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Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


*If anyone knows of a nice 1988-1990 FJ62 anywhere in the USA, I’m looking

Some of you may have (not) been wondering what I’ve been up to for the last few years, so here’s a thread to catch everyone up and hopefully log more of my doings. I’ve been posting *some* of this on vehicle-specific forums but I like the idea of one catch-all location to document my failures as an amateur gearhead.

I’ll start with the vehicle everybody’s heard of, my FJ40 named GIR. Yes, I still have it. It’s the one that hasn’t quite managed to get away yet, despite many attempts.


(GIR is the white one)

In 2005 I was in college in Fairbanks and it was my daily driver. I spent many thousands of dollars on a tricked out 2F rebuild that wouldn’t pass smog, so ‘daily’ really meant ‘in the summer when I could get a seasonal exemption from the smog tests’. That spring I pulled it out and was being stupid with a friend when I accidentally jumped it. High. Way high. Tommy Chong high. My friend had time to put his feet on the dash before we hit, and we could see immediately that the front axle was hosed. Solid axles shouldn’t have camber like that. I ended up air-freighting an axle from Kodiak, rebuilding it, and installing that. The only problem was, I apparently also did something to the transfer case and it was making a ton of noise. I started the process of rebuilding a core but eventually the financial realities of being a college student caught up with me and I ended up parking the whole thing at a friend’s house.

There it sat. And sat. I finished school and moved to Juneau, 730 miles away with Canada and an ocean in between. A tree grew through the bumper.


One day I got a phone call. My friend had bought a house and was moving out of his rented cabin. I had 48 hours to move it or lose it.

I don’t know if I had any favors to call in with my friend Ash, but he certainly earned a few that weekend. I flew to Anchorage and we drove to Fairbanks, rented a trailer, cut down the tree, and hauled GIR to Wasilla, where my sister had recently married a guy with a house and space. He has a hot rod Chevy pickup from when he was in high school, and GIR was parked next to that with the understanding that it would be gone within two years. It took three years, and I paid the difference by giving them my air compressor (and buying their kids a shitload of science toys that I honestly thing they’re getting sick of).

Amusingly, while parked there it got into a 2-vehicle accident with a moose. A huge bull with a big rack tried to squeeze in between and smashed the poo poo out of the thin Chevy sheetmetal. GIR was unfazed. My brother in law was unamused.

In 2016 my dad retired and we decided to make the drive (and ferry) to Juneau with GIR on a trailer along with my remaining childhood belongings. So again I flew into Anchorage, rented a UHaul trailer, and loaded GIR up.


(There’s a spoiler for later in this thread visible)

The drive was great and the longest time I’ve spent alone with my dad in 20 years. We made it into Juneau, got off the boat, and as we were driving into town we spotted this at the gas station:



I had been working to get that drill rig into town for two years. The day we bought our house we walked in the door to hear the furnace making noises. The thrill of homeownership lasted 15 seconds past the front door. Since that day we had been working to get a ground source heat pump installed, and now that I had my driveway filled with my dad’s camper and a trailer with a whole bunch of stuff, they showed up out of the blue with two big trucks and priority for both space and money.



$27,000 worth of drilling later ($50,000 overall), we now have an awesome and efficient home heating system.

Unfortunately that also meant GIR needed to go into my shed. It has been sitting there ever since.



I’ll pick up up on GIR later in the thread.

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Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


2020 was a hell of a year. In January we decided the price on big TVs had dropped low enough that it was time to finally upgrade from the ‘pity TV’ that a friend gave us because we’d built a cardio theatre with a 19” TV.

I pulled my wife’s pickup out of the garage and started driving to Costco. It was pulling like a tire was low, which would make sense because we don’t use it much. I turned off the road to check and all the tires were >30psi. Then I started feeling for temperature. The driver’s wheel was hot. Stuck caliper. Dammit.

I was right near home so decided to just go back. Except I had pulled half-off the asphalt and needed to use 4wd to get moving. When I engaged 4wd the front end exploded. Ball bearings and CV parts fell out. loving hell.

I don’t have a lot of pictures for some reason (probably because I don’t like remembering all the horrible things that truck has done to me), but it ended up in the garage for just over a year.


(picture from when we replaced our apartment deck last year, thankfully buying most of the lumber before prices went crazy)

A full year on stands while I tracked down parts for a 1993 Mazda B2600i. A full year of my garage space. Ugh.

I ended up replacing CVs, brakes, most of the cooling system, and a couple other items.

Here’s the radiator drain, conveniently located above a crossmember:



The drain is above the hole in the crossmember, facing the axle shaft.

I’ll spare you all the agony of replacing the O2 sensor, but suffice to say this loving truck was clearly not designed for repair. My wife is finally understanding that her first vehicle is no longer reliable, as I think it’s averaged $1/mile in parts over the last 5 years. She still wants to keep it forever but every time I touch that truck it draws blood, I always have to order a new tool (or three, which is the one nice thing about working on it), and every single part for anything needs to be special ordered.

Have I mentioned that RockAuto stopped shipping here in 2020?

I finally got the truck put back together in February 2021.


Here’s another spoiler:

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


I decided 2020 was the year I would start working on GIR. As all projects must start somewhere, I decided to start with something simple.

The engine didn’t have hoist hooks as those were missing, so I long ago tracked down a set and they were sitting in a parts bin. I pulled one out, stripped it down, and hit it with primer.



There it is, the one part I have stripped and primered. Feel free to mock my progress.

I also started putting out feelers for a parts rig. I’ve wanted to put FJ60 axles under it for a long, long time, so that’s what I was looking for. Miracle of miracles, I got a lead on a non-running FJ62. The owner had it for nearly 20 years and was sick of it not working when he wanted to use it. He and I went back and forth a little while he decided whether to sell it cheap and finally we did the deal. I am now the proud owner of a rusty-as-hell 1988 FJ62.



That’s how it looked the day I dragged it home. Turn the key and *nothing* happened. PO was pretty sure it was the ignition control module, which is an expensive piece. No matter, my FJ40’s 2F is already built and I really just wanted the axles.

But...I Wonder what’s really wrong with it?

The PO said it had a full tank of fresh gas but didn’t do poo poo when he turned the key. No lights, nothing. I figured I’d give it a couple days and $100 worth of troubleshooting.

First step was charging the battery. I hooked up my trickle charger and left it. By lunch the next day it would turn over with the key, but wouldn’t fire. I pulled a plug and it was wet, so we had fuel. Let’s check the ignition system...



