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I’m going to be attempting to revive a 1963 International Travelall this weekend. It hasn’t run in years, but it spins free and all the components are present. The PO claimed he oiled the cylinders and I watched him turn it over before I bought it, but I’m going to dump some Marvel Mystery Oil down the plug holes today for good measure.
I’m just wrenching on a robot nightly and on the weekend… helping high school kids get their robot ready for the FIRST Robotics completion this weekend. It’s down to the wire to get this thing ready.
It’s not much, but I changed the battery and cabin air filter in our TDI JSW this week. And. It. Felt. Great.
Not having a garage (or non-street parking spot) has really put a damper on desire to do the routine maintenance I used to.
Hopefully this gets me motivated to change out the glow plugs so maybe, just maybe, I can own a VW without a check engine light on for more than 3 months.
“Not having a garage (or non-street parking spot) has really put a damper on desire to do the routine maintenance I used to.”
I hear that. I’m far more inclined to do basic maintenance myself since I bought a barn with tons of space to work and a disgusting floor that I don’t feel bad about spilling various fluids on.
This weekend will be day 4 of swapping the engine in my truck. Should go quick, though, upper intake, radiator, mechanical fan, then nut and bolt check.
Good luck with your nuts.
I don’t tend to think I’m superstitious, but I try (and usually fail) to avoid predicting the speed and ease a project will be completed with, as it usually seems to veer in the opposite directionof my prediction. Here’s hoping you’re right!
Replaced the front u joint on my Ram’s front driveshaft, I’d noticed it had some play in it when I was doing the transfer case seal last week. First time I’ve used the ball joint press I bought a couple of years ago for this sort of job, made it almost too easy. I had the whole job done in about a half hour.
I’m still looking at some potential project cars, there’s a suitable candidate locally, but I just stumbled on to one of my dream cars about 9 hrs away. I’m still trying to convince my wife I need this, she has some good points why it might not be the best idea right now but I say why should I let a little thing like logic get in the way of a good thing?
Well Matt, if that is your real name? I couldn’t help notice that in the pictures of your colleagues they had dirt and oil on their clothes and skin. You however looked as if you just stepped out of your favorite salon. You look so clean i can smell the Gain scent from your knockoff Jay Leno denim shirt, yet still admire your 1970s Farrah Fawcett blow dry hair cut. You look like the guy in every hardware commercial that doesn’t have a stain, or knick from his hard hat to his steel toed boots to his Sponge Bob underwear. Heck I’d rather take tire changing JT over you working on my car. LOL
I’m going for: Hipster Jay Leno.
Been trying to get the Jeep doors to open, close, lock, and unlock from both inside and outside of the vehicle. All of the plastic clips that hold the rods in place turned to dust from trying to break into it. First time I locked my keys in the Jeep I broke the passenger side door, this time I took out the drivers side and smashed the sail window. Besides the rod system being next to impossible to access the new clips I got at o’reillys were “universal” meaning some kind of fit, but not really. I finally received my new sail window in the mail last night and I have different clips coming today from Quadratec that will hopefully resurrect my doors. I am taking tomorrow off mainly to try and fix the doors, but also to go and test drive a 2016 Taurus SHO as a new daily.
I would like to find the person who engineered this rod based door mechanism and Spartan kick them into an active volcano.
Love to hear about the SHO test drive after. I’ve always had a soft spot for the final gen ones as an under the radar big but quick package.
The SHO was nice and sleeper fast, but felt a bit cramped for how big of a car it is. Unfortunately the previous owner was a smoker who didn’t seem to take the best care of the car. The only thing that surprised me was how bad the fit and finish were in the interior. Going to take a pass on that one and go drive an E-Golf tomorrow.
Also, I spent yesterday elbow deep in Jeep doors and I now have full functioning locks, door handles, and windows!
Winter isn’t good wrenching season here in Montreal.
But just now, the Volt got 2 new wiper blades.
As the meme goes:
It ain’t much work, but it’s honest work.
Time for a beer.
Currently finishing up the wiring / troubleshooting on my 1970 Buick Skylark; replaced the mouse snack /disintegrating harness with a new universal from speedway. It was a big pain, but I found 6 fire hazards in the wiring.
Turns out the fuel gauge i had was the wrong resistance however, and rather than fight with resistors, i just ordered another cheapy 2” fuel gauge.
