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

[Rideski]

Thanks Tuco. The slave appears to be bone dry. The 2nd photo inside the inspection port autofocused on the bell housing so you can't really see the part of the slave inside there, but looked bone dry as well.

I did a combo of things I found online and jacked the front end up a lot, and then used a turkey baster to remove all the fluid I could from the master reservoir. It was a lot cleaner than it looked, as the reservoir is black plastic. Fluid was still clear. But despite that, put new fluid in, pumped the clutch a couple dozen times while jacked up. Feels a lot better now. Will know more after a road test today.

[ill-advised strategy]

Call me stupid, but for bleeding I just run tube up to a 2 liter on a motorcycle stool and push a lot of fluid through with the bleeder staying open...adding plenty at the master reservoir as I go. It’s easy, a lot easier than opening and closing bleeders with two guys, and it seems to work just fine.....and you sort of flush a lot of fluid through that way too, which can’t hurt. Ymmv I guess.

[ill-advised strategy]

Don’t strip that slave bleeder!!!!
Careful!

[tuco]

Thanks Tuco. The slave appears to be bone dry. The 2nd photo inside the inspection port autofocused on the bell housing so you can't really see the part of the slave inside there, but looked bone dry as well.

I did a combo of things I found online and jacked the front end up a lot, and then used a turkey baster to remove all the fluid I could from the master reservoir. It was a lot cleaner than it looked, as the reservoir is black plastic. Fluid was still clear. But despite that, put new fluid in, pumped the clutch a couple dozen times while jacked up. Feels a lot better now. Will know more after a road test today.

Hopefully you got it worked out!
The dirty fluid will be in the slave itself.

Call me stupid, but for bleeding I just run tube up to a 2 liter on a motorcycle stool and push a lot of fluid through with the bleeder staying open...adding plenty at the master reservoir as I go. It’s easy, a lot easier than opening and closing bleeders with two guys, and it seems to work just fine.....and you sort of flush a lot of fluid through that way too, which can’t hurt. Ymmv I guess.

Actually, its pretty fuckin easy and pedal pressure returns almost immediately.
Sounds like you use a hell of a lot of brake fluid for this. If you mean by 'push' that you are pumping the pedal, when you release pressure If there is any air in your tubing, it can get sucked back into the slave as the pedal is returning.

Don’t strip that slave bleeder!!!!
Careful!

Use a 6 point socket to break it loose

[ill-advised strategy]

It’s not rocket surgery, push all the air through while keeping the res full. I run my tubing uphill to the catch jug and push fluid through until there’s good-looking fluid coming through and no air. It’s never failed.

[tuco]

Ok. I'll giver next time. Which, unfortunately, is not to far off

[schindlerpiste]

Before and after

[tripice351]

Don't mind me

[mangle]

Not my week this week...

Saturday, we're driving up Togwotee pass in the girlfriend's Volvo S40. The thing has made several runs over Teton pass in the previous week or two, no issues. All of a sudden, it feels like it's losing power. I wonder aloud, "Is there a serious headwind?" Dash flashes "Warning, pull over." I say, "WTF, ok," then temp gauge shoots from normal to full range hot, all the dash lights warning lights come on, and it dies. Now no compression on three of five cylinders. Head gasket is toast, probably motor, too. I had noticed a hint of coolant smell the day before. WTF.

So I let the girlfriend take the obnoxious cammed LS swap 1975 Blazer drag 4x4 to work on Monday. She drives it in, runs a few errands throughout the day, everything is fine. I think she kind of enjoys the attention. So I get a call at about 7PM, "Blazer is dead. I'm on the side of the road. It's snowing." Fuck, ok. AAA to the rescue, tow it five miles home. Immediately suspect fuel pump, as it'll fire and then die. Girlfriend grabs a fuel pump for me on Tuesday.

We're down from two perfectly good daily drivers to zero in three days. All my other cars are in storage for the winter or on the east coast. Great.

I put a fuel pressure gauge on the truck today, ignition on, ok fuel pressure. Crank it, runs for a sec, dies. Fuel pressure zero. Definitely a fuel pump I think. Pull out the jack, piece of plywood under the tank, loosen the hoses, disconnect electrical leads, drop tank (which has ~30 gal of gas). Except I stopped half way to check things and accidentally pull the jack handle out of the jack. That's under the truck. Grab breaker bar, bring the pump handle slot down far enough to get the handle back in. Lower tank. Fight with lock ring, replace pump, button it all back up, jack the tank back up, tighten straps with my lovely new Dewalt electric 1/2" impact wrench. Reconnect everthing. Ignition on, FUEL PRESSURE!!! Fires right up, dies shortly after. Key back to on, no fuel pressure. Fucking hell. Oh, and it's snowing hard and I'm in a parking lot.

Tonight the girlfriend gets home. I'm curious, so I have her turn the truck to on while I'm under it, now in a pile of snow, with a multimeter looking at the fuel pump lead. Nada. Is my ground good? No idea. Give up, I'll do this in the morning.

Get back inside. I wonder if the fuel pump relay is good? Go back out (snowing hard now), grab it, connect to a power supply on my workbench, relay tests good. Fuck. Hook up power supply leads to old pump, immediately turns on. Damn it.