[Adam Savage] Well, there’s your problem! [/Adam]

It looked like an old coil off my FJ40, pre-HEI swap, would fit. A coil’s a coil, right? Well, it fired right up. Ran great. A bit of a high idle and the valves were noisy but no knock and it seemed to love running. If it runs, I may as well use it, right? I had the title so I went in and got it registered with a new set of plates.



How was that plate available?!

Despite being a rusty B, it’s actually quite nice inside:



So...Now we have an FJ62. We actually use it quite a bit - I never wanted a wagon before, but now I really want one that isn’t rusty. We had been saving for a newer truck but we can honestly do 95% of a pickup’s job with this thing. I totally get the appeal now, as does my wife, so we’re officially looking for a nice FJ62.

It will even haul crazy big lumber. Here’s some 18’ long pressure treated lumber (the nice interior was protected, don’t worry!):

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


cursedshitbox posted:

Those B2200s were spiteful trucks even in not-rusty areas.
nice alpenlite too, heavy bastards.

It’s a B2600, which is even better because they shoehorned a Mitsubishi engine in there. The hood has an asymmetrical cutout in the bracing for the intake manifold and the oil plug drains onto a crossmember. You can’t even get to said oil plug without removing two skid plates.

That Alpenlite has a slide-out and my parents are basically hoarders. The camper has a built in generator but my dad carries a Honda ‘just in case’. They bring folding stools to sit in front of the dinette because there’s so much stuff in the seats and under the table.

We’re not looking forward to cleaning out the house when they die. There’s so much stuff. It’s clean stuff, but there’s a ton of it. They have a whitewater raft that hasn’t been used since before I was born. I’ve never even seen it out of the storage roll; all I know is that there’s an “obscene beaver” painted on the bow.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


We bought our house in spring 2013 and the week after, while we were moving, the Mazda developed a stutter. It was our only working vehicle and now we have a commute; before we could walk to the office. poo poo.

2013 was right when gas was nearly $5.00/gallon and EVs were starting to be useful. We managed to get by until fall and bought a brand new 2013 Nissan Leaf SV in Seattle. I flew down, as did my friend Ash from the above post, and we had a guy’s weekend in Seattle before driving up to Bellingham. I dropped him at the airport and then got on the ferry - it’s a 3 1/2 day ferry ride from Bellingham to Juneau.

Right before I picked up the car we also adopted a Black Lab-ish puppy so the two of them are named Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.



We live in the State Capital of Alaska, Juneau. There are no roads in or out. The only 4 ways here are boat, plane, birth canal, or hiking across an icefield to Canukistan. Leafs are perfect here because hydroelectricity is cheap and this is as far as you can physically drive:



Of course, nothing is drama free. This being Alaska, we have to have weird problems - one day we were driving to work and a bald eagle dropped a rock on our windshield. A big loving rock.



$1800 later we have a new windshield. gently caress USAA insurance, they didn’t pay a dime because we refused to drive to their preferred provider 800 road miles and a ferry away.

The car has held up really well. We have almost 103,000 miles on it (highest mileage EV in the State of Alaska and the first to crack 100,000 miles) and it’s still using the original battery. It even made it just over 85,000 miles before losing the first capacity bar.



My wife is less than pleased she married a 12 year old :v:

The biggest maintenance I’ve had to do so far is the brakes. The stock rotors rusted and spalled at about 50k. The aftermarket rotors are holding up much better but I went through 8 sets of aftermarket pads before I found a set that actually had the correct parts. I need to do the shocks and struts soon and I’m not looking forward to either paying for Nissan or finding aftermarket that work.

Oh, and as for operating costs - in 100,000 miles I’ve spent more on wheels and tires than electricity.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


My next door neighbor is way too nice to me.

When we bought our house, we knew we’d need to replace the apartment stairs. For some goddamn reason the builder left a spruce tree against the staircase and, over time, it bowed the whole thing. That meant we were going to need to hire a tree removal service to take the tree down without destroying the building before replacing the staircase.

One day last summer I spotted my neighbor, a contractor, taking down some trees in his yard with a manlift. We got to talking and I helped (drove the truck with the rope) him down over a dozen trees next to his house. He volunteered to help with our trees, too.



You can see how bad the tree overhung the building. But he’s drat good at everything I’ve seen him do and that tree dropped right where we wanted it - twice. Both halves of the tree dropped in exactly the same spot, 90* away from the structure:



We ended up taking down a total of 6 trees; 5 Sitka Spruce (mostly small, before they become a 200’ problem) and a bigass cottonwood right behind the apartment that had me sleepless any time there was a gust of wind.

He even hauled away the debris.



I bucked up the logs and hauled them in the FJ62 over to where we could split firewood out of the rain.


(This is probably why I can’t have nice things)

Another friend who heats with wood loaned us a log splitter. Three days of splitting later we now have a pile of firewood that should last a long time.



After we were done splitting he let me borrow the manlift to clean the roof (yes, we need to restain the siding - there used to be a carport and it splashed against the house).



...And string up Christmas lights. I got all the way to the peak of my roof when the manlift puked all the coolant out and died. gently caress yeah.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Decided to finally stop fighting the garage door opener and just replace it.



:suicide:

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Elephanthead posted:

I too am confused by this new technology requiring air cooling no doubt.

The garage was originally the entire first floor and did not have drywall. The previous owner of our house, whom I have nothing good to say about, were required to drywall it when they opened a Bed & Breakfast. He framed in a huge space beside the ducting, right up to the edge of the opener, and also drywalled over the mount.


gently caress you, Len.

That’s how far I had to remove to hit solid framing. I had to bust into that box to fit the new, wider, opener.

I’m going to have to tear out all the garage ceiling drywall and redo it (just like every single other thing in the entire house that Len ever touched) so we just put plastic over the hole for now. New opener works great; I even got the HomeKit bridge set up without any issues.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Woke up this afternoon and planned to hit the lifts but checked their webcam first



gently caress that noise. We took the dog for a nice long walk instead; the weather today was amazing.



For reference, our house is in the valley across the water (picture taken from Douglas Island), a bit to the left where the bottom of Mendenhall Glacier meets the trees.

We were still gaining snow until last Friday, spring only hit for real on Thursday. Yesterday, April 17th, was the earliest date it has ever hit 70*F.

