Sorry for not posting. The site forcibly upgraded making it way more difficult to manage pictures. But at least I get 20x more spam comments now :rolleyes:

Anyway, I got that clutch into the Isuzu way back when. I took a bunch of pics but it's such a PITA to post them that I only have two on here.

No pictures of the release bearing. I have a tool designed to remove it. It did not work. I ended up packing grease behind it, finding a socket to fit in where the transmission input shaft fits, and smacking it with a hammer. Hydraulic pressure did the rest. I always thought that method was a myth, but it worked.

More innovation on my part, and this time there's a picture!
jump

Continue reading "isuzu clutch" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My oxy acetylene torch and my mig welder just saved my ass.
This is part of where the overhead and shop supplies fees come in.

So- my Isuzu needs a clutch.
So- I tried to sell it because the transmission is way too heavy and difficult to remove safely-period.
Nobody was biting.
Sew- Buttons!

I decided to pull the engine to replace the clutch. More on that as it evolves.

Here's where the heat comes in-

TEH MANIFOLD!!!

-2 exhaust manifold fasteners soaked in penetrant twice a day for three days-

They wanted to break. still. I complied. The torch would not fit in where I needed it to so I figured I could deal with it better with the engine out. I was right-sort of.

I know a trick. I tried it with the manifold attached to the engine but it wasn't working. Luckily the bolts holding the manifold to the head came out w/o issue.

I tried to price a new exhaust manifold but it's $300 from Isuzu IF they can get it and not available aftermarket.

I tried the trick again w/ the manifold removed. Apparently it works better when you can see what you're doing. Overhead welding is a bitch.

The trick- OK, you've got some broken rusted exhaust bolts. One is broken off recessed into teh manifold and the other is sticking out a bit.
Simple:
Weld a nut to the broken fastener, heat teh manifold and remove. Just like that ;)
yeh
experience, talent, finesse and quite a bit of luck (mostly luck and experience).
Here's a few pics after jump-

Continue reading "heat" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 8:53 PM | Permalink

radiator burst
spring morning commute to work
mended over lunch

At 7:10 Friday morning I was on my way to work in the Del Sol, but I was out of gas. So I pulled into the BP slick producing station and noticed a whiff of smoke coming from under the hood. I was a little alarmed so while I was filling up I inspected the engine bay. Everything seemed just fine. Weird.

A few miles down Wade avenue I saw the temp gauge buried in the red. I slowed down and apologized profusely to my car and ambled through the red light at Harrison to negotiate all the beige shoppes of Cary. I landed at the Beige Kangaroo and bought a bottle of water. It was clear my radiator had split at the top tank. Ever so slowly did I add water to my scorching block. It sputtered and protested every drop, and after 30 minutes of consoling my poor sick car I refilled the water jug in the beige bathroom and drove to the Beige Just Tires to ask where the nearest parts store was.

The manager came out and said that "we do that sort of work here" and I responded "I do too, I'm a mechanic". A wee lie, but not too far off I suppose. As part of the mechanics code, he directed me to the Beige Advance auto parts store... which was next to the Beige parking lot that I had my heart attack in.

Lovely. A broken car, headed to history repeating itself? Nope. We're not screwing around here. I waltzed confidently into the Beige Advance parts store and as I was searching for a 10mm wrench and some pliers I called out "may I have a radiator for a '94 Civic Del Sol SI 1.6L please"? $98.00 plus a life time warranty.

I topped off the radiator and went on to work. I got there by 8:40, so not so bad. At 11:00 I took the old radiator out (two hoses and a single bolt), removed the cooling fan (four 10mm bolts, one broke from corrosion) and replaced the assembly before 11:30. Then I test drove it to the other building, bought strawberries at the farmers market and had lunch.

A lovely and successful day by all counts.

Posted by Sean Korb at 6:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

That phrase hurts my brain. I could name more.
I blame it on the human psyche and a part called the starter.
To me, if it turns over, it does that. You turn the key and the engine turns... over and over and over. The "starter" works fine but the engine wont run. What's up with that?

