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

[2FUNKY]

No hood, but lost a seal on the main shaft under the water pump. Rebuilding the shift shaft cap, all new water pump and seals on the main shaft. Custom lower unit stand.

[mangle]

Always fun to watch. I've been traveling a bunch, but will be back to mine in a week or so.

[XXX-er]

I've been buying batteries at the local interstate battery store. (I take care of the family fleet of cars and trucks). The blems are about $65 they give a 24 month warranty and are fully tested. The oldest one is more than three years old without a hint of trouble. I figure I'm well over $300 to the good now.

Yeah but I have had good batteries last 8 yrs like the one VW puts in their TDi's , I replced it with another from VW not cuz it was compeltely dead but because winter was coming and you want a good battery to start a diesel

Still running the original ford battery in my 2010 ranger

[basinbeater]

I saved the battery in the little convertible with a little distilled water and a battery charger. Thought I was going to need a new one.

Adjusted the valves on the vert today at lunch. 12 of em takes about 45 minutes.

[XXX-er]

I stayed at a hostel in queen Charlotte city where the owner runs completely off the grid with solar panels charging lead acid tractor batteries be pulled off the scrap pile out side of NAPA

He sez you check tbe battery for any dead cells and if they are all good the battery can usually be brought back with a re conditioner that he bought on the Internet for 30$ from China,

he said China is light years ahead of us in this kind of thing

[lifelinksplit]

My buddy let's me wakesurf for hours behind his boat on Tahoe. The boat is back in the water for the summer, but it seems to have a fuel issue, so I'll be checking out the fuel filter and pump Saturday.

Oh, and has anyone ever broken the u-joint on the front joint of a 4WD system? I found mine sheared after my friend returned my F-250 when I lent it to him over the winter. Luckily I don't need 4WD any time soon.

Yeah done it a few times on my 71 bronc. It's been awhile but it's pretty simple. I know on mine it needs a special socket. Pretty much like a driveshaft once the axle is out.

[Art Shirk]

I put a deep cycle marine battery in my old Bronco and that fucker went forever and I could light up a campsite for as long as the beer lasted.

[Jong Lafitte]

What did you say? I missed it. Bad mouthing the Jeep, hunting, both?

Ha! never! I've had a jeep, worked on a few military and civilian, I also bum game meat from the hunters I know. The bad mojo comment was a prediction of what the shop might find should it need more than a good bleeding to fix that soft pedal; but, I thought better since it was at the shop and don't want to jinx you.

I had an '81 with the 258 + 4speed. Loved it. 4" lift with 33" tires with a winch on the front.

A buddy of mine had a nice Golden Eagle, '79 IIRC, like Daisy Duke's but green. 304 V8 with the quadratrac. That fucker had a bunch of problems. I attribute many of them to the stupid pep boys upgrades done before he got it, like, for example, some Edelbrock manifold and big carb plus some wide out headers. Cool, but not quite as reliable (especially when tuned by idiot high-schoolers who can barely use a timing gun).

My late grandpa and my uncle (two different people) rebuilt maybe 10-15 old military Jeeps and at least one power wagon. They also did up a nice '82 CJ Renegade, blue with the proper vinyl kit and a white hard top. Had the white wagon wheels on it. 258 also.

[snowaddict91]

Oh, and has anyone ever broken the u-joint on the front joint of a 4WD system? I found mine sheared after my friend returned my F-250 when I lent it to him over the winter. Luckily I don't need 4WD any time soon.

What year truck? And are you talking about the center one on the axle or the one out by the knuckles?

[Touring_Sedan]

Monday's project arrived today.



What could possibly go wrong?

[zartagen]

Did my wheel bearing on my protege yesterday. Everything went pretty smoothly and it was a damn good feeling taking it back on the highway running smooth and silent.

Using a breaker bar and big ass cheater stick to break the axle nut loose. My impact didn't have enough balls to get it.



Got the knuckle off, along with the tie rod end to be replaced.



Getting ready to press out the hub.



A few more rounds on the press and got the new bearing in and the hub back in.



New rod end and lower control arm (gotta replace the whole arm on the protege since the ball joint isn't removable).


Everything went back together and running great. I'll be taking it in for an alignment with the new control arm and tie rod having made it a touch off.

[Obstruction]

Yow a heavy lift on that protege. I'm glad my Outback has the bearing/hub assembly so no pressing required on the wheel I need to do. But looks like I need an inner tie rod and ball joint so I'm holding off until it gets more noisy or I get in the mood.

[basinbeater]

Nice work. I'm jealous of the press. I want one. What kind is it? How much was it? Why do you have it? (besides for pressing wheel bearings out...) or are you a mechanic by trade?

[Mazderati]

New rod end and lower control arm (gotta replace the whole arm on the protege since the ball joint isn't removable).

An unfortunate design not unique to the Protege.

[zartagen]

Nice work. I'm jealous of the press. I want one. What kind is it? How much was it? Why do you have it? (besides for pressing wheel bearings out...) or are you a mechanic by trade?

Perk of the job, I'm not a mechanic, but I have access to our shop. No idea on the details on the press, but we used to have a 100 ton that got moved elsewhere. That thing was scary.

[basinbeater]

Yay for powder coating.
I was thinking of sanding the raised edges off to be aluminum colored, but I am lazy, and actually quite like the all black.

[Mazderati]

The wrinkle looks good. Powdercoat is a PITA to remove anyway.