So right now, it's definitely an electrical problem. Gas guage works, so I'm pretty certain it's not a bad ground (they have a common ground in the sender). It's either a wire that got chafed or burned somewhere (entirely possible), another fuse, a royally fucked computer (I do have a spare...), or one of these things plus a DOA pump.

At least I have beer.

[Rideski]

And snow

[tuco]

Not my week this week...

Saturday, we're driving up Togwotee pass in the girlfriend's Volvo S40. The thing has made several runs over Teton pass in the previous week or two, no issues. All of a sudden, it feels like it's losing power. I wonder aloud, "Is there a serious headwind?" Dash flashes "Warning, pull over." I say, "WTF, ok," then temp gauge shoots from normal to full range hot, all the dash lights warning lights come on, and it dies. Now no compression on three of five cylinders. Head gasket is toast, probably motor, too. I had noticed a hint of coolant smell the day before. WTF.

So I let the girlfriend take the obnoxious cammed LS swap 1975 Blazer drag 4x4 to work on Monday. She drives it in, runs a few errands throughout the day, everything is fine. I think she kind of enjoys the attention. So I get a call at about 7PM, "Blazer is dead. I'm on the side of the road. It's snowing." Fuck, ok. AAA to the rescue, tow it five miles home. Immediately suspect fuel pump, as it'll fire and then die. Girlfriend grabs a fuel pump for me on Tuesday.

We're down from two perfectly good daily drivers to zero in three days. All my other cars are in storage for the winter or on the east coast. Great.

I put a fuel pressure gauge on the truck today, ignition on, ok fuel pressure. Crank it, runs for a sec, dies. Fuel pressure zero. Definitely a fuel pump I think. Pull out the jack, piece of plywood under the tank, loosen the hoses, disconnect electrical leads, drop tank (which has ~30 gal of gas). Except I stopped half way to check things and accidentally pull the jack handle out of the jack. That's under the truck. Grab breaker bar, bring the pump handle slot down far enough to get the handle back in. Lower tank. Fight with lock ring, replace pump, button it all back up, jack the tank back up, tighten straps with my lovely new Dewalt electric 1/2" impact wrench. Reconnect everthing. Ignition on, FUEL PRESSURE!!! Fires right up, dies shortly after. Key back to on, no fuel pressure. Fucking hell. Oh, and it's snowing hard and I'm in a parking lot.

Tonight the girlfriend gets home. I'm curious, so I have her turn the truck to on while I'm under it, now in a pile of snow, with a multimeter looking at the fuel pump lead. Nada. Is my ground good? No idea. Give up, I'll do this in the morning.

Get back inside. I wonder if the fuel pump relay is good? Go back out (snowing hard now), grab it, connect to a power supply on my workbench, relay tests good. Fuck. Hook up power supply leads to old pump, immediately turns on. Damn it.

So right now, it's definitely an electrical problem. Gas guage works, so I'm pretty certain it's not a bad ground (they have a common ground in the sender). It's either a wire that got chafed or burned somewhere (entirely possible), another fuse, a royally fucked computer (I do have a spare...), or one of these things plus a DOA pump.

At least I have beer.

Ignition switch
You're welcome!

[mangle]

Ignition switch
You're welcome!

You're probably right. It's one of the few original pieces of electronics left. Amazon prime to the rescue.

[east or bust]

tackled the heater core on my 04 blazer today, second one that’s went in 3 years... took me about 9 hours and that’s including breaks for lunch and dinner

[mangle]

Turns out it wasn't the ignition switch, though the new one is much improved - I have an accessory position again now.

The fuel pump issue turned out to be the whole computer. There was a shit connection where I had tapped into the factory fuse box for an ignition hot. I probably kicked it at some point. Wish I had looked at that a little closer before blindly replacing a fuel pump.

Poking around through everything else you can imagine, it turns out the MAF is well past its useful lifetime. We'll toss a new one in tomorrow as soon as auto parts stores open and see if that doesn't return the Blazer to its usual anti-social self. I've thought it was running a little rich recently.

We spent today test driving a few things for the girlfriend. I was impressed with the new Jeep Cherokees. She was considering the Subaru Forrester/Outback/Crosstek everyone here seems to have, but we found them a bit underwhelming. The WRX on the other hand, is a hoot. I like cars.

[tuco]

Right on.
So it was the connection or the computer?
When we finally figured out it was the switch on my bros f150, he had replaced fuel pumps, computer, key/lock cylinder, tested sensors and fp regulator. All seemed to work.... until they didn't. Truck would cut out while driving, not start after driving- then start a short time later. Finally figured out it was the switch-- been a different truck since.
When you described the fuel pumps working and then not, that's a telltale sign of ignition problems. Glad you figured it out though.
I've actually got an '87 V30 crewcab that had an intermittent starting issue and has been sitting for 15 years collecting rust that I replaced computer and prom chip, ignition module(few times), worked through all the grounds/wiring, fuel systems, even took it to a fuckin shop, who I told I replaced ig module. Nozzles fucking replaced ig module for $200+. All worked- until they didn't. I'm about 100% certain that fucking thing just needed an ignition switch. Needs so much other work now that I'm over it.
Need D60/14bolt axles to take Blazer to next level of obnoxiuosness?