I get to look at all kinds of vehicles which wont go.
You know that when you take it to your mechanic (or tow it) the problem can suddenly disappear.

People and their phrases can confuse me. Communication is key.

"starts but wont run" hurts too sometimes... same reason. Your definition of that might be very different from one of your neighbors'

"Turns over but wont start" causes much less pain for some reason, though usually they all mean the same thing.

Posted by Scott Korb at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Everybody wins!
My friend and somewhat nearby neighbor Ty is a landscaper. I need someone to take care of my lawn. He needs someone to take care of his family's vehicles. win/ win

He thinks I'm getting the raw end, and maybe I am, seeing as I've been working on his 1986 Bronco II - ick. But for me it beats yard work.

The thing is, every time I go to fix something I find something else broken, or something breaks.

Case in point... and I don't even know for sure I was fixing something- mystery stall/throw parts at it.
Now, I don't like to do that, but I'm not driving an unregistered vehicle around all day so I can get stranded in it while I diagnose it and wait for it to cool down and start. His symptoms reminded me of this:
http://www.autosafety.org/ford-tfi-module-national-class-settlement
and I've had to replace these ignition modules before.

So I decided to replace it and let him drive it. My condition on this "fix" is that the vehicle needs to be registered for me to find/fix it if it does it again.

I also replaced his hall effects sensor (pickup coil). This sensor does the job of sending a signal to the coil to fire for each cylinder and it requires disassembly of the distributor- where I found a cracked roll pin... a disaster waiting to happen. The pin holds the distributor's drive gear in place. If it breaks the vehicle needs a tow.

All this time I have to jump start the vehicle almost every time I want to start it. Ty says "It does that sometimes." Well now it does it every time. And with the new ignition parts installed the thing starts on the tick but the battery light wants to come on and the battery keeps going dead after sitting a few hours.

Disconnect the alternator- BTW the connector is broken- The battery drain goes away. OK. We need a new alternator
... and a connector. I'm still waiting on the connector but the parasitic drain is gone and the battery light is out with the new alternator.

Next potential catastrophic failure- upper radiator hose was rubbing on the alternator belt. I found this as I was installing the new alternator. I loosened the hose clamps and rotated the hose away from the belt, but it's worn through to the cords. So now I need an upper radiator hose. What's next?

It still beats yard work.

Oh, and I made this tonight from some 4.3L Chevy engine parts:

Posted by Scott Korb at 9:30 PM | Permalink

I made a monkey.
I sang a song about making a monkey butt.
I forget how it goes now.

Here's some monkey pictures:

Posted by Scott Korb at 9:13 PM | Permalink

Yesterday I learned a bit about AC wiring for the home (thanks Pher!). Now I have my 220V welder plugged in. Soon I plan to have a 220V A/C unit in the garage.

So I'm building an army of bears.

Are they Zombie Robot Bears or Robot Zombie Bears? I can't decide. I must build more.

I also made a bird.

jump

Continue reading "brains" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 12:04 AM | Permalink

I took this pic (pre-crop) w/ my phone camera at work today and sent it to Sean. His reply: "Um wow!"
Well put.

Posted by Scott Korb at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tube is 2" diameter

I made a tool cart for my boss Jerry. When I got done adding all the tool spots he said he wanted a critter to make it complete. My boss Greg showed me Jerry's IM avatar- a monkey with glasses. So here we are.

The monkey head is about eye level with me in the center of the back beam of the cart.

Posted by Scott Korb at 10:37 PM | Permalink

It snowed here last night. I have a 4wd truck for such occasions, but I really didn't plan on going anywhere... well, I was going to go to Apex to work on my Acura, but since it snowed I stayed here and put a water pump on a Cadillac... which I was really supposed to be doing anyway.

Continue reading "pump" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My 15yr old drill has seen better days. The windings are all melted out of place and the reverse switch is inoperative. I think I can get all the parts to fix it but I have to be more careful... and more patient.

Stop before you see smoke. It's plenty hot before that.

Robin's 1986 CRX is as quiet as Bosal can make it.... new "B" pipe and muffler assembly (cat back) installed with the offending cat bolt drilled out and replaced.... casualty- one Black&Decker D2000 TYPE 1... my own fault.