Since it looks like we’re not going to get more snow I swapped out the snow shoes on the Leaf.

Before:


During:


After:


Took a quick trip around the block and torqued all lug nuts to 83 ft-lbs, over-inflated the tires to 43psi (I’ve found the OEM 35 psi is way too low and the tires wear poorly), and only forgot to install the stupid plastic centering ring on one wheel :haw:

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


1976 was a wild time in Alaska. If you had a lukewarm body you could make armfuls of money working on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline construction project. Schools couldn’t keep teachers because they would be paid many times more money to do pipeline paperwork. It sometimes took 20 minutes from the time you picked up a phone to when you heard the dial tone because of all the people phoning home. Restaurants had Spam and Dom Pérignon dinner specials (they still have these).

My dad grew up dirt poor and now had more money than he knew what to do with. Aside from the obligatory 70s coke parties he bought a few items that stuck around. One day he was driving past the Yamaha dealer and spotted a motorcycle that caught his eye. Someone else had bought/ordered it new, had it for a few days, and decided they wanted the next model up. Dad had some cash in his pocket (literally - I have heard many stories of impulse purchases during this time) and bought it - An orange 1976 Yamaha DT250B Enduro with less than 150 miles from the first owner.



When he started dating my mom (that year or the next) he would taker her, a sheltered New England Catholic girl, out for some good country fun. One day they were riding up a hill that was way too steep when everything went over backwards and landed with mom on the bottom, dad in the middle, and the bike on top. They decided to get her a bike of her own, and picked up a metallic blue 1975 175 Enduro. They even decided to take the class and get their licenses, and dad is still pissed that he had to show the DMV guy everything about riding while the guy just let the pretty girl, my mom, show that she knew how to start and stop.

One day they took a ride down to McHugh Creek, along the Seward highway, and Dad proposed. This year they will be married 43 years.

One of my mom’s sisters came to visit one summer and wanted to learn how to ride. Dad took her to a gravel pit and showed her the basics before letting her take the bike by herself. She immediately went out on the street. Dad waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually she came walking back. She’d gotten out on the highway and forgot how to shift, revving it up as high as it would go and holding it there. The engine blew. Dad was pissed. I’m not sure who paid for the engine to be rebuilt, but the bike had about 2500 miles from new at the time.

A bit later I came into the picture and the bikes were parked. My parents brought the bikes with us when they moved, but around 1995 were starting to talk about getting rid of them as they hadn’t even been started in over 10 years. My friend Aric and I decided to see what we could do and spent a full day kicking the thing. Over and over. Somehow the 250 started. We were riding in circles in the yard when Dad came home and hit the boat trailer because he was distracted by the scene.

That winter and the next Dad and I stripped the bike down and cleaned it up. We’re not experts but it looked pretty good. Aric and I futzed with the 175 but it needed more work to run. Eventually they signed the title over to him; I know he eventually got it running but I should really track him down and ask whether he still has it.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get the flywheel off to adjust the points. We took it to the dealer but they broke a flywheel puller in the attempt. We rode it a bit but it was lacking power and eventually it was just running rough as hell. It got parked again, though at least this time it was inside their hoarder garage instead of outside under the deck.

Eventually Dad decided he wanted to have fun with it again. Around 2012 he found a shop willing to caress the flywheel; the guy had it on a stand all winter and hit it with PB Blaster and a ball peen hammer every day until the flywheel worked off. Now it has a shiny new set pf points.

Unfortunately he’d also had a bad accident in Russia and his right ankle doesn’t really anymore. Riding was fun, but the fun bs pain calculation wasn’t great. It got parked again, but this time he’d take it out every once in a while for a trip around the neighborhood.

In 2016 he retired, and I’d bought a house with a garage. It was time to pass the bike along. We loaded it behind my FJ40 and hauled it to Juneau. It ran great but I’d never actually gotten my license. I wanted to do it right but by that time all the classes were done for the summer, so I parked it and waited for 2017. In spring of 2017 I took the course and now I’m fully legal. Unfortunately the bike also was way down on power.

The achilles heal of these engines are the crank seals, one on each side. When they die the engine will idle but starve for fuel and oil at higher RPM. Seeing as I didn’t want to *really* kill it, I set about trying to fix things. I ordered new seals and even got one side done. Unfortunately the other side requires removal of the entire ignition again, and I was not feeling confident in my mechanical abailities. Especially after I broke the brake handle and then broke the replacement when I tried installing that.



I ordered more parts but never got around to installing them. Then a bunch of other projects took over the shop, and in 2020 the Mazda prevented me from even moving the bike out to work on.

But that has changed! Right now I have open floor space, I have parts, I have some mechanical daring, and it is springtime! The bike should be out in the sun, not inside the garage! A couple weeks ago my wife spotted a motorcycle lift on FB Marketplace, which I bought, and that brings us to the bike in the middle of the shop floor as seen above.

Thankfully I also have the original factory manual to follow..



...which is full of useful information, like the fact that you’re supposed to tear down the engine every 2,000 miles. Thankfully the whole bike only has 3,300 miles, so I’ve got a while before I need to do it again. It also sounds like rebuilds can reuse a lot of parts:



I got that brake handle replaced, without breaking anything this time, and dove into the engine. This isn’t how the manual says you’re supposed to do it, but this is what worked for me:



I really need to pony up for a proper impact driver and socket set.

I got the flywheel off and the next bit is taking out the ignition. There are three screws holding it in place. Two came out and one wasn’t moving.



I hit it with some Aerokroil and left it for the night. I’d rather let that soak and not fight it - I don’t want to get angry and have it sit again for years. So that’s today’s update.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


IOwnCalculus posted:

That or the impact driver from HF where you smack it with a hammer while turning it. Stuck phillips screws are its specialty.

This thing? https://www.harborfreight.com/6-bit-impact-screwdriver-set-with-case-64812.html

I’m wary of buying hand tools from Harbor Freight that you hit with a hammer. I can’t just return them after they break in 3 days.

I shipped 2 pallets of HF and IKEA stuff up from Seattle a couple years ago. I’m 100% happy with the IKEA stuff, my hacked record console turned out great, but HF always leaves something to be desired. I managed to bend the 20 ton press pressing apples for cider.

Speaking of, any pint of apple cider that costs less than $20 is a goddamn bargain compared to how much effort it takes to press and brew apples. I’m glad we tried it so I’ll never have to wonder if I’m missing out but I’m never doing that again.