[mangle]

It was the connection. I have a little spade connector that goes into the 1975 fuse box that I use for an ignition on signal to the computer which has a hard connection to the battery. The original fuse box is in the driver footwell, so it probably got kicked at some point. I squeezed the connector back together, and that's fine for now. It's interesting that the factory added accessories that way - there are a bunch of male spade connectors tied to hot, ignition, and accessory rails that are individually fused. If a radio were ordered with the truck, they'd plug in an add-on harness directly to the fuse box. There's a harness for cruise control, dome lights, and the radio in mine (pic below, while I was diagnosing a tail light fuse that kept blowing - turned out to be a wire pinched by the nut that holds the gas tank straps in after I had some body work done.)



Once I had that working, it would start and die soon after unless you were able to help it with throttle. When you unplug the MAF, it'll revert to default speed/density tables. It ran fine with it unplugged. I tossed in a new one this morning, and the truck runs better than it ever has. I had been using the MAF I got with the engine pullout, which, upon inspection, had at least one of the sensing elements broken and the other two covered in crap. In retrospect, it's obvious. But then again, everything with a car is obvious in retrospect.

Axles are next. I'm thinking I'll keep the stock D44/12-bolt and regear to something like 3.73 (they're 3.08 now) with a truetrac at least in the rear. I need to get rid of the exhaust dumps and bring it out the side - I'm old enough that the noise is bothersome. I may even carpet the damn thing. We'll see.

Oh, and it looks like we're tossing a new motor in the Volvo.

[highangle]

Tire changeover yesterday. Front axle ujoints on the truck have had it.





If I gotta go that deep, might as well replace every fkn thing from the tie rod ends to the bearing races.







Front brake pads are 2/3 done too...So yeah.

[basinbeater]

I put another amp in the cruiser, this time one for a sub, and I designed and built a box for the subwoofer that would work is different positions, can lay down, firing downward, and then you can just throw luggage, or ski gear, or whatever on top of it. If you are using the third row you can stand it on it's side behind the third row seats, and it fits nicely in there. You can push it in up against the middle row, flat on the ground, should be easy to live with. Sounds great. Is a 12 inch kicker comp (cheapo one) I found new on ksl for less than half price, same with the amp. Hell, the whole stereo is ksl kit for cheap. Total, I have a buetooth double din Sony head unit, kicker 4 channel amp, kicker mono amp, and kicker sub and custom box all for under $200 installed. Sounds awesome, can't wait to go road trippin and when the kids start making a racket, just turn the volume up.

I gotta take a couple more pics, I also need to wrap the box in vinyl, I thought the carpet finish would be boring.
Also, my wood working skills are in serious need of help.

[highangle]

[Slopetime]

tackled the heater core on my 04 blazer today, second one that’s went in 3 years... took me about 9 hours and that’s including breaks for lunch and dinner

Sounds like a bitch. Have an 06, and it's being finicky about putting out heat. Is there a you tube that gives you a decent step by step ? May be tackling this soon.

I don't mind working on old 60s' cars, but hate doing anything on the modern cars. Everything is so tight in the engine bay and under dash.

[east or bust]

Sounds like a bitch. Have an 06, and it's being finicky about putting out heat. Is there a you tube that gives you a decent step by step ? May be tackling this soon.

I don't mind working on old 60s' cars, but hate doing anything on the modern cars. Everything is so tight in the engine bay and under dash.

06? they stopped making the S10 blazer in 05 so I’m assuming you have a trail blazer, probably a very similar process with a few finer details that differ.

when i get home i’ll post the 2 part video i used. it was spot on other than missing two connection points on the lower part of the heater core housing (that i ended up breaking trying to get the thing back in position). honestly it wasn’t that bad of an install, i think i could get it done in 3-4 hours if that was the sole mission. i did some vacuuming and cleaning of the plastic panels while i had everything apart.

[Slopetime]

06? they stopped making the S10 blazer in 05 so I’m assuming you have a trail blazer, probably a very similar process with a few finer details that differ.

when i get home i’ll post the 2 part video i used. it was spot on other than missing two connection points on the lower part of the heater core housing (that i ended up breaking trying to get the thing back in position). honestly it wasn’t that bad of an install, i think i could get it done in 3-4 hours if that was the sole mission. i did some vacuuming and cleaning of the plastic panels while i had everything apart.

Sorry, saw blazer, thought Tahoe.

[Djongo Unchained]

Here's a wrenching adventure for someone:

My neighbor has a 1984 Mercedes Benz 380 SE with 111k on it.

She's looking to give it away. Body is a B+ / A-. She says motor is good but trans has a noise issue. It runs and goes but just out of her future plans.

Any one want it?

Happy to hook up interested magchanics.

[Timberridge]

Put an AMG badge on it and ask DD?

[highangle]

Prob just needs the factory fills changed out of the transmission and differential...Then you can start cooking off those 30-year old tires.