“Turns out the fuel gauge i had was the wrong resistance however, and rather than fight with resistors, i just ordered another cheapy 2” fuel gauge. ”
Path of least resistance? 🙂
It was resisting progress!
In exciting news, Project Cactus now has working door locks! Please contain your excitement.
I had ordered a pair of Bosch mechanical gauges from Amazon, one for water temp and the other for oil pressure to install in Cactus ahead of the big roadtrip in about two weeks as currently zero gauges work in the factory dash.
The capillary water temp gauge for some reason has an absolutely massive sender/capillary (at least 1/2″) which has no hope in hell of fitting the 1/8 NPT fitting in the 245 Hemi six cylinder head.
I bought an adapter to fit the upper radiator hose, but even it is too small so I’m off to Autobarn before work today to grab an off-brand mechanical water temp gauge unit instead which I will thoroughly check that it is 1/8 NPT!
Hopefully down the line I find a use for the Bosch gauge and its chungus sender unit.
I refuse to contain my excitement and intend instead to crack open multiple cold beverages in celebration of working door locks!
Really, any excuse…
Oh good; I’ve been worried about someone stealing it.
I built a water temp sensor unit out of brass fittings for the XJ e-fan from my local hardware store. Just need to find a water outlet you can thread a Y or T junction onto and then add your humongous probe to one side.
Man, everybody around me seems to be getting E-Class wagons. They’re nice, so I get why and am a little jelly.
I need to run down to the parsh dealership to ask about some vacuum tubing that doesn’t seem to be available in metric at the local parts stores. Gah, I’m so close to having a running 944 again, but it’s all this little caca like dead, crunchy vacuum lines or impossible to fasten fuel lines that keeps getting in the way. The fuel line was a brief case of “RTFM, stupid” as we initially cut the hardline higher than the replacement kit suggested, which was in a spot that was impossible to reach. But like……….it’d be cool if I could limp it to the cars and coffee thing this weekend, I’m just saying. Probably not, though. I’ve got two weeks and I still need to swap in a clutch. I think I need to just revert to doing all parsh, all the time ’til it’s done.
Kevin just got one!
I KNOW! Plus my friend who moved to Freiburg im Breisgau is pretty much living every American car nerd’s dream with a *brown manual* one.
Maybe all of y’all will distract the internet from Cayennes so I can finally get one, haha.
Somewhat related comment: I have moved away from the usual screw-type hose clamps and switched over to the t-bolt clamps. They can be tightened with authority where the screw-type are quite fragile and easy to strip. Wish I’d done that sooner – we live, we learn. 🙂
Mmmmmmmmm satisfying hose clamps.
This darn thing was a pressure-fit to replace a frayed softline that was permanently molded into a hardline, i.e. one of the actually expensive, hard to find parts on a 944. This is a good aftermarket workaround—snip hard line, slip over pressure-fitting, tighten like hell, and voila! A fresh new line that doesn’t look like it’s an errant fart away from starting an engine fire.
The issue is the tighten like hell part. You need a lot of force to screw that fitting on, and turns out, the location they suggested under the car was actually necessary to get the proper amount of room to oomph it down.
Try McMaster Carr or a local industrial hydraulic hose shop for the tubing.
Will do! Worst case, we seem to have found a roll on Amazon.
That’s all a lot more in-depth than the next couple projects I have, so I am suitably impressed by your willingness to use tools sometimes.
I’m going to build a little cargo floor that will ride higher than my rear wheel wells in an attempt to reduce tire roar. Seems like it might be more efficient/easier than doing full soundproofing and it will be kind of nice to have dual load levels.
And when the weather gets good, I definitely need to change the fuel pump in my pickup. It has politely avoided failing, but it’s due.
I’m also waiting for warm weather. The rear brakes need a good going-over, and I’m apparently no longer hard-core enough to do it in the cold.
You could try wearing 9mil nitrile gloves while you do the work. They will keep your fingers nice and warm while keeping the brake dust off your skin.
Some places (like HF) sell mechanics’ gloves: they’re not waterproof like nitrile but keep your hands warm and allow some additional grip.
When I wrench in the winter I set up an old halogen work light too. In addition to lighting, those things work surprisingly well as infrared heaters that warm up any surface they shine on. I also have an actual infrared heater in my office that I took to the garage when I swapped the hybrid battery on my Prius. I actually got too warm at one point, even though the air was darn cold.