SpeedFreek posted:

Be careful with those old phillips screws on there, they are made out of cheese or something equally as soft.

I noticed, that’s why I left it for the night. There’s still a head left and I’d like to keep it that way.

Seat Safety Switch posted:

Are they really Phillips, or are they JIS screws? I'm about 90% sure I see a dot on that head.

Definitely JIS - I could really use a good recommendation for a good JIS screwdriver set. Almost everything mechanical that I own is Japanese.

Is that dot the JIS marker? TIL. Thanks!

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


LloydDobler posted:

I see points and want to run screaming. It's a bit of money but if you're keeping the bike, electronic ignition like this (or something like it) is the first thing I'd do.

I plan to do that, and a 12V conversion, once I get the kickstand welded back on (it broke years ago). I don’t want to accidentally short out a new ignition system.

My mouth with good hot sauce is brighter than a 6V headlight.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


HOT drat SOME GOOD NEWS

Waaay back when, before the tree grew through the bumper, I had custom plates for GIR.



But then I let the tags expire because it was sitting next to a cabin growing moss. One day a friend posted this on FB:



gently caress. I had let them go so long they lapsed and someone else reserved the plates.

For the last 8 years I have been checking with the DMV once a month about whether those plates were available again. I had nearly given up hope, which is one reason I got these plates for the FJ62:



Worst case scenario, I could transfer those plates. So not bad at all, really.

But then, in January, the DMV changed to a new plate system. It seemed to be full of glitches - I found several plates that I knew were taken, but it showed available. I decided to gamble the $30 fee and put in for a new set of GIR plates in the same style as 4WD above. It took the order.

Since then I’ve received no word. I finally went through the hassle of sitting on hold with the DMV and found out the status of my order.

THE PLATES ARE MINE AGAIN WOOHOO!

There’s a minor catch in that they won’t actually give them to me (they’re apparently sitting in the DMV headquarters in Anchorage) until I register and insure GIR again. Since we don’t have inspections and registration is cheap I’m just going to do that while it’s still in the shed. I wonder how much liability insurance for 0 miles per year will cost...

Oh, and yes, GIR will be painted green. Toyota Spring Green, specifically. The best FJ40 color:

Advent Horizon fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Apr 20, 2021

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Quick bike update:

I took the advice above and ordered an impact screwdriver; that arrived yesterday and freed the stuck screw in no time flat.



Got crank seal out and replaced; taking that thing out was a bitch but hammering a drywall screw in worked:



I started reassembly but only had 45 minutes total in the shop before my alarm went off. Busy busy busy.

I wish I’d had the bike working over the last week, we’ve had some awesome spring weather.



I also have to limit my shop time because I like to cook. Wednesday was my last ‘work from home’ day so I started a pork shoulder at 7:30am



Pulled off the heat at 5pm to rest in a hot cooler until 7pm, it pulled nicely.



…and now I’m back to the cube life, which isn’t so bad and leaves me a lot less stressed.



I should have more project time now that I’m not taking work calls at 7pm on Fridays. Thursday, my first day back, I had three work calls on my personal cell during the drive home. Sorry, not at the office anymore, can’t help you!

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Had another 45 minutes tonight to futz in the shop so I figured I’d work on the bike again.

I couldn’t find a torque spec anywhere for the flyweel retaining nut so I gave it one ugga-dugga and called that good. I probably put something together wrong anyway so it’s fairly likely I’ll need to take it back off to get the ignition adjusted.

Alright, time to pull the spark plug and try to figure out the dial gauge…



Goddammit. Yes, I grabbed the boot and not the wire.

The wire is integral with the coil so I can’t just hack something together. It also feels original and the plug wire is very brittle.

As I sat pondering what Brexit has done with the exchange rate and how much shipping would cost from literally halfway around the world for a £16.99 part I figured I’d dig around and see what other stuff I may as well order to make it worthwhile. Into the random parts bin.



Score! Thanks, dad! I know I didn’t order that.

Tank had to come off; honestly it’s probably easier to pull the tank to do the spark plug than leave it on. That impact screwdriver is really getting a workout.



I may order a couple more for my dad and FIL. Cheap, thoughtful, and useful presents. Thanks for that suggestion!

Are the spark plug boots fairly standard? Any suggestions on what I should ask a parts store (I have NAPA, O’Reilly, and Western Auto locally) for? I have that new coil but not a plug boot, and I don’t really want to try reusing the old one.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


sharkytm posted:

:Cries in flare nut:

Also, heatshrink tubing, connector backshells, and wiring grommets.

What’s the rule that says you only ever get a properly good flare if you forgot the nut?

Also I *always* guess a size small on heat shrink tubing and have to cut my connection to put on the next size up. Every. Freaking. Time.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


NAPA: “We discontinued plug caps because nobody makes their own plug wires anymore.”

O’Reilly: “We don’t carry anything individual like that, I have to look it up in the system by make and model; there’s no other way to filter it.” Also was told they don’t have any plug wires of any kind in stock, it’s all special order. WTF.

Western Auto: Nope.

So, great. Back to ordering. I found the replacement Yamaha part number - $40.99 plus $15 shipping for a single spark plug boot.

:suicide:

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


I’m not sure that’s any better, but thank you.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Let’s go on an FJ40 detour this morning.

Right about a year ago I decided to dive into getting GIR back on the road. Top priority was replacing the transfer case, but I wanted to start simpler than that rebuild.

During the time it was sitting I had the back piled up with my college crap and spare parts. One item was a spare transmission, so I figured I’d take a look at what condition that’s in, as it’s easier to swap the transfer case and transmission as an assembled unit.



Hm. That output shaft looks toast. Crap. Disappointing, and my own gently caress-up, but it’s not the end of the world. Moving on.

Except:


Lifting the transmission back off the bench I hosed up a tendon. Halfway down poo poo just started hurting. Went to Urgent Care and, 3 X-rays later, found out the bone wasn’t broken. That was a year ago and it’s still not right again :sigh:

I can do small parts, though! How about finishing the carburetor rebuild? In Fairbanks I had to re-smog the carb, but now I could put it back together without all that crap. So let’s work on that and get the engine running!



Hm.



New Chinese clones are $200 and have a good reputation. Somebody actually paid me for the pile of parts that used to be my carb; I sent them that picture and they still offered money :iiam:

Okay, so, new carb is in order. Let’s go drop some Marvel Mystery Oil into the cylinders before I install a new carburetor and turn it over.

