Author Topic: Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!  (Read 1787 times)

Felonious Monk/Fignozzle

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« on: June 27, 2006, 05:09:01 PM »
So I defer to the wisdom of mentors and elders, and decide that, although I am a man of humble talents, I will nevertheless rise and go to meet the dragon.

It's black.  Large, imposing, with a big snarling one-sided smile on its face, eyes the size of my head, and muscular.  
Despite this, I arm myself, and ride forth, my tools at my side, intent and determined to slay the beast.

I've gotten a book of incantations which I am told will prepare me with magic, and some moves to use on the foul thing as I seek to bring it into submission.  

My loving wife kisses me with pride, and yet I thought I saw a little sideways roll of her eyes as I make my way out onto the field of battle.

Just to make sure I know what I'm doing, I refer one last time to Chapter and Verse of my book.  

It is called different things by different tribes, but among my people, it goes by the impressive name:

Haynes Repair Manual
Volvo 240 Series
1976 thru 1993
All Gasoline engine models

Deciding that I can do this was the first hurdle.  
I bought a fuel filter, which for these dragons looks more like a can of Foster's Lager than a cute little plastic one I could change with my bare hands on my Corolla back in the younger days.

Haynes says on the earlier models, it's under the hood, back near the firewall.
Later models are found under the left rear side of the vehicle.

I lay down next to the beast, roll my walrus-like carcass up next to the big, black Volvo, and stick my head just as far up under the side of that thing as I can manage.
I can smell its breath; a foul mix of gasoline, sludge, grime, road dirt and charcoal.  It causes me to shudder, but I steel myself for the onslaught, and look carefully at the underside, the Belly of the Beast.

No filter.

Wait a minute, this can't be right, I say to myself as I roll back out, gasping for breath from the stench (well, that and from being fat as a corn-fed hog).  I go back in the house for a snack and a drink, wondering if I would survive this ordeal.

Fortified by Newcastle and pork rinds, I return to the Field of Battle, otherwise known as my driveway, and roll back into the nether regions of the dragon.

Flashlight in hand, the ONLY thing I can find is this roughly triangularly-shaped, grime-encrusted relic that looked reminiscent of the breastplate of another intrepid knight, having fallen in battle with the beast, and with this as the only thing left of the poor sod.  Surely this will not be my fate, as I pray for protection once again.

Rachets cranking, I manage to remove the breastplate, (not even marginally mentioned in the Haynes manual, %$#%$#%!), to find that the old filter is mounted to the underside of the breastplate, next to what looks strangely like the shin-bone of a knight.  Okay, maybe it's a fuel pump.  Sure looks like a shinbone to me.

There's something the Gospel According to Haynes calls a "banjo bolt", holding both ends of this filter.  So, I get to cranking, and whaddaya know, the first one comes off really nicey.  No sweat, says I.  Piece of cake.  Heck, I might even get to go with the family and friends to the lake for the picnic this afternoon!

...when pigs fly.
Banjo bolt number two has been partially digested by this foul beast, having mixed with all the salts and vile digestive chemicals used on the OxCart paths of northern Maine, from whence this dragon originally was spawned.  While vaguely resembling the first banjo bolt, it has also begun to take on the dimensions of a medium-small sized sprig of broccoli, tri-lobed and pulsating.

I pull, I push, I crank, I yank, I cuss, I kick, I pull some more.  WD-40, pry-bar, doesn't matter.
You see, this is the Banjo Bolt From Hades, spawned right alongside the One Ring, in the fires of Mount Doom.  

Sunday is waning, it's getting dark, I'm so tired I'm shaky and besides, I have to prepare to go to work at oh-dark-thirty tomorrow morning.  
I'm spent.


DAY TWO:

Monday, I come home, having decided that if I get a 'strap wrench' of some kind, I may be able to finagle enough torque to defeat the Banjo Bolt.  
Strap wrench and stout 15 year old son in tow, we attack the thing.  
An hour and 45 minutes later, we hit upon a stroke of success.
Well, sort of.

Twisted hard enough to rip the threaded brass vagina right out of the filter, we did. Banjo Bolt, like a demon's threaded penis, still imbedded like Excalibur in the ragged, gaping maw.  

