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

[El Chupacabra]

Trying to finish changing the glow plugs on my 06 Sierra 3500. Changed 6 a while ago and working on #2&#4 today. #2 is behind a hose (which if anyone can tell me what it is, much appreciated). Got that one out and back in but couldn't get a torque wrench on it so went with what I could. #4 is behind the steering column and worries if I break the harness nut off I won't be able to get the plug out with only a 12mm box end (can't get a deep socket on cause of the steering column). So, contemplating how to proceed (can't close the garage with the truck inside so thinking attempting the last plug outside is best so at least the garage can be closed if thing go sideways).

Changed the oil and tires to winter (having the tires off spurred on the glow plug change) on mine and the gf's vehicles.

Would a crow's foot socket attachment work? (Google to see what it looks like). Sometimes those let you get access to hard to reach bolts.

[shafty85]

I'll look into that, thanks


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[Eldo]

This thread makes my knuckles hurt.

Finally replaced the transmission on my Celica back in August. Figured the noise that had been getting worse for a long time was probably various tranny bearings going, but kept hoping it was something else. Had in parked for a year just delaying the inevitable.

Trailered the car to my brother's place in AB and figured I could buy a Celica 5-speed at PickNPull for the usual $140 but there were none to be found. Nor at any fancy wreckers where they take the parts off for you and shelf them. So I ended up buying a beater Celica with a smoking engine but good transmission for cheap. I'll sell it for parts or as a project car later and recoup most of the cost.

Having done the clutch in my Celica a few years ago I knew just pulling the tranny was about a six-hour job for a hack like me, so now I had to pull the good one, pull the bad one, then install the good one. And not mess up any of the 1,268 electrical and vacuum connections. FML.

This was my very high-tech troubleshooting system for the test drive that determined, yes (fuck), the transmission is destined for the great junk yard in the sky. Or at least the hatch area of the donor car.



Donor Celica. Guy sold it cheap because his fiancé wanted it out of their garage NOW. But he did get to keep his sweet motorbike, and maybe one of his balls.





One transmission out.



Second one also done.



Glad to have my brother's shop to work in. And him to help me wrestle the trannys in and out of position. And to weld things when I broke then with my delicate mechanic's touch.



He would never need to do this to keep tracks of bolts. But I have trouble remembering where I parked at the mall so this technique is crucial to avoid catastrophic failures later on.



Swapped some new pieces out of the donor Celica, including an aftermarket stereo with nav and these sweet slotted, drilled rotors. Total overkill for a little car that weighs only 2,400 lbs. Snot now flies out your nose when you stomp on the brake pedal.



I spread the job into three six-hour days to avoid tiredness resulting in mental errors/unsafe actions/potential death.



Worst part is always cleaning up.



Celica runs great again. Next need to do a bit of bodywork where my old Dad backed his car into mine.





I've now pulled the tranny on a Celica so many times I could probably do it in the dark.

I also learned that when using google to find installation tips always type out "transmission" in full and not "tranny." My eyes are still burning.

[Norseman]

Lol on the last bit

[Art Shirk]

http://bfy.tw/ETqq

[Mazderati]

Trying to finish changing the glow plugs on my 06 Sierra 3500. Changed 6 a while ago and working on #2 today. #2 is behind a hose (which if anyone can tell me what it is, much appreciated). Got that one out and back in but couldn't get a torque wrench on it so went with what I could. #4 is behind the steering column and worries if I break the harness nut off I won't be able to get the plug out with only a 12mm box end (can't get a deep socket on cause of the steering column). So, contemplating how to proceed (can't close the garage with the truck inside so thinking attempting the last plug outside is best so at least the garage can be closed if thing go sideways).

The steering shaft should separate and allow access. Pics are dead in this guide but you can probably find some others with a little searching. You may already know this, but replacing glow plugs while the engine is warm is supposed to help with removal.

The pipe in question is an intercooler pipe.

[happytimefunbox]

Bought a 99 Mercedes e320 4matic wagon for a grand. Really good shape for 200k on the clock but needs some work. Vibrates like one of those beds in a Poconos motel at idle...





Did trans filter, electronics connector that is prone to leakage and fluid. Easy peazy. Interesting how Mercedes engineered to trans pan bolts so you can't over tighten and bend the pan. Bunch of light bulbs replaced, new air, cabin and charcoal filters. Fixed the rear latch. Hood struts, idler pulley and serp belt. This car is stupid easy to work on all is lovey dovey.