Wonder what it would look like if I dropped my endoscope in there?



Oh no.



Nooooooooooo

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Elmnt80 posted:

Uh... gently caress lol. I think thats the bulk part number. Drop the B off and it gets a tad more affordable.

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/blue-streak-wire/standard-ignition-blue-streak-wire-fmnx-spark-plug-boot/std6/10086?q=10086&pos=0

Ordered. Thank you! Came to $9.65 after shipping and taxes. It’s supposed to arrive on Wednesday; for only $41 more I could have it by Monday.

I tried shopping around a little but Amazon is worthless:

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Now I have one not-going-to-run FJ40 and one FJ62 I bought for the axles that does run. Hm. Ideas are starting to form. A 3FE FJ40 wouldn’t be too bad at all.

So, let’s work with that idea for now. As of this writing that idea is still the plan, though the timeline is a bit open. I had planned on getting GIR running during the summers and doing one bit of resto-modding at a time over the winter. That seems less likely now; it may be easier to tear the whole thing down and do a frame-off.

But in the mean time, I have this neglected FJ62 that seems to run pretty well. I decided to sink some effort into it that snowballed a little; basically the only money to be spent on *this* FJ62 is for stuff that will transfer over to GIR or another FJ62 to be purchased at a later date. That’s still a good bit of work, though.

First up, it needed the proper coil. Original on the left, new Toyota in the middle, temporary FJ40 coil on the right:



The new coil is super heavy; I had no idea liquid-cooled coils were a thing. The old one must have been dried out.

Oil filter:



New Toyota on the left, old on the right. Supposedly that little filter has more filtration surface area than the big old ones.

Air filter - it had a K&N that was giving off ‘hotdog down a hallway’ vibes:



Bought a new Toyota filter - you vs the guy she told you not to worry about :



The Toyota filter has over 3x the filtration area of the K&N (which I did check and was the ‘proper’ K&N for this application). K&N sucks.

Was about to give it a test fire when I decided to check the vacuum lines.



That looks…not good.



Shouldn’t there be something connected there?

While I was staring at that this little guy came around and spooked me:



:byobear:

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


sharkytm posted:

That's some poo poo luck. Is that massive rust on the walls, or concrete? :lol:
Gonna need a spool of 3mm or whatever vacuum line, I chased that poo poo for years on my old VWs. Go scorched earth and replace every. single. line.

I had over 4,000 college student dollars into that engine. I honestly can’t be mad at this point since it’s a sunk cost, but I do plan to pull it apart to see if I can tell what happened. My best guess is some -40* Fairbanks bullshit froze something important. All the other cylinders looked great, only #1 is trashed. But one is enough to junk the whole engine.

I may try to salvage the camshaft, though. It should work in the 3FE and was pretty hot. But I’m also really tempted to just leave that engine as-is and not gently caress it up.

As far as vacuum hoses are concerned, I used all genuine Toyota:



That part number is $2/each and they are the good stuff. I bought a bunch of them.

I’d post more tonight but this internet outage thing is really putting a damper on stuff. Something to do with an undersea fiber line but they haven’t been any more forthcoming than that yet.

Other than that, the good news is that post above pretty much covers the worst of it, at least as far as GIR is concerned. Which, now that I’m writing this, I realize will not be the most expensive engine failure in this thread by a factor of 3x. We may pull the tarp off that other poo poo show this weekend.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


ADHD ITT

Waaaay back in the day trouser chili did a thread titled ‘ITT I am making a science!’ that was the first I’d ever heard of using electrolysis to remove rust and it seemed like rocket surgery at the time.

I’ve since done a lot more digging into it since I really don’t want to have to sandblast every freaking part of GIR. For starters, I don’t have an air compressor or blasting cabinet. In an effort to avoid buying more large and expensive tools that my CFO will have to sign off on, I decided to set up an e-tank as an experiment/small parts cleaner. If successful it would be a great prototype for something bigger.

The basic premise is simple - basically you run a low voltage DC current through the item you want to de-rust, an electrolyte solution (current-carrying liquid), and an anode. The process magically converts the rust back into iron and moves said rust over to the anode. The science is pretty technical but the application is actually stupid easy.

Some caveats: Don’t let copper touch the electrolyte solution or you’ll end up copper plating stuff. DO NOT USE STAINLESS FOR ANODES - lots of people use stainless because it requires less cleaning than regular steel, but the byproduct of that is Chromium 6. Unless you want Erin Brockovich knocking on your door, and/or a lot of cancer (not just a little cancer, Stan), just use regular steel and clean it.

Okay, so, here’s what I came up with:



Ye olde orange bucket and some rebar. The rebar is held in place by loose zip ties; I can slide it in and out for cleaning or clearance. I used cheap metal clamps that I drilled holes in and ran a chunk of copper wire (torn from my wall like a proper tweaker) around to make that half of the circuit. I put a chunk of leftover ABS pipe up above with a bolt through to hang stuff, wrapped some wire around that, and it comes out far enough away from the positive wire that I don’t have to worry about short circuits.

I wrap bailing wire around the bolt and hang my rusty junk off that to clean:



Mix up a solution of washing soda (available from Amazon because not a single store around me carries it) and water for your electrolyte.

For power you want a non-automatic battery charger, or a fancy DC power supply if you’re some kind of rich person. This thing was $20, has automatic or manual operation, and includes a super annoying disco LED to show it’s working:



When all that’s together you set the tank outside (it gives off hydrogen gas while it’s working - not toxic but bad in enclosed spaces if you don’t like re-enacting the Hindenburg disaster) and let it do it’s thing:



I found that it worked down to around 20*F, but much lower and it would build ice.

After a few days, here’s what my frying pan looked like:



After scrubbing with steel wool it came out :discourse:

Alright, so, I’ve also heard it will eventually strip off paint too. That’s awesome because I’m lazy and most of the stuff I want to de-rust is at least partially painted. Let’s test it out on this tail light guard:



If this works I’m just building a tank big enough to drown an entire Toyota.

After three weeks in the tank it looks like this:



Crap.

Looks like I’ll still need a blaster, but this should work for cast iron stuff and fasteners. Glad I didn’t dive right in to the 55 gallon tank I was contemplating.

The rebar also looks like hammered poo poo when you’re done:



You have to clean it every once in a while to keep things working properly.

