who is wrenching today?

[dave_the_nerd]

My commute is 1.2 miles under 35 mph, twice a day. Sometimes three times.

No sarcasm here: Have you considered an electric scooter or something?

 

[Eos]

No sarcasm here: Have you considered an electric scooter or something?

Solid questions, and yes. But even with current fuel prices I only spend about $2 per day for commuting. Annnnnnnd, the weather is difficult for a large portion of my work year (I drive school bus). Realistically I could ride a scooter for August and September, maybe a couple weeks in October. Then again some of April, all of May, and two weeks in June. So maybe 80 days per year.

It would take quite a few years to offset the cost of an electric scooter.

 

[skyking]

two weeks ago Darling Wife came home with a low tire warning on her VW.
I pulled it off the car and found it, a tiny little tube like a big hypodermic needle that both opened a hole and kept it open.
Driving home today she noticed a noise out in front of Les Schwab and Firestone, and within a few miles the same tire shows up on the display. I check it at Safeway and decide to run for home.
It is flat when she parks it. I put air and find a big leak in the tread


and then spotted this!



I grabbed some pliers and this is as far as I got. I think it is a steel wheel weight and the clip is hung up and I can't pull it through.
I had never heard of a steel wheel weight, but when I searched I found out they are a thing now.

Those tire shops are seeding the road now.

 

[skyking]

My tire shop has a used 235/50R19 which is hard to believe, but welcome. I can get another season out of these tires and I also have a spare set of 17's with the same diameter tires on them to put on also.

 

[Motostu]

Pulled a 2" lag bolt out of one of the tires on my wife's car last week. Lots of construction around here, and unfortunately too much of their stuff ends up on the road. A single plug fixed it, thankfully.

 

[Motostu]

Both of the headlights on my 13 y.o. car started collecting moisture recently. This is what it takes to get them out to work on them.

After some testing it seems it was just the bulb access cover seals that were causing the issue. Dried the headlights out and used some rubber grease on the seals then put it all back together. Hopefully will be good again for a while, because that's a lot of work just for headlights!

 

[Paperdoc]

Auto designers who take NO account of the ease or difficulty in performing routine maintenance tasks really make me mad. I have a leak in the exhaust system part between the engine exhaust manifold and the Cat Converter on my 2014 Mazda 3. According to the shop manual for this, to remove / replace that you have to remove several shields and then loosen off the engine from its mounts to move it and gain access to the exhaust part. PLUS, that part is some combo of flexible pipe and first-stage Cat Converter (yes, apparently it has two), so it is expensive!

 

[herm0016]

in the past 3 months i had have had 4 flats. one bolt, one screw one nail in my buick and a nail in a tractor tire. i think in the past 10 years i had about that many in various tires/vehicles.

@skyking lead is bad. have never seen one stick in the side like that! dang. lucky.

 

[skyking]

The tire shop charged me a flat $50 for a decent replacement, mounted and balanced. Can't beat that with a stick.
They said those steel weights do not stay on as well as the old lead ones. They for sure are a lot more lethal for the tires, when they do end up as a road hazard.

 

[spdfreak]

Trying to make one good carb from three 55 yr old Honda Z50A carbs. There are no replacement carbs for these that look original and the bike is very original so failure is not an option but I'm not all that optimistic either.

 

[skyking]

I am pondering tearing into the 14.6 liter 3500 pound 3406b in the company dump truck.
It has leaked for a while but this is getting worse.
I took it to the truck shop for an estimate, and my guess is something near $6000!
They say the front cover all the way back behind the gears, the injection pump, the side cover behind it, the pan gasket and the rear main.
I really don't see much from the rear main so I would leave that for the next clutch job ( the next guy after me, LOL. The clutch is fine.)
This is way above my pay grade.
A whole lot of it is overhead and my shoulders are barking, just thinking about it.
Things are slow and I have some online friends who do this to help me out along the way, and I have a ringer I can call in when I am going back together. It is the same guy who helped me with getting the house back on the tracks on the 120.

The 3500 pound number has significance. All the parts are scaled to that. I have no idea what the oil pan weighs, but I will be rigging up a jack.
There is a special bracket for pulling the fuel injection pump, and you use an engine hoist for that.

 

[herm0016]

good engines. should get main bearings every 250 to 300k.

sounds "fun" I don't think i would do it unless i had a proper shop, at least a hoist of some kind and big impact wrenches. if you are going that far, may as well do a full in frame rebuild.

 

[BoomerD]

IMO, better to pay a shop to do it. Easier on your body, less chance of something happening to force you into L&I then retirement early, and probably comes with a warranty.