Then we do motor mounts. Passenger side easy, pull the alternator wham bam done



Then we had to do drivers side. Holy fuck what sadist engineer buried the motor mount under the exhaust manifold and behind two heat shields. Had to drop the drivers side exhaust which meant torching 2 bolts that were so rusted you couldn't see the threads. Mercedes thought ahead and have inserts in the exhaust manifold that the bolts screw into instead of the manifold being threaded. When one of those bolt broke in the manifold simple popped out the insert and used a long bolt and nut + washers since the merc stealership isnt open in Sunday's. Passenger side was 1 hr. Drivers side 5 hours plus a trip to harbour freight where we chased threads in the motor mount in the hand tool isle lol and a trip to lowes for M8 stainless hardware. No pics of the process on that one but trust me it's the most hideous thing I've ever done laying on my back in a driveway (and that's saying something). A twelver of beers later the white whale purrs like a kitten and the only vibrations are those of stoke....

[basinbeater]

I finally got around to doing some paint related work on the cruiser I bought in reno. The initial sanding job was a bit of a nightmare. I needed a bigger compressor to paint with, so I went out and found a nice big Mac tools 2 stage compressor. Keeps up with my used hutchins da sander. But I was getting a little water in the lines after extended sanding, so, I rigged this up at Lowes to cool the air in my lines. Works like a charm.


But I finally got it torn down and sanded, bought some paint stuff, and finally got around to priming it last night. It was a bit of a struggle getting the gun to spray nice, first time and all, so I had some areas that needed to be done again. So tonight, it got another quick sand with 400grit and a rinse, and back in the bay well see how spraying goes tomorrow.

[Obstruction]

The 07 Outback decided to say fuck the easy way on the ball joint job. After trying a half dozen different techniques I ended up having to take knuckle off. Now at least I can fight with the ball joint on the bench standing up with a vise, and decent light.

[fatnslow]

I'm feeling really old and lazy , paying someone $120 to replace control arms on my minivan. Did it the first time and I don't feel like rolling around on the garage floor to save a few bucks.

[basinbeater]

96 cruiser got a fresh brake caliper and a new seat base.
This thing is for sale... $9k, with 170k mi... Also got buffed and polished, shines nice now...
Pm me....

[El Chupacabra]

Rotating the tires on the pickup truck this morning, and visually inspecting the underside, and notice that the front left sway bar link is missing. Oops. Must've fallen off sometime over summer. Right side link is still there.

Oddly, it doesn't drive any worse. GMC Sierra 2500, rides like shit and handles badly at all times.

Rockauto here I come...

[fatnslow]

Had a Craigslist mechanic flake on me this morning so I went to a place that charges $30/hr for a rack with tools to replace control arms. Sure was nice not crawling on the floor of the garage . They even helped when I got stuck on the second side. Had the passenger side done in 30 minutes but the other side took freaking two hours.

[warthog]

Does anyone know why Ford built the F-250 with reverse shaped leaf springs on the front? And is there a cheap, but still proper way to put a 2 or 3 inch lift on an old truck that isn't really worth much?

Are they reversed shackles, or are the convex? I am not familiar with those. I have reverse shackles on my CJ, and it makes the highway ride a lot smoother. It negatively affects braking a bit, but I am used to it. Supposedly it can be very dangerous in some off road descents, but being in FL, I don't worry much about long steep descents.

Not sure if that answers your question or not- I will have to look up some pics of the F 250.

[Mazderati]

Most of the OBS F-250/350 front springs are straight-to-convex relative to the road. I'd guess it was for ride quality.

[Gerome]

Are they reversed shackles, or are the convex? I am not familiar with those. I have reverse shackles on my CJ, and it makes the highway ride a lot smoother. It negatively affects braking a bit, but I am used to it. Supposedly it can be very dangerous in some off road descents, but being in FL, I don't worry much about long steep descents.

Not sure if that answers your question or not- I will have to look up some pics of the F 250.

Top of page 13 on this thread is where I posted a picture showing the leaf spring, although it doesn't show the front or rear connections. It doesn't look like a leaf spring that I could flip upside down and all of the stock F-250s I've seen look similar. I'm thinking about getting an add-a-leaf kit for about $90, which is something I'd do for fun. It looks like the lift kit on the dirt every day truck would be around $1300. and a lot of fiddling around with the suspension for my interest.

[basinbeater]

Got some winter tires for the commuter car. Also found some nice period style 5 mesh wheels, but dammit! They rub! Just a hair. So got some 3mm spacers coming, and that should solve it.
Can't wait to do some rwd donuts at the church!


And just for reference, here is the summer tire wheel and tire...

[Obstruction]

Like those style 5 wheels!

I just put my snows on my 330i yesterday on some very nasty looking style 73's I've been running for a few seasons. Before I could do that though I to scrounge one "new" winter wheel up on craigslist because one was cracked and wouldn't hold air. Never notice a whole lot of change though because the tread on the Michelin Alpins I'm running ain't very aggressive at all. Fine on wet and ice but no Bueno when the snow piles up.