Bonus pic of Doctor Teeth, who *hates* being stuck out in the shop with me:

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Yesterday was community clean-up day; we picked a highway pullout because fuckheads are known to take advantage of those. Sure enough, this was our haul:



Four car tires, two trailer tires, one bike tire, one catalytic converter (!), and one steel-framed couch. People loving suck. Hauling all that poo poo up the embankment suuuuucked.

After we wore ourselves out with that we decided to make our first dump run of the year. I have never once seen a fullsize truck at the dump with as much as I can fit into a small pickup, and they get billed double what I do.



Carefully stacked full, top-to-bottom and front-to-back.

The truck has an idle issue I need to figure out; it occasionally starts ramping up the idle to 2000 or 2500 rpm. It has a new O2 sensor so my thought is maybe IAC? It’s intermittent so I don’t think it’s a vacuum leak (famous last words).

I dropped the endoscope into the motorcycle cylinder for giggles and was pleasantly surprised:



Cylinder walls are clean and it looks like the piston has a fairly even layer of carbon buildup. Much better than it could be, especially given that it’s lived outside in Alaska for most of the last 45 years.

Unfortunately I have to pause the motorcycle work for now. Summer is here and I need to get a bunch of fishing reels rebuilt ASAP. I do want to brag, though, because today I scored all these reels for $30 thanks to my wife:



Also there’s now a Lexus in the way.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Those reels are *mostly* Penn Long Beach and Delmar reels. Nothing particularly special; they were the low end models and get broken fairly easily wit Alaska fishing. They’re good reels for slower (non-salmon) fish that weigh under 50 pounds.

One is a 3/0 senator. I will be finding a use for that. Possibly a salmon reel if it’s the high-speed variant, otherwise a solid bass jigging reel.

One is an Ocean City 523. They’re great looking reels but parts availability is a problem. I may try to fix it up for display or use some parts to fix a co-worker’s grandfather’s reel that’s been in my ‘to do’ bin for two years looking for a parts donor.

Three are Penn 350M reels and use a kind of levelwind I’ve never seen before. They’re neat. If they can be fixed I plan to set them up as identical (with different color handles) rod/reel setups and give to my sister’s three kids so they each have ‘their own’ reel. Not halibut grade but they can handle most stuff the kids have any chance of landing themselves.

I’ll get more reel pictures after work. I’ll probably be spending the next few days tearing some down and putting together a parts order. Most of these will be parts reels; the Long Beach and Delmar reels may be the budget reels but the guts are often shared with the more expensive reels. At the very least I just scored $30 worth of screws (reels often come to me with a lot of broken/missing screws). I also have a bin of just handles because it’s nice to customize reels a little.

Mustache Ride posted:

This one has a lot of miles but looks pretty solid. Expensive though. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2882725135282201/

Also, Austin to Juneau is 63 hours, lol

Texas doesn’t bother me. Nor do the miles or price. That’s a pretty good looking truck from 10 feet and I’m curious why it’s been listed for 19 weeks.

The $6,000 worth of engine work combined with an inop oil pressure gauge concerns me. The seller also mentions some things that show they don’t know what they’re talking about (“AISIN differential locks”).

I’m kind of looking for that ‘the right seller’ vehicle. Hard to describe but you know it when you see it.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


I’ve used Senators for halibut all my life. All the way up to >400lbs. Never had an issue with them aside from some stripping the main gear handle key due to using bike handles for cranks. My personal halibut rod is a 114H, bone stock. I’ve been debating putting a narrow spool on it since braided line takes up so little space.

Lots of people also use 309s for halibut but they don’t last. I have one on the bench that I got from my dad; it’s had the side plates replaced a few times. I keep a couple as ‘loaner’ reels because they work well for occasional use as long as you go through them every couple trips.

The Long Beach reels are just not up to it. I’ve seen a lot of those split out after just a couple small halibut.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Alright, reel hot girl poo poo.

Got a late start tonight. Took the running boards off the Lexus and then only had time for one reel.

But first, beauties:



Co-worker’s grandfather’s reel is on the right. It’s missing the levelwind parts and I’m trying to get it back 100%. I picked up the reel on the left yesterday but it’s a slightly narrower spool so those parts won’t work.

Here’s the common ‘low end’ Penn failure, side plate cracks:



Note the total lack of a drag system - this would be a great ice fishing reel. It’s also surprisingly heavy. I’ll probably grab a new plate and finally get set up for ice fishing like I’ve been talking about for years.

On to the reel for my niece, whose birthday is next week. First, make sure you have a clean and organized work space:



Not shown: tons of WD-40. It’s magic juice for reel work. Right after that picture I promptly made a mess of everything with WD-40.

I hate stripping line off reels. I have a jig for when I’m saving the line but throwing it away is a PITA, especially after it’s welded itself together with sun and salt.



Tearing everything down, this is the main gear:



I’ve never seen that mode of failure before. Looks like the narrow spot (there’s normally a machined groove there) cracked through and a chunk is missing. Looks like I’ll have to order parts because of course this isn’t shared with any of my parts reels. I’ll put it back together, though, as it works without a load and I’ll order new drag washers to match - the existing ones appear to be 40+ years old.

Installation is reverse of removal :v:



About an hour of scrubbing and assembly later, we have a beautiful and fully functional busted-rear end reel:

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Took another dump run today and used the chainsaw to cut up the big chunks. Touched asphalt with it so the chain went dull instantly. I’d almost rather buy new chains than sharpen them, but I’m trying to be a crafty consumer.



I may as well do a garage post here rather than poo poo up the other thread. We have the house single-car, where the Leaf lives, but also a detached garage with MIL apartment. The building is officially 20x32 but the walls are a foot thick so it’s almost exactly 18x30 inside - still more than adequate for an idiot like me to break expensive things while warm and dry.

I’ve got it laid out with the ‘bay’ closest to the door and a ‘workshop’ space closer to the back. This gives a fairly good idea of the layout:



The couch came from the apartment; it was ‘semi-furnished’ when we bought the house but now we just rent ‘unfurnished’. I’m writing this from the couch, it’s super nice to have a good seating area. That’s also the only piece of furniture Doc is allowed on and it weirds him out. We’re dog sitting this weekend and I have him out here with me; this is the first time I have EVER seen him fall asleep in the shop.



Guess he needed a break from the other dog!

From the bay area, here’s the workshop:



That super handy power outlet/shin smasher is about 18’ from the overhead door.

