Wrenchin... Adventures under the hood... Put em here.

[tripice351]

How about the battery cables? Have the terminal ends been replaced with universals? Those are notorious for causing starting issues. You need a really solid connection at the battery.

Any history of battery corrosion? Try flexing both positive and negative cables, if either have stiff spots near the battery terminals, there could be corrosion inside. Did you voltage drop test them?

[fatnslow]

Does this thing have a main relay ? Sometimes those have " hot/warm" start issued when the solenoid doesn't want to engage well when they are hot or corrosion on the contacts.

[powdrhound]

Cables have been replaced.
I haven't gotten more than 0.1v drop on any connection or wire. I don't understand why the fried connector remained hidden for so long. I may still not know what I'm doing.

Of course, doing a voltage drop test while it is in the failure mode is usually impossible. By myself, on a hot day with the dogs in back, away from home.
If I take it out for a hard drive trying to duplicate the conditions, it refuses to fail when I get home. If we are on our way home and stop for groceries, it fails!
Currently starting fine nearly every time.

[John_B]

Nothing exciting here but am wrestling with pulling and replacing my rear brakes on a 99 Subaru. I'm not quite sure if these are original or not but good god these things are stuck on there. One down one to go.

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[tripice351]

Of course, doing a voltage drop test while it is in the failure mode is usually impossible..

Such is the joy of diagnosing an intermittent fault.

Loose or spread terminal pins, and wire strands broken inside insulation at harness bends/folds can cause this type of concern.

[jamal]

Nothing exciting here but am wrestling with pulling and replacing my rear brakes on a 99 Subaru. I'm not quite sure if these are original or not but good god these things are stuck on there. One down one to go.

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Make sure the parking brake shoes aren't caught on the drums. You can dial the adjuster back through a hole on the other side of the backing plate, it's got a rubber plug in it and you turn the dial with a screwdriver.

[ill-advised strategy]

Such is the joy of diagnosing an intermittent fault.

Loose or spread terminal pins, and wire strands broken inside insulation at harness bends/folds can cause this type of concern.

Seems like the only thing you can really do is probe around with the multimeter a ton, or just bypass the stock wiring harness and run your own stuff from scratch right from the battery...depending on how new and computerized this rig is....and I guess depending on whether or not your starting problem is just a problem of engaging the starter motor or if all the rest of the electrics are also involved.

[MESH]

I had to search to see what that creates. Sounds cool. Are you able to keep the longer rods from the 4.0L?

There's pistons available to go either direction. Last time I went with 4.2 rods and this time I'm going with 4.0 rods from scat and icon pistons. It bored .060 over so it comes out to around 4.7L when I'm done.

Cleaned some parts for coating.

[warthog]

I have what I like to call "the special touch." Every project I undertake tends to require twice the time it's supposed to, big or small. While I'm not an accomplished mechanic, I've pretty much done everything short of a motor rebuild at this point and it just doesn't get any slower than me.

A few weeks ago, I added a piggy-back chip to my 1997 7.3L pickup. A seemingly easy project, all one has to do is pull the PCM, sand the terminals, slide the chip on to the board, reinstall PCM, then install the control knob. Internet promised a 30 minute job. Took me an hour and half--the PCM wouldn't come out to save my life and I was loathe to force it. Threading the wire to the knob proved to be Hellen Keller in dildo factory, and then I couldn't decide where to actually drill/place the controls.

Moving on, I bought a very simple headlight relay-kit for the same truck since the headlights didn't do fuck-all. Doesn't get much easier than this: Remove headlight connections, replace with pre-wired loom/harness/relay kit, connect grounds, connect to battery, connect to headlight wiring using the prewired connector. Even the dumb-dicks on Amazon said it took them less than 10 minutes. Took me 45--bit broke while drilling a ground, couldn't find a suitable ground screw, had to remove a battery to get to route the wires, battery terminal bolt was corroded. Amazing.

Going to be doing some "bigger" projects on the Ford shortly--front leaf springs and all four shocks. While I've done these several times before, I'm planning on the better part of a day. FML.

Holy shit, my life today. I spun a hub on one of the Merc 250's on the boat yesterday. Not sure if I hit something, or if it just gave up. I was doing 50 at the time it went, so it could have just crapped out under all that load.