[basinbeater]

Yeah I am pretty stoked on them! I ordered up new center caps as well. They took a lot of clean up when I got them, but the paint was in pretty good shape, and they came out pretty clean. I bought them from the weirdest people I have ever met. They live up in Park City in sun peak, so pretty nice, but have this giant storage unit in Murray that is a certifiable disaster area of random car parts. At first they could only find 3 wheels, oh, the other one is in our other storage unit, well they couldn't find it there either, so now I am annoyed at wasting my time, so i leave. They call me up like 3 weeks later, and say, we found the other one, and can we bring them by your house for you. Um ok, I'll take another look. So they bring 4 matching bbs wheels by, and a 5th Fundo spare. I buy them for $125.
Apparently she has a dealers license, and buys broken cars at auction and parts them out, but I don't know how she ever finds anything in the messes she has, and I have no idea how you support living in sun peak in PC parting out pieces of shit and losing everything. pretty weird. But it worked out in the end.

[tripice351]

$125 for a set of basketweaves and a spare is a smokin deal

[basinbeater]

Knee deep in the timing belt of my Lexus. Interference motor, so at 135kmi, if I don't have proof it was done, I have to do it. Some bolts made my life difficult, but otherwise pretty straightforward. Best write up I have found is actually hosted on a Bmw site.

[bodywhomper]

Water pump, too? My neighbor showed me a crack timing belt from a Tacoma this summer. He was changing it (and doing a bunch of other stuff) as a big favor for a close friend in need. Over 180k miles on the belt.

[basinbeater]

yeah, water pump, tstat, pulleys, tensioner, blah blah blah. accessory belt, tensioner, pulleys, oil change, coolant flush and change, basically make it so I don't have to worry about anything. Will probably change power steering fluid as well. Already flushed the suspension fluid . Last thing it will need after all that is a check on the left front abs sensor. System works most of the time, but light comes on sometimes, and throws a code for left front sensor. Probably just dirty.

[uglymoney]

The 07 Outback decided to say fuck the easy way on the ball joint job. After trying a half dozen different techniques I ended up having to take knuckle off. Now at least I can fight with the ball joint on the bench standing up with a vise, and decent light.

How did this end up? Usually the ball joint drops right out for me. The 14 mm bolt that holds them in is a real pia though. I've had good luck putting anti-sieze on it for future removal since the ball joints seem to be pretty much toast at 100k. With the anti sieze and an impact they come right out and it is a half hour job. Otherwise add knuckle removal and $50 for machine shop to remove the broken bolt.

My 02 Subaru had a broken rear strut mount that has been making more and more noise for a while. It was a KYB mou t that I installed with the Baja springs about 55k miles ago.

Fixed it this evening with another pos KYB mount (only 23 bucks) and still time for beers and a movie with the wife.

Err...not quite centered.

Trusty OEM spring compressor. $25 bucks from Amazon. I had always done the free rental thing from the parts store before not realizing how dirt cheap they were online...



Another picture. Gone.

[Obstruction]

How did this end up? Usually the ball joint drops right out for me. The 14 mm bolt that holds them in is a real pia though. I've had good luck putting anti-sieze on it for future removal since the ball joints seem to be pretty much toast at 100k. With the anti sieze and an impact they come right out and it is a half hour job. Otherwise add knuckle removal and $50 for machine shop to remove the broken bolt.

My 02 Subaru had a broken rear strut mount that has been making more and more noise for a while. It was a KYB mou t that I installed with the Baja springs about 55k miles ago.

Fixed it this evening with another pos KYB mount (only 23 bucks) and still time for beers and a movie with the wife.

Started with PB Blaster and impact wrench on the pinch bolt ended up drilling it out (after shearing it off halfway down the shaft) and still couldn't get the ball joint loose from the knuckle. (Replaced pinch bolt with nut and bolt) I ended up taking the knuckle off as I mentioned and whaling the living bejaysus out of the ball joint and removing the ball out of the socket. Next I got busy with a cold chisel to get the socket loose ... no dice. So I cut the socket with an angle grinder through the narrow pinch gap and was able to use a hammer and the chisel to spin the socket a little. The cut again spin some more cut again and so on. Was eventually able to collapse the socket an bust it out. Ended up I had a ring of tightly fused Rust in the depression where the pinch bolt sits and that bitch was never going to pull out without serious heat or dumb brute force (my weapon of choice).

Finally cleaned up the knuckle and installed the ball joint, a fairly easy process. The punch line is that when I took the thing to the dealer to get an alignment the tech told me he couldn't align it because the strut was badly bent, he showed me and sure enough it was. Back off the rack and home to order a pair of pre loaded strut/spring assemblies. Pretty good deal at $180 for the pair and simple install. Then back for alignment. So all is good for now.

Thought about doing the rear struts (10 years 130k miles) but I'm a fix it when it's broken kind of guy and I don't think I'm there yet. Hopefully when I do I'll have as easy a time as you did.