Neanderpundit

because I damned sure end up doing enough of them.

In the summer, when it’s nice, I like working outside on cars, and I’m remarkably good at it. The truck has had a somewhat noisy bearing since before the NOR shoot, and while it’s never been in danger of failure it’s annoying. SO I chose this weekend to replace both rear bearings and seals, and I’m about 3/4 done. Finish the job after mass today. Oh, and Broad stopped over last night to get a tuneup, which made for a refreshing interlude where I actually stood and worked, and wasn’t laying on my back.

I tend to do my best diagnostic work over the long haul. About three winters ago, the Exploder began to produce a little ticking noise. Not unheard of, and not uncommon. My first thought was to yank a head and see fi I had a sticky lifter- a very common thing on older 302 V-8 engines, and this one is sporting 260,000 miles.

Today, obsessing a bit over whether I should try to rip this lifter out and replace it before going to Dallas, or see how it fares during the trip, I had an interesting thought.

I had been under the truck yesterday, doing a trans filter change. A pain, but worth doing on a truck that old. And while I was down there, I noticed the headpipe on the driver’s side was clean. Not “new” clean but abnormally hot clean- like it’s had a lot of heat.

So tonight I scoot back under (amazing how easy this is, when you don’t have an extra spare tire!) and look at that joint. I can slip the tip of my knife blade into the joint.

So I spray a little penetrant on the bolt, and unscrew it.

Now, most may not have any idea of the import of that statement. Let me repeat: I sprayed a little penetrant on an EXHAUST BOLT, and then UNSCREWED IT.

mechanics among you will marvel at that statement. For the rest, unscrewing an exhaust system bolt on a 9 year old truck with 261,000 miles on it is IMPOSSIBLE. it has NEVER HAPPENED.

until today.

So I took it out, ran the threads with a die, anti-seized the bejus out of it, and ran it back in.

And my rattle almost disapeared.

I still have to do the OTHER bolt, but I will get to it when I can.

Just knowing that it’s not a lifter rattling around in there waiting to fail is a godsend. It makes me feel 100% better about the trip.

Replaced the oil pan gasket in the wife’s Escape tonight. Local shop said they;d do it for $1200. I bought the gasket for $32.

You have to take off the lower frame crossmember, pull the headpipe from the exhaust manifolds, and then you can lower the pan and replace the gasket. A lot of work but not at all difficult and I wish the HELL I understood where you can get $1200 in that job.

UPDATE: I don’t know if I pulled a muscle or ripped out some stitches, but I am one sore bastard this morning.