Posted by Scott Korb at 9:25 PM | Permalink

or spring washer
It's a type of lock washer
It's placed between the bolt head and what it is bolted to -theoretically locking the bolt in place by the tension it exerts.

I bring this up because I had a bad experience.
I replaced the noisy transmission bearings in Dreya's red Civic so they wouldn't explode.
Then I drove it 300 miles w/o issue, called Dreya and told her the car was done. The next day the shifter was slightly non compliant. I called Dreya back to tell her I had to keep the car until the weekend (another week) when I would have time to investigate and I parked the car.

Last Saturday I took the shifter linkage loose from the transmission to isolate it and shifted the transmission by hand... it seemed fine... at first. A little more wiggling around and I heard something fall down inside the transmission...tink-tink-tink-dink-dink and then suddenly the shifting was all wrong. Very very wrong.

So I had to take the transmission out and apart AGAIN.

I found that a bolt fell out. That's what I heard make the tink-tink-tink-dink-dink noise. The bolt and spring washer were found on the collector magnet inside the transmission.

It's possible I just didn't tighten the bolt when I had the transmission apart to do the bearings. The spring washer wasn't very springy though. This time I used thread locking compound on the bolt. I couldn't get a new spring washer.

That's a story of how I was very lucky.

So here's some pics after the jump... where the bolt was supposed to be, and where it ended up.

Continue reading "Wavy Washer" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 12:04 AM | Permalink

Sean as Beaker from The Muppet Show in his Del Sol

Continue reading "Halloween Del Sol" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

No one sells it.
SAE and Metric sets always double some and miss others.
Here is a list. SAE is generally cheaper than Metric for some reason.

4mm
5mm
7/32" (5.5mm option)
1/4"
6mm
9/32" (7mm)
5/16" (8mm)
3/8"
10mm
7/16" (11mm-slight variance)
12mm (edit: almost forgot the 12mm- d'oh. 1/2" and 12mm look close in print. No interchange.
1/2"
13mm
14mm
9/16"
19/64" (I bought that once for my '72 Ford. It's a 15mm)
15mm (cause it's always included, see 19/64")
5/8"= (16mm)
17mm
11/16" (rare now, use in a pinch on 17mm)
18mm (a must-have, use in a pinch on 11/16th)
3/4"=19mm
20mm (flare nut for fuel filters on GM)
13/16" (is the one I use)
7/8"=22mm (esp good for o2 sensors)
15/16'=24mm
25mm?

Sockets
1"=25.4mm (26mm works)
1 3/16'~30mm
1 1/4"~32mm

I haven't worked the rest out. This is mostly all from brain stem, but 25.4mm = 1" is good.

Posted by Scott Korb at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am not a painter.
I am bad at prep.
I'm OK at masking sometimes.

"It just looks like a red car"
"unless you really look at it"
I was told by a friend.

So I made a red car red again I guess. I hope it lasts.

First I painted the grey/silver hood "Bright Red" and then dulled it with scotchbrite to kinda match the old paint.

I painted the pink/white/black-mold roof "cherry red" and have to wait 2 days before I can try to smooth out the lines.

The cherry almost matches the old paint, but i have zero blending skills.
I'll prob'ly take more pics after i do it if it looks somewhat better.

Continue reading "red car" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 10:22 PM | Permalink

I was expecting to find bad things wrong with the little red Civic... specifically a valve in the cylinder head going bad. I checked over all of the ignition parts, including using an oscilloscope to find this misfire -nothing. I did a compression test and a leak down test on the engine, and I found nothing wrong there either. I checked over the PCV system since it runs through the #3 cylinder... nothing.
I sprayed carb cleaner over every intake part with the engine running, listening for a vacuum leak... nothing.

Luckily I have access to other expensive diagnostic tools, like this: (pic after jump)

Continue reading "Hooray, I'm wrong again!" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

but so far I was wrong, which is at least as distasteful.

Dreya's spark plugs look great. They're not the cause of the problem.