The cabinets above the TV have nuts-and-bolts type stuff. I have a few old consoles hooked to the TV (as well as a Roku); sometimes you need a game of Duck Hunt! The cabinet by the water heater has a dart board as well. All those cabinets were made from stuff we tore out of the kitchen.

The table is just a couple sawhorses and a 4x6 sheet of 1” subfloor. It came with the house and I’ve thought about replacing it many times but it’s sturdy and handy to have a table you just do not care about. I also cannot emphasize how awesome it is having such a large flat workspace with rules about not accumulating crap. Only current work is allowed there.

On the couch side, this is the overall layout:



Mostly basic storage but the bike also lives under the shelving. The racks are set up with an 18’ continuous shelf for lumber storage; anything kept outside here rots quickly. The rack closest to the couch is all dedicated Land Cruiser stuff; I’ve been organizing what I have and one of those shelves is entirely ‘get rid of it’ parts - anyone need a Fairey Overdrive?

The other side is more of a ‘working’ side:



Red rack is all chemicals/chemical related. I keep all the non-Land Cruiser vehicle stuff on this side. There’s also a snack station and fridge on the end; those are important sometimes when you suddenly get hangry (or sober) in the middle of a project. Above the sink is my safety/PPE cabinet.

This winter I need to tear out the ceiling and rewire for new lights (currently on top of the ‘cruiser rack). I’m not looking forward to hanging new drywall.

Our next project after the Lexus is streetworthy again is to build a garbage can shed; the foundation platform is already in place along the driveway. A lot of the stored lumber is for that project.

With the garbage cans out I’ll have room for an air compressor and *hopefully* a blasting cabinet. I have no idea what to shop for with either, though. Along similar lines I need a drill press - what should I look for?

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Basically just inflating tires, blowing out filters/screens, painting, drywall texture (why would the walls be straight? That would make too much sense!), and the blasting cabinet. I think most 15 gallon compressors can do what I need while remaining portable.

Who makes DeWalt compressors? I’ve heard Ingersoll makes some of the Huskys.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Captain McAllister posted:

The blasting cabinet and painting will be your two biggest draws, then. If you were thinking of doing anything on the classic Toyota (grinding/paint stripping/sanding) you'd want something that would run more air hungry tools.

Last summer I cleaned and repainted the winch bumper on my Tacoma. I have a 60 gallon Porter Cable and felt I was waiting more than I was working.

The sticker on the side recommends against automotive spray guns or sandblasters.

Well, crap. I can do 240V, all the outlets are a matched set of 120/240, but I need a more compact unit if possible. I’ve got a mostly-full suite of electric tools already, though, AFAIK I’m only planning to use air for spraying purposes (paint/spackle/sand).

monsterzero posted:

I've got a couple of shelves like the black ones and want at least one more set, but I've been hesitant because 'where will I park the jacks and shop vac...' I don't know why just omitting the bottom shelf didn't occur to me but I think I might go that route

The lowest I have any of the shelves is at least 14” clearance. Makes it easier to store heavy/bulky stuff as well as sweep underneath. Also remember that the racks will connect together; the 3-bay rack setup is only two kits. However, they do not interchange within brands - I have both Whelen and Husky and they don’t fit together despite being almost identical.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


I’m a little disappointed nobody has said a thing about the Lexus I’ve been mentioning and casually including in pictures. Just sayin’.

To start, it’s not mine. The guy who just bought it lives on the side of a mountain downtown. You read that correctly. No driveway, no garage, just stairs to his house (I don’t think he’s protected :( ). He’s been driving an ‘89 FJ62 for decades and is moving along to something less rusty. He also connected me with his BIL and a certain ‘dead’ FJ62 last year.

Anyways, it’s SPOTLESS underneath. SoCal levels of clean, which is unheard of here. It’s a 1997 LX450 with 200,000 miles and he got it for a song - the body is dinged up quite a bit and it needs new front seats after a bear pried out the sunroof to get in. But no rust and it runs well.

First things first, it had to go up on jack stands. Shout-out to my new Torin Big Red 6 ton stands with locking pin. I’ve seen some reviews of the smaller stands that weren’t great but these seem to have solid welds and full engagement of both the pawl and pin. I’ve got a full set of four.



Today’s big project was tearing into the cooling system. The radiator cap was dead and the hoses were collapsing every time it was shut off. New hoses are going on tomorrow; today was removal/drain/‘clean up the gigantic floor mess cutting old hoses make’ day.



That nasty poo poo is concerning. I cleaned a lot of poo poo off that. It was concerning enough that I fed the endoscope in as far as it would go, but everything in both the engine and radiator looked clean. My guess is that it was sucking air because of the dead radiator cap.

Also went at the O2 sensors today. Upstream was easy:



Downstream was not:



Just taking that picture was a PITA and we can’t figure out how to get the nuts off. They’re now cheese and a box wrench stripped them immediately. Ideas? The heat shield makes getting vice grips in there problematic.

Lastly we started planning for a power steering pump replacement:



Down and to the left of the oil filter, you can see the back of the pump is weeping. It sounds BAD when running. A new (not rebuilt) Toyota pump is on order; the hoses are also weeping so he’ll be ordering those.

To sum, this is not my project so is a convenient thread title loophole :v:

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Elmnt80 posted:

Tbh, I didn't say anything because I was immediately on craigslist/ FB marketplace seeing how badly I was priced out of one. :v:

He paid less than the people down the street have an unrestored Super Beetle listed for. Cheap enough that I’m tempted to buy one for giggles. I know someone here who DDs a non-rusty but dented FZJ80 they bought for $800 cash.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:

This thread is a roller coaster of amazing, it's this weeks' Community Showcase

Well, poo poo. Now I need to get on about posting the seized boat engine all the work I’ve been doing on the FJ62.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


4x6” incandescent headlights are bad. I think there may have been a few lightning bugs in there trying their best, but it wasn’t enough to see the road with. Since we’re looking for a nicer FJ62 I decided to upgrade the lights with ones that could carry over.

And, since I’m a consumer whore (and how!), I bought headlights that cost twice as much as the entire vehicle.



JW Speaker 8800s, a full set of four.

But they don’t just drop in. Ooh, no. That would be too easy! No, Toyota wants to keep everyone on their toes so the headlight harness is switched ground. Switched ground, as you may recall, is one of the things that makes British cars so reliable.