It laid there, hanging and swinging slowly back and forth, mocking me.  
Reminded me of the time my neighbor's dachshund got mounted by the 70 pound Basset Hound, poor thing.  Drug her around the yard, yowling and yelping, for about 10 minutes before she could disentangle herself from her impaler.

That was today.  Sunlight waning again, I decided enough was enough for today.

Day Three is tomorrow.

What have I learned thus far?
1) The right tools can make a world of difference.
2) I'm getting too old for this.
3) Now I know why good mechanics make a LOT of money.

cfabe

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #1 on: June 28, 2006, 07:32:38 AM »
Under the 'right tools' category, pick yourself up a can of Liquid Wrench, PB Blaster, or Kroil, whichever is available locally. Far superior to WD40 as a penetrant/rust buster. Spray liberally with one of these, and give it time to work, overnight ideally. Heat is also typically very helpful, but considering the subject of your troubles this time, and it's contents, I would suggest to forego the heat. But keep it in mind for next time.

wmenorr67

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #2 on: June 28, 2006, 08:13:27 AM »
I want to hear more about the dachsund and Basset
There are five things, above all else, that make life worth living: a good relationship with God, a good woman, good health, good friends, and a good cigar.

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American Soldier.  One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

Bacon is the candy bar of meats!

Only the dead have seen the end of war!

280plus

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #3 on: June 28, 2006, 08:39:21 AM »
Hear hell, I want a pup!

Cheesy
Avoid cliches like the plague!

Nick1911

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2006, 09:46:58 AM »
Quote from: wmenorr67
I want to hear more about the dachsund and Basset
+1, this sounds really funny

TarpleyG

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2006, 09:48:24 AM »
The 240 is probably the easiest car to work on in the world...I consider you lucky.  I had one for a while and it was cool if nothing else.  Built like a tank and it will run forever.  Sold it for what I paid for it a year or so later.

Greg

Stickjockey

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2006, 10:32:38 AM »
The flatfender jeep resto guys over on g503.com swear by Kroil.
APS #405. Plankowner? You be the judge.
We can't stop here! This is bat country!!

Felonious Monk/Fignozzle

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2006, 12:03:34 PM »
Quote from: TarpleyG
The 240 is probably the easiest car to work on in the world...
Thus attesting to the level of my disability. rolleyes

280plus

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2006, 03:24:20 PM »
Here, maybe this will help... Cheesy

The Home Mechanic Tool List

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted airplane part you were drying.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say, "Ouch...."

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub you want the bearing race out of.

WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 socket you've been searching for the last 15 minutes.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new disk brake pads, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off a hydraulic jack handle.

TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.

PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbors to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.

SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog **** off your boot.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps off in bolt holes you couldn't use anyway.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the tensile strength on everything you forgot to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large prybar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

TROUBLE LIGHT: The home mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, it's main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last over tightened 58 years ago by someone at ERCO, and neatly rounds off their heads.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50¢ part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts.

DAMMIT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling "DAMMIT" at the top of your lungs. It is also the next tool that you will need.

FAWK: A balm, usually applied verbally in hindsight, which somehow eases those pains and indignities following our every deficiency in foresight.
Avoid cliches like the plague!

garrettwc

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2006, 06:03:25 PM »
Only Figsy could make changing a fuel filter sound like King Arthur and the Knights of the round table.

Have you nicknamed the Banjo wrench "Excalibur". Cheesy

Brad Johnson

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2006, 06:06:41 PM »
Quote
PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50¢ part.
Hey, you said you weren't going to tell!!  angry

Brad

p.s. - the Banjo wrench's name is NOT "Excalibur".

p.p.s. - It's Bob.

p.p.p.s. - And he's my best'est friend.

Tongue
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"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

280plus

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #11 on: June 29, 2006, 01:22:36 AM »
This reminds me, I have a couple frozen bolts holding in the starter on "Super Van" and one was even broken off by the "expert" mechanic whom I specifically told, "If it doesn't come loose easily PLEASE whatever you do DON'T BREAK IT OFF!" rolleyes

Wanna tackle that next?