 

[skyking]

It would be lots better if the boss wants to pay the bill. I think he's going to balk at 6000 for changing a bunch of gaskets.
There's no way that I would do an in-frame on this engine. It has 214,000 original miles and runs perfectly. It just has 32 years on the gaskets lol.

 

[BoomerD]

It would be lots better if the boss wants to pay the bill. I think he's going to balk at 6000 for changing a bunch of gaskets.
There's no way that I would do an in-frame on this engine. It has 214,000 original miles and runs perfectly. It just has 32 years on the gaskets lol.

Well…$6k will buy a LOT of oil…and didn’t you say he was thinking about retirement and his kids have no interest in the business?

 

[skyking]

I picked it up from the shop, and do not have an estimate yet.
If the job does not go tomorrow, I will clean it up and look it over myself. The mechanic who looked at it said he thought it was mostly from the area of the injection pump.
One of my online mechanic friends says those O-rings can really dump the oil.
That is not nearly as involved as the front cover job.
The radiator and intercooler can probably stay in place, virtually everything can stay.
The shop is quoting all those other gaskets because a typical customer is going to want a dry engine when they are done.
I don't care if the pan and cover weep a bit, as long as we can capture the new gusher.

 

[skyking]

I will also look at fitting it with a diaper holder for now. Those oil absorb mats hold a ton of oil.

 

[skyking]

final update on the 3406:
It was a leaky bonnet on the injector pump. The shop had changed them about 15 years ago. They are a thing with those engines. I don't have a clue what it cost, I don't have the special tools and it is not leaking anymore.

 

[skyking]

Beetle gets some refresh.

The brakes have been on a short leash and the other day they made the noise, so it is time to get with it. The neighbor will free up his lift and we are going to town on it.
pads
rotors
front calipers ( one side wore out quicker than the other )
struts all around
lower control arms complete with new ball joints

I've never been a knee jerk caliper replacer, but the right wore out both pads about 1/8" faster than the left.
Heavy metal to metal!

She's been a bit bob-by and weave-y for a while now, and with 180K+ and 21 years on original struts it does not surprise me.
Going with OEM style semi metallic pads and rotors and probably step up some with the struts.
Rock Auto has crazy good prices. I can get all the brake parts for about the price of the pads from AutoZone.

 

[Motostu]

Did a cold fluid exchange on my '04 F250 transmission yesterday (yeah, it's a 6.blow). Got the truck a couple of years ago, but for various reasons (to include rusted bed rails ) I haven't really used it much until now. Glad I did it, as it looks like it hadn't been changed in a while; the external filter was completely black. Really changed how the truck shifts/drives.

It ended up a pretty messy task, though. Maybe I'll post pics of the bed restoration I did over the winter.

 

[evident]

Anyone have experience with getting a water neck off an engine? It's basically a metal piece that has several coolant tubes coming into and out of it. But the metal piece is connected by bolts and gaskets to the engine block. I removed the nuts and bolts and tried pulling it off but it seems seized. I'm thinking about just hitting it with a hammer or getting an air hammer tool but im scared to break something. thoughts?

Example here at the 9:00 mark

 

[Motostu]

From the video, looks like the guy had to do a lot of prying to get that one off. Do you have a good pry bar and access to get a good bite on it? If so, and it's still not moving, try to keep some pressure on it with the pry bar and -lightly- tap on it with a hammer at the same time if you can find a thicker spot on the part that won't affect where the hoses have to seal.

Oftentimes those kind of parts are cast, which can crack if hit too hard with a regular hammer, which is why I'm saying to be cautious if using a regular hammer. A little shock and some pressure is usually enough to break things like that loose, though. If you have a deadblow or rubber mallet you can hit it a little harder without worrying about damage.

 

[skyking]

I'd source a replacement part regardless of how you go at it.
My preference is a sharp tool, sharper than a chisel. Get that in the joint and then tap on that and also laterally on the housing until something pops. Try not to break the big piece

 

[evident]

Actually I was able to it open much easier than I thought. Still some effort but I used a regular sized hammer to shock it and there a convenient place for me to pry it off. Hopefully it goes back in and I didn't bend or break it somehow. A replacement surprisingly isn't that expensive and I can always find a junk yard part I guess but just hoping this one will work. Damn pos $3 o ring causing all this trouble

 

[skyking]

I ordered airlift 1000 series bags for the rear of the beetle. They are intended for the front coils on 1500 series chev vans and fit perfectly. I haul so much in the car and do have a hitch on it.
I have a couple of small trailers available, and a bike rack that I welded up for my Seattle commute years ago.