"What is the problem?" you may ask.
It has a cold misfire.
"The cause?"
Now that I've had only a cursory look I don't know for sure, but I suspect I won't like it.... not at all.
Symptoms suggest more diagnosis of the ignition system. I hope it pans out. My gut says something else. I hope I'm wrong.

Posted by Scott Korb at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

They have heat ranges. Who knew... OK, I do. But i don't think about it much. I mostly deal with stock parts and the stock spark plugs (stock brand too). But my brother would have thought of this right away I think, or at least after the first putt.

He's not a mechanic like me, but he plays one on T.V. -OK not really. He's just really smart.

Anyway, I made this car (Honda CRX DX/HF) with a custom transmission. When I went to buy spark plugs they gave me a choice. I chose "cold" because my custom trans runs high RPM for this 70HP 8valve engine.

fast fwd
I bought Dreya a 4spd 16valve 70hp Civic and we swapped the custom 5spd trans to it.

fine

later we changed the timing belt, swapped to a 90hp cam, ECU, and fuel system, and exchanged all the parts which go along with the timing belt except spark plugs and tune up.

Skip over-(I let Dreya do a lot of it and something minor had to be redone- it happens).

But she still has the custom 5spd trans for the 70 HP engine. Fuel economy was good. 38mpg

sputter soon after.

I changed the plugs (stock # for both the 16valve 4spd 70hp and 5spd 90hp) wires, cap and rotor button.
FIXED
no
months later sputter. I suspect the plugs are fouled.

If so I will try the the hotter HF plugs. This engine I created combined with this trans I created runs lower RPM than factory design. Sean might have thought of this if I'd told him about it.

An italian tune up could fix it right up I'd bet, but I'd prefer to attempt to modify this car to fit the driver on this occasion... bein' all customy like my brother.

He might tell you something opposite. I always tell him to stick to stock parts.

But I am. They just don't mix right sometimes.
----------------------

So she was getting 27mpg w/ the same spec engine, lighter car, and higher RPM trans.
Then ~30 in the newer stock 4spd heavier car too I think, and 38 with the 5spd in it.

I like the 38mpg for her. I just need to make it not cold sputter sometimes.

HOT PLUGS

[edited for memory]

Posted by Scott Korb at 11:29 PM | Permalink

updated 8/26 -@ end

I told Robin I had a good used axle for her CRX.

I had checked my parts car and it looked like the driver's axle was good... it turns out the outer boot was split in a way undetectable by the casual glance of a professional.

oops

Luckily I also had an extra driver's side axle with a known good outer boot. But it had a sliced inner boot incurred during removal or storage (I acquired this axle with a transmission I purchased).

I must've had that in mind before the casual check ;)

The lacerated boots are not so bad as the aftermath they cause.

Anyway, I used the axle with the good outer parts and installed all the good inner parts from the other.

A new axle is cheap, but it's cheap she ain't got.

I assembled an axle with known good inner and outer joints and boots.

And she can drive her car.

I spent all kinds of time making this axle but it was kind of fun.

And she can drive her car.

I probably should cash the check even though I don't want to.

no pics. I'll snap a pic of an axle for reference. Updated soon.

8/26 Update... I ain't got no pic.
Here's a howstuffworks page. This axle used a Rzeppa joint on the outside (hers was bad/torn/making noise) and a tripod (plunging) joint on the inner. There were snap ring pliers, new grease, and many shop towels involved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant-velocity_joint

Most or all of that info stuff is lodged in my brain pretty good... somewhere...
How can i increase my brain RAM? If it's brussels sprouts I'll pass.

Anyway, CV axles make for good robot-bear parts ;)

Posted by Scott Korb at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm about finished with Miss Fuller's car.

I had a bit of a head scratcher with it.

It turns out I was sold the wrong thermostat. The part stores specify 190*F as the correct opening temperature for the T'stat in this car.

I looked up the Mazda spec, found the correct 180*F thermostat, and installed it.

Lo and behold the radiator cooling fan now cycles normally.

All that is left is to drive it.

Continue reading "mystery solved" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 1:21 AM | Permalink