[warthog]

Ha! never! I've had a jeep, worked on a few military and civilian, I also bum game meat from the hunters I know. The bad mojo comment was a prediction of what the shop might find should it need more than a good bleeding to fix that soft pedal; but, I thought better since it was at the shop and don't want to jinx you.

No shop yet- filled the fluid and pumped it up. Pedal is nice and solid now. I just want them to bleed out the old shit, and make sure the brakes are adjusted properly. There is an adjustment knob under the frame that I do not dare touch, mostly because it says DO NOT ADJUST. I am thinking that they could fine tune the system to get me a little better stop distance. It has 4 wheel discs, so I feel like it should stop a little better. The 35's may have something to do with that though.

[Gerome]

It's a 1995 F-250 with that wacky split front axle. That axle style is the least cool thing about the truck. It's the u-joint at the knuckle. The part of the driveshaft going to the wheel that hold the center star-piece is sheared.

[snowaddict91]

It's a 1995 F-250 with that wacky split front axle. That axle style is the least cool thing about the truck. It's the u-joint at the knuckle. The part of the driveshaft going to the wheel that hold the center star-piece is sheared.

Yeah I have a 97. F the front axle lol. I think you have to pull the knuckle off to change those but you may be able to get it to line up right to get it off. I had my mechanic change them when he did the ball joints a few months back as I didn't have a weekend to dedicate to doing the job myself.

[Meadow Skipper]

Sweet jesus when did plugs and plug wires become such a mission...getting to the spark plugs and then coaxing the boots off of the plugs was a real multi hour freaking ordeal. Back in the day it took 10 minutes (of course it had to be done every few thousand miles too.)

This stuck a chord for me. I haven't had much to report since this thread started, but today I changed the plugs, wires, and distributor cap and rotor on my wife's old (96) Camry. WTF were the engineers thinking when they put some of those some of those screws and bolts where they did?

My hands aren't tiny (hey!) but I was glad they're not huge, trying to work them into the mess of hoses and boxes to reach and undo little bolts and screws. I felt pretty smart taping the hard to reach screws into the rotor and distributor cap until I could get them started so's they wouldn't fall out and get lost while I was replacing those parts.

I had to go onto YouTube just to figure out how to get to the rear plugs on my 4Runner.

All this made me nostalgic for my '65 Chevy p/u with a 283 - simple, accessible, and bomber. And a lot of parts were available at the local wrecking yard.

[Obstruction]

This stuck a chord for me. I haven't had much to report since this thread started, but today I changed the plugs, wires, and distributor cap and rotor on my wife's old (96) Camry. WTF were the engineers thinking when they put some of those some of those screws and bolts where they did?

My hands aren't tiny (hey!) but I was glad they're not huge, trying to work them into the mess of hoses and boxes to reach and undo little bolts and screws. I felt pretty smart taping the hard to reach screws into the rotor and distributor cap until I could get them started so's they wouldn't fall out and get lost while I was replacing those parts.

I had to go onto YouTube just to figure out how to get to the rear plugs on my 4Runner.

All this made me nostalgic for my '65 Chevy p/u with a 283 - simple, accessible, and bomber. And a lot of parts were available at the local wrecking yard.

I hear ya. I only just got back into wrenching and the key was that I have enough time to spend hrs. or days dicking around to finish the job. If I needed to get work done in a hurry I'd be SOL.

Btw - those Gen 3 Camrys are about as bulletproof as any car I've ever owned. My kids did some unspeakable shit to the one we owned and we always managed to resurrect it.

[warthog]

Spent half the day today taking the computer and coil pack off my Yamaha OX66 200 on my old boat pictured below. I brought this boat to my buddy for a service, and 2 months later, we are still chasing a ghost. He isn't charging me any labor, but he is about ready to get rid of it.

So anyway, completely removed the computer and coils, replaced with the computer and coil pack from another OX66 he has in the shop, and took it for a run. No change in performance. Idles like shit, and loses rpm at WOT. Made a call to Yamaha on the way back, and the guy is sure it is the O2 sensor.

Now, my buddy is doing this for parts cost, so no hard feelings, but I told him that I thought it was the O2 a while back. He was pissed when the tech confirmed it. He did find a pin hole in the exhaust that was letting water into one or two cylinders, which may be the culprit of the bad O2. He also replaced the head covers, which in retrospect probably didn't need to be done. He also replaced all the low pressure pumps, and impeller, and serviced everything.
I am praying the O2 fixes the problem. I am so ready to sell this thing, but don't want to try to sell a turd. Whoever gets this thing will be getting a damn good deal. This service would have ended up running at least $2500 without the hookup.

[Meadow Skipper]

Btw - those Gen 3 Camrys are about as bulletproof as any car I've ever owned. My kids did some unspeakable shit to the one we owned and we always managed to resurrect it.

Hers only has 100k on it, and she still loves it. A timing belt here, some exhaust work there, it just purrs along. <knock wood> I get all kinds of props for the minor wrenching.

[basinbeater]

Gettin busy. Got the valves adjusted the other day, and today tore apart the timing belt and replaced the cam seal and the rest of the stuff off. Little clean up, and it'll be ready to get all the new stuff put on. Water pump, tensioner pulley, crank seal, intermediate shaft seal. Looks like it was leaking at the cam seal before, so gonna go through some simple green and brake cleaner to get it all lookin purty.

I also ordered up a new upholstery set to redo all the seats in the car with new materials.

Suspension by H & R is in the mail. Bushings, end links and all that jazz looks pretty good,so not gonna mess with that shit.

This car will be for sale soon, any mags wanna toss an early offer into the mix? ☺️