked around with some stuff while I was getting dirty. Paint that I laid down on Saturday was nice and dry so I put the grille back together. Screwed the headlight bezels on to get an idea of what it was going to look like back on the car. I'm very happy.  I hit the bezel screws with some paint after I took it apart so they won't look terrible once it goes back together for good. I really need a new filler panel (silver piece below the grille), but it's not the utmost concern at the moment. All this stuff will be coming off again down the road once I get a new engine ready to go in. A lot of the hardware for this stuff is pretty gnarly. I think I'll hit a hardware store sometime this week and get some replacements.
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Mar 16, 2015 17:09
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Well, the tires are done. All four purchased, mounted, and bolted to the car. I'm pleased as all hell to get that done. I finally sold the wheels and tires that came with the car when I bought it so that did wonders for my budget. I just went and put the last one on the car and after I did it, I noticed that my rear axle is not centered or straight in the car. A bit annoying, but not world-ending. I'll have to pull the wheels off at some point in the near future and do some serious measuring. I'm thinking the back of the front wheel well and the front of the rear rotor should make decent reference points for getting it straight, but I'll have to figure something out for side-to-side. I think I'm going to need to do some massaging for the rear wheel openings as well, but that doesn't concern me too much. I'll be out of town all this weekend for a wedding, but I've got a couple more weekends to work before the engine is scheduled for reentry. T-minus 24 days.
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Mar 25, 2015 01:15
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Another nice day today. Went out to the yard as they got another '73 in (a sedan this time) and I figured I'd go see if there was anything worth grabbing. Aside from a cage that had been fabbed and installed by Fence Posts and Booger Welds R Us, there wasn't really anything of note. Too bad. I managed to somewhat rectify the broken exhaust stud situation, so that's nice. Drilled the old stud out but did a bit of a crap job and got off center. I figure I'll throw a bolt and nut on it when it goes back in and call it GE. After all, those manifolds aren't going to be a permanent fixture anyway. You may have seen my post in the chat thread, but if you didn't, my pinion seal is leaking. I'm super loving excited about pulling that axle off and loving around with that. Can't wait. I'm not going to worry about it until I get the new rear leaves. I'll get that fixed and get it mounted nice and straight. My birthday's next week so hopefully I'll get some parts and/or money for parts. I've actually got a bonus coming from work, but I have a feeling that's going to get chewed up by new tires on the Mustang. If I miraculously have any left over after the tires, it will go towards the budget. Engine's going in on Saturday morning when my dad's here. Once that's in, leaves will be next in a month or two. Edging ever closer.
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Apr 11, 2015 21:23
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 13:13 |
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Saturday morning. Work commences. Parents came up for combo my birthday/mom's birthday so the plan was to use dad's hands and tools to wrestle the heart back into this pig. I'll say this right out front: assembling the hoist was a hell of a lot easier with 2 people. Anyway, got poo poo moved out of the way and hooked up the hoist. Up we go:  (Yes, that poster is what you think it is. It will be hung soon.)  Initial insertion wasn't too bad. Rubbed a little paint off the steering box, but everything else was clear. I was concerned about the master/booster, but no problems there.  Dad brought a little come-along that ended up being really drat handy. It helped to bring the transmission up a bit since we didn't have a load leveler  Next few pictures are standard engine going in fare:      Once the major obstacles were cleared, we could shift focus a bit to the actual mounts.  Featuring my expert trans cooler line wrangling:   Got the mounts fairly lined up so I went under. I would be under there for the next two hours or so. Unfortunately, the creeper wouldn't fit between the jack holding the transmission up and the ramp. At least it wasn't cold.   No pictures here as my photographer (wife) went on a walk with my mom and the dog. We wrestled with two loving bolts for almost two and a half hours. Got the driver side in, couldn't get the passenger. Fought that for a while, but gave up. Pulled the driver side out and got the passenger side right in. Now the driver side (that went RIGHT loving in the first time) didn't want to line up at all. We fought this for longer than we probably should have, but my dad and I are both stubborn asses so time marched on as we struggled. Eventually, we came to the realization that we should shift focus to the passenger side. Out came the passenger bolt, driver side went right in (bastard) and we took 5 minutes to think. Eventually, I got the passenger bolt about halfway home and dad lifted the engine just a hair with a length of 2x4. As soon as he hit the sweet spot, the bolt sunk home. Eyebrows raised in surprise  Threw the nuts on the bolts and grabbed the vacuum hose for the brake booster.     So here it sits. It's been out of the car for drat near 18 months and it's finally back in. Nothing else is hooked up or installed as I was too loving sore to turn any more wrenches and we were both ready for some liquid celebration. So we broke the hoist down, returned it, and hit the showers. After all, it was my birthday weekend and I had somewhere to be that night:  I'll start getting poo poo put back together this weekend and probably snap some more pictures of the progress. The next time this fucker comes out it won't be going back in. Whaddya want from me?
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Apr 23, 2015 02:36
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