Went down today to remove the prop and change out the Flo Torque hub. It has been a while, and I am not that familiar with these props that don't use a cotter pin. I struggled with that bitch for an hour, and finally gave up. Came home to watch youtube video, and realized there is a metal pice with flip down tabs that you have to flip the tabs up on to remove the nut. FML indeed. Should have been a 1/2 hour job max.

I did get some sun though, so that was nice. 90 f'n degrees today.

[The Reverend Floater]

Managed to turn a tire rotation into a two evening project.

Toyota thought their land cruiser needed locking lug nuts---locking nuts that require a key that likes to strip. Had to find four Toyota lug nuts in town today to replace the locking nuts, then sacrifice a socket to get the locking nuts off. Thank God this happened in my shop and not on the side of the trail or road.

[east or bust]

^^don't know if I posted it here but I had a similar experience last time I tried to do a rotation. Except it was because the shop torqued the lugs to god knows what. Couldn't get one of them off… soaked it for hours, torched it, and finally stripped it using a 4' breaker. Then I broke one of those special stripped head remover sockets that was $20. Went out and bought a $4 version of the same socket and got it.

[tripice351]

Managed to turn a tire rotation into a two evening project.

Thank God this happened in my shop and not on the side of the trail or road.

Side of a trail seems like an odd place to do a tire rotation...

*drum crash*

[Obstruction]

After 185 k miles it seemed like it was time for some new rear shocks on the 330i.

[basinbeater]

Pic of said bimmer... Bimmers and new shocks = 😁

[Obstruction]

Here's a shot of the 330 waiting for a long delayed washing. The new rear shocks make a big difference, should have done them 50k miles (ok maybe 75k miles) ago. Fronts are still OK. Considering it involves the underside of the car it's one of the easiest jobs I've done on this car. Exposing the top of the shock tower in the trunk (and tidying it back up after) took longer than the actual wrenching time.f

[ill-advised strategy]

bad news: 5 month old Champion aluminum radiator already leaking.

good news: warranty was shockingly easy, "we have your info, we'll get one shipped today."

The cynic in me wonders if they've just been getting a bunch of them back from a bad run or something....or maybe they just do business that way. Either way they definitely stand behind their product...

[basinbeater]

I really like those e46 cars. Great chassis, smooth engines, pretty easy to work on, except for the starter... Ugh.

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[Obstruction]

I really like those e46 cars. Great chassis, smooth engines, pretty easy to work on, except for the starter... Ugh.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using TGR Forums mobile app

Yeah I think BMW got an awful lot right with these cars. I'm on my second after owning a e36 first. Been about 20 years all together. Haven't had to screw with the starter yet and from what I've heard I'd rather not. My worst with it yet is the ccv. Nothing like wrenching by Braille.

[4matic]

HELP!!!

Engine ECU/ICM has cracked solder?

[east or bust]

replaced an O2 sensor tonight at the workplace. luckily it was in one of the more accessible areas - bank 1 sensor 1 on my blazer. first tried to remove it on flat pavement, was stuck in there good and didn't have any PB. was ready to call it quits and thought I could possibly get a bit more leverage if I pulled it up on the curb... had to double up some combo wrenches but got it. seems to run way better but might be a placebo.





disconnecting the battery didn't clear the code though..

[fatnslow]

[QUOTE=east or bust;5109263]replaced an O2 sensor tonight at the workplace. luckily it was in one of the more accessible areas - bank 1 sensor 1 on my blazer. first tried to remove it on flat pavement, was stuck in there good and didn't have any PB. was ready to call it quits and thought I could possibly get a bit more leverage if I pulled it up on the curb... had to double up some combo wrenches but got it. seems to run way better but might be a placebo.





disconnecting the battery didn't clear the code though..[/QUO
Why don't you go to a parts store and clear it with a obd 2 scanner ? Most places let you use one for free.

[powdrhound]

had to double up some combo wrenches but got it.

A Oxygen Sensor Socket makes it easy...

[ill-advised strategy]

A Oxygen Sensor Socket makes it easy...

+ a gigantic breaker bar. lol.

[Skidog]

Hardly wrenching but I wanted to chime in and say it's a giant pain in the ass just to change the low beam headlight bulb on the passenger side of a 2008 Saab 9-5. Had to take the air filter hose off completely and could still barely get in there. The driver's side looks like 10000 times worse with more parts removal. They really made those fuckers hard to get to.

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[zartagen]

Well, I put a crack in my exhaust somewhere while doing some probably ill-advised desert driving in my protege. Totally worth it for the climbing, though. It's got a nice throaty roar now .