Dear Good Hours.
The work on my daughter’s car continues, slowly.
There’s not too many tools the pros have that I don’t. Most of those just make the job faster or lessen the exertion. So when I come into a problem I’m having trouble solving I wonder just what the hell they’d do to solve it that I’m not doing.
But I imagine their answer isn’t far from mine. Effort and perseverance. A bigger tool box doesn’t solve all the problems
I had 7-ish hours of working on this thing yesterday. After some slow progress getting parts off I’d also collected two broken bolts, (not unexpected or untreatable) and a bracket bolt I just can’t seem to get a socket on. I was done for the day.
When you’re starting to get frustrated it’s time to walk away before you hurt yourself or break something and make the situation worse. I planned to ruminate and research overnight and come back with a fresh attack today.
Then I had one of my longest friends stop in, quite unexpectedly. Thom taught me a lot about car work, especially when I was young and he’s still my phone a friend to this day.
We went back out to the shop, he listened to my problems, the engineering here is something else and there are other bolts, different than the bracket bolt problem, that I can’t get to because the car’s frame makes it confoundedly impossible.
“I wish I had an engine hoist” I said, “I mean I don’t want one, I don’t want to store it or step around it, but I do wish I had one.”
He smile. “I have one. Picked it up a while ago.”
He’s gonna bring it around in a few weeks when our schedules mesh again.
I knew working on this oil pump on this car was going to be a big fucking challenge… turns out I was right, and about every hour or so I wonder if this is it, is the car just scrap metal now? And then I keep working. And so far, despite a few setbacks, I think I’m winning.
One of the big wins has been figuring out how to get around some of the really specialty tooling needed. When you read the Haynes Manual written for home mechanics and it says “insert specialty tool #8194” your mind gets a little stretched.
It took some research, but the tools are just a special post and press bolt to pull off and push on a bearing and pulley. After getting a look at them, I went out and bought a couple of bolts
And then spent a few hours turning them into the tools. The first was easy, run a tap down the length of the entire thing and cut the head off. Now with a bearing and a spacer, I’ll be able to push the pulley back into place when I’m done.
The second one was a little more complicated. It’s essentially a post that a 3-jaw-puller can push against.
I had to drill a centered hole in one end using the drill press, and then I hand filed some flats so I could put a wrench on it to back it out when I’m done.
$25 worth of bolts, nuts and washers. (They are big bolts!) and a few hours of effort sure beats $200+ dollars in tools only useful on a small amount of engines.
Think I might mount them on a nice piece of walnut when this is done.
But now I realize I’m typing as more of a delay reacting to haul my body out there again. So I’m going to go take my Tylenol and get back to work.
Love Derek
Ratione et Passionis