With incandescent headlights switched ground or switched hot doesn’t really matter because the filament works either way. That is not the case with LEDs. In the case of high beams the fix is fairly simple- you can just plug them in with the plug upside down, or swap the harness wires if you’re motivated. Low beams are a lot more complicated because they have to stay on with low & high, plus the dash light makes things complicated.

All told, this is what I put together:



The passenger low beam basically needs the hot/ground swapped plus a chassis ground added. The driver’s side also needed a relay and resistor added so that the high beam indicator would work. I’m impatient so I used the only two resistors I could find in town rather than one larger resistor.

Face shot:



I was worried about the appearance but it’s not noticeable unless you’re looking. I think I’m happy enough with appearances that I’ll buy the 7” round for GIR, though I’ll probably buy the non-heated lights since GIR won’t be a winter vehicle often.

But appearances don’t matter nearly as much as light.



Low beams only. I have never once had anyone flash their high beams at me. The cutoff works great. I adjusted the high beams a bit higher than normal to get some distance; I can really give the people who leave their highs on an eyeful.

Because the full set of 4, with heaters running, uses only 80W total, that means a full relay setup is not needed. It also means they don’t tax the electrical system. I 100% recommend a good LED upgrade for everyone.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Well, looks like I have another priority project. Just got back from Costco and had the Leaf up on their lift. The lower ball joints and tie rod ends are shot.

I can’t complain, they’ve lasted over 100,000 miles. Where’s the best place to order Nissan parts online?

I looked at CourtesyParts - they only sell the whole LCA. That seems excessive. Ball joints shouldn’t be a $1,000 DIY job!

Edit: I should mention my preference is OEM but I’m willing to compromise. We don’t have a dealer so I’m ordering either way.

Advent Horizon fucked around with this message at 02:55 on May 14, 2021

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Two tie rod ends, two struts, two LCAs w/ball joints from:

NissanPartsDeal:




Courtesy Parts:




A round trip ticket to Seattle, with two checked bags, is about $110. Goon meet, anyone?

Edit: I should mention I’m not doing this to shame the suggestion. I’ve use the same company, as ToyotaPartsDeal, many times. I was just posting this to show that I’m effed no matter where I order from.

Advent Horizon fucked around with this message at 07:06 on May 14, 2021

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


The LX450 owner has been coming by every day for a couple hours to putter; he’s retired so not in a hurry. He asked if I could take a look at the spark plugs when I got home, #1 was stuck and he just couldn’t figure out how to access #6.

PB Blaster down #1 worked, the plug was wet all the way to the electrodes:



#6 took some work but I got it:




That plug is way down there! I know modern engines are often like that but I’m used to old junk.

I sat down to do my Nissan order when there came a knock at the door. A neighbor had just come home with his new boat…



At least he owned it. He’s buying a new post and boxes; we’ll dig a new hole this weekend. We were thinking about moving it anyway, so having somebody else buy the materials isn’t something I’m going to complain about.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for - did I spring for expedited shipping or stick with standard?



Expedited - The entire order came to $1,299.68 including a few other items I need.

Oh, and thanks again to everyone for that impact driver suggestion on the motorcycle. I ordered a few more and stocked up so I have easy birthday/gift exchange items.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


What city? This state varies A LOT from location to location.

I’ve got two more high-content posts to catch up (boat and FJ62), then I should be getting more into working on current stuff. I just tripped the fraud marker on my credit card from buying over $2k in parts and tools to do the Leaf suspension/brake refresh.

In the mean time, I’m blowing this weekend on that god drat mailbox. The USPS is holding my 6-year-old niece’s birthday present hostage (their word) until I have a postal inspector come out and verify that the box meets their very specific and not applicable guidelines. They won’t even let me pick up the mail in person.

Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


Good news!



New mailbox is up! I got a call back from USPS saying no one should have used the word ‘hostage’ and my mail will be delivered today. I’ve got about 200 pounds of packages en route so that should be entertaining. Rock and bucket are a counterweight because the concrete was taking way longer to set than expected.

Because I am a glutton for punishment, this afternoon I’m going to take a look at a 1982 Mercedes 300D with 300,000 miles that ‘runs then dies’, ‘has low compression’, and ‘spits oil from the valve cover gasket’.

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Advent Horizon
Jan 17, 2003

I’m back, and for that I am sorry


The Merc owner said another guy was going to look at it; I had a hunch and messaged a friend so we could carpool. I guessed correctly :v:

The owner is going through a divorce and needs it gone. I got the impression he’s having a rough go of thing since he managed to down three beers while we were standing there and already seemed to be slurring a bit when I pulled up at 6pm.

I’m apologizing right now for lack of decent vehicle photos, I totally forgot and was focused on the details.

Anyways, there’s a big rust hole in the driver’s front fender:


That had me concerned; we looked around the car the the trunk was full of water:



I mean, at least it’s not rusted through, right?

Looked like the trunk water was coming from the fuel door area:



But overall its in remarkably good shape. Those two plus a spot on the passenger front door were really the only rust on the whole car. The underside is, honestly, incredible:



(Side note, that Dodge Ram in the background is *immaculate* and looks better than showroom-new)

As far as the mechanicals go, he said he’s only driven it a half mile in the three months he’s owned it (his soon-to-be-ex wife hated it and that may have had something to do with the split). It worked great and then stalled; he had bought it in non-running condition and had to bleed the injectors to get it going. Sounds like a fuel line is bad and/or the tank screen is plugged.

It supposedly has low compression but he has no idea when the valves were last adjusted. Apparently he did the oil cap blow-by test and it passed that, so I suspect a lack of maintenance is the problem. Well, that and whatever the gently caress is going on here:



This is not a car that needs a racing hot air intake. It also left nowhere for the PCV to go so that just spits oil into a rag hanging off the valve cover.

At this point I’m pretty interested, and he even tosses out “I’d let it go for $200, I just need it gone because I need the parking space and my truck broke down”. Awesome for me!

“Oh, and it doesn’t have a title but I’ll do a bill of sale.”

:sigh:

Getting a title from a bill of sale is *possible* but expensive and time consuming. All-in the process takes three years and I’d have to pay 1.5 times the appraised value into a surety bond. Even the scrapyard won’t take a vehicle without a title. https://doa.alaska.gov/dmv/titles/surety.htm

So it looks like my wife isn’t getting her ‘you can if you want to’ bluff called quite yet.

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