Post your latest mechanical screw up.
- Thread starter ripcord
- Start date
Tried to open plastic radiator drain and it broke. Had to replace radiator. Should have taken the lower radiator hose off instead.
My 95 Lincoln Town car had a PS pump leak that they claimed failed state inspection. I disagree, as it's not a fire hazard, but, whatever.
Mail ordered a new pump, it came without a pulley. Old pulley would not come off the old pump with a 3-jaw puller, so I bought the special tool. FWIW, HF has both a cheap $20 pulley puller and a deluxe $35 model. Take that, Sears!
Seeing how my old pulley had about three dents in it, 120 degrees apart, I order a new Dorman one online. So now I'm in deep, buying the pump, pulley, and tool. At least I don't have to send a core in.
Reassemble this to the car with the special one-time use teflon seal on the high pressure line. Behind the line is an empty bolt hole for mounting this thing. Oh, well, the other three will have to do.
"The internet" said to put the pulley on, on the car. I was unthreading the middle gizmo while cranking the outer one down until I figured out I could jam the pulley. Got the pulley to about 1/4 inch of where it should have gone and the tool stopped dead. Thought for sure I'd crack the cast pulley. Called it a day. Put the belt back on to check alignment, it had more than a foot from the water pump and 18 inches from the alternator so I called it good. Drove it around 20 miles, good.
Cranked the car up and it made an awful noise from the front. Turns out the belt jumped over a rib on my mis-aligned pulley, and the sharp edge trimmed my belt from a 5-rib down to a 4-rib. The extra rib, closely resembling a boot shoelace, was wrapped around the fan like a bird's nest. The forward 4 ribs of most of my pulleys were making belt contact while the after 4 were on the PS pump.
Liberated all of that, took the pulley back off. Found a high spot where it stopped-- it had been smearing itself on the harder PS pump shaft metal until it wouldn't go anymore. Taped some sandpaper to a drill bit and hogged this out. Went on much better the second time-- still a tight fight, but it went all the way.
I'm still running my 4-rib belt until a new one comes from rockauto.
Mail ordered a new pump, it came without a pulley. Old pulley would not come off the old pump with a 3-jaw puller, so I bought the special tool. FWIW, HF has both a cheap $20 pulley puller and a deluxe $35 model. Take that, Sears!
Seeing how my old pulley had about three dents in it, 120 degrees apart, I order a new Dorman one online. So now I'm in deep, buying the pump, pulley, and tool. At least I don't have to send a core in.
Reassemble this to the car with the special one-time use teflon seal on the high pressure line. Behind the line is an empty bolt hole for mounting this thing. Oh, well, the other three will have to do.
"The internet" said to put the pulley on, on the car. I was unthreading the middle gizmo while cranking the outer one down until I figured out I could jam the pulley. Got the pulley to about 1/4 inch of where it should have gone and the tool stopped dead. Thought for sure I'd crack the cast pulley. Called it a day. Put the belt back on to check alignment, it had more than a foot from the water pump and 18 inches from the alternator so I called it good. Drove it around 20 miles, good.
Cranked the car up and it made an awful noise from the front. Turns out the belt jumped over a rib on my mis-aligned pulley, and the sharp edge trimmed my belt from a 5-rib down to a 4-rib. The extra rib, closely resembling a boot shoelace, was wrapped around the fan like a bird's nest. The forward 4 ribs of most of my pulleys were making belt contact while the after 4 were on the PS pump.
Liberated all of that, took the pulley back off. Found a high spot where it stopped-- it had been smearing itself on the harder PS pump shaft metal until it wouldn't go anymore. Taped some sandpaper to a drill bit and hogged this out. Went on much better the second time-- still a tight fight, but it went all the way.
I'm still running my 4-rib belt until a new one comes from rockauto.
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I guess I should be ashamed to say -- but really I'm just annoyed -- that I didn't realize there are two standards for 7-pin trailer wiring.
I've always dealt with the "utility" side and can nearly recite them in my sleep, ie green is right, yellow is left etc
I recently ordered a new harness and didn't realize it was the "RV" standard where, much like with the current administration, nothing makes sense.
Once I figured out the RV colors I was able to wire it up to the utility trailer, and I had some colored electrical tape that will hopefully help me decipher why I did what I did next time I'm into it.
Why do we need two standards for setups that each use 7 wires? Bueller? Bueller?......
I've always dealt with the "utility" side and can nearly recite them in my sleep, ie green is right, yellow is left etc
I recently ordered a new harness and didn't realize it was the "RV" standard where, much like with the current administration, nothing makes sense.
Once I figured out the RV colors I was able to wire it up to the utility trailer, and I had some colored electrical tape that will hopefully help me decipher why I did what I did next time I'm into it.
Why do we need two standards for setups that each use 7 wires? Bueller? Bueller?......
