A Tool is Born
No, I’m not talking about the second coming of Matt Damon.
A couple months ago I did the plugs in the Exploder but only managed 6 of 8 because I couldn’t get the damned heat sleeves out. They had rusted into the head and no amount of wiggling would get them out.
Last night on the way back to the house from where we met Mr B and Midwest Chick, the Exploder threw a Lambda probe code. The right bank of cylinders was running lean. I believe the one bad spark plug was causing the exhaust to be a bit rich, the lambda probe was trying to lean out the injectors to compensate, and then it ran too lean.
So knowing I was going to have to fight with the sleeves, I invented this:
I can’t actually take credit for the Vise Grip Slide Hammer, a lot of people I know have and use them. What I will take credit for, is discovering that you can buy the stone-stock $16 Harbor Freight slide hammer, and the $3 harbor freight vise grips, unscrew the adjustment screw from the vise grips and screw the slide hammer right in.
Clamp the vise grips on the offending sleeve, smack the slide hammer back smartly, and wow, the little bastard pops right out. Swapping the plugs was then quite easy.
The rusty bit of pipe-looking stuff is the sleeve in question. I sanded them and never-seized them before I replaced them.
I clear the code and it seems to stay away, for now. Hope it stays gone.
Anyway, now you know how to make your own Vise Hammer.
A tip of the hat to Partner for the title of the post.
Excellent!
You win the Garagineer of the Month award.
I’ve added homemade slide hammers to things, but I usually just weld them on- I’m kinda sloppy that way…
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Heh.
Nicely done.
I modded my extra Baretta magazines to fit a Taurus 92F this weekend and fixed by 4runner transfer case with JB weld.
Nicely done. Ya must have had a lot of room to get in there with that thing, I probably would have tried getting in there with the cheapie
air chisel and tried to collapse it a little and then wrestle with it.
Either way I would replace them,.
That little contraption looks like it could be handy for all kinds of applications so it was sure as hell worth it, plus it worked like a charm.
I should already have the necessary tools in one of my boxes. I will sure as hell remeber it.
Good luck..
BTW, I was a Ford /Mercury/ Lincoln certified tech for ten years and have never heard of a “Lamda Probe Code”.
I did spen a lot of time trying to out smart those damn engineers though.
Oxygen sensor. Called a “Lambda probe” elsewhere on the planet, it’s called an oxygen sensor here.
Thanks for the clarification.