Cheesy
Avoid cliches like the plague!

Art Eatman

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #12 on: June 29, 2006, 07:13:30 AM »
Ehhh...There'll never be another Volvo that could equal the PV 544...

Which reminds me:  I was cruising along one day in eastern Tennessee on I-75 and was passed by a Volvo station wagon.  Okay, fine, who cares?  But the personalized license plate read "URPNXTC".  I puzzled it out.

"European Ecstasy?"  A bleeping VOLVO?  Station wagon?  In a world of Ferraris, Maseratis, Jaguars, Aston Martins or even Porsches?  Duh?

They got some weird folks in Tennessee...

Smiley, Art
The American Indians learned what happens when you don't control immigration.

Felonious Monk/Fignozzle

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #13 on: June 29, 2006, 08:11:03 AM »
I'd second that license plate, Art!

I know the BMW's and Mercedes get all the glory.
But there's not many cars that are as perfect as a Volvo 240 IMHO.
...except for the fuel filter, of course.

Foul, accursed thing.

Art Eatman

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #14 on: June 30, 2006, 06:10:12 AM »
And now you know why there's more to washing a car than just the topside shiny stuff.  If you keep it clean inside the engine bay, and keep the grunge from building up in/on/around the running gear, you don't find those sorts of problems.

Harbor Freight sells a little electric-powered 1,200 psi pressure washer for around $80 that's perfect for the purpose.

Back when I was doing car work for "side money", I'd add $20 to $40 to the cost of a job if I had to fight years and years of buildup of grunge.  I had one guy bring me a car for an overhaul that was so Yuck! that I pulled the hood, loaded it on my trailer and did two full washes of the engine bay at the local car wash.  Cost him a hundred bucks, time I was done.  But I could see the bolts to undo the engine, and it kept all that crap off my garage floor.

I've always laughed about how the average American can be happy spending all that money on something he doesn't know boo-diddley about.  But, that ignorance helped me to be able to take early retirement...

Smiley, Art
The American Indians learned what happens when you don't control immigration.

mtnbkr

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #15 on: June 30, 2006, 06:40:59 AM »
Quote
And now you know why there's more to washing a car than just the topside shiny stuff.  If you keep it clean inside the engine bay, and keep the grunge from building up in/on/around the running gear, you don't find those sorts of problems.
So true.

While I used to wash the engine and engine bay of my old Beetle every time I washed the exterior, I'm not as militant with my two Toyotas.  In their defense, they don't leak, ooze, or spray oil.  I can do most things without getting anything other than my fingertips dirty.  Nothing was as pretty as the freshly detailed engine in my Camry when I bought it this Spring. Smiley

Chris

Felonious Monk/Fignozzle

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #16 on: July 02, 2006, 01:26:06 PM »
I'm a believer in PB Blaster.  After half a can of WD-40, nuttin'.
One shot from PB Blaster, went out to lunch, came back and voila.
STILL took prybars on both ratchets, but once it broke free, it was pretty quick from there.

HOWEVER, this being a fuel-injected vehicle, and having left it unpressurized for a week, I can't get the thing started to save my life.  Cranks like a big dog, but no vaVOOM.  Not sure what I've done or NOT done.  It turns over, but just won't fire to life.

What was that Pat Travers song...
Born Under a Bad Sign?  rolleyes

280plus

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #17 on: July 02, 2006, 03:31:09 PM »
Try a little ether in the air intake. I've also seen guys use a little compressed air to pressurize the tank and force the fuel into the system. But that was more of a fuel pump test. As long as the tank had pressure the motor would run. Once we took the air away it died. Sure sign of a bad fuel pump.
Avoid cliches like the plague!

mfree

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #18 on: July 03, 2006, 05:25:28 AM »
Proper method of purging some injection systems is to turn the ignition on so the pump runs in priming mode and then open the test port... a schrader fitting in the fuel rail at the motor, usually. You may have to leave it open and toggle the igition a few times, I don't know about volvos but some cars use a fuel pressure sensor to stop the pump and some use a timer. Chryslers use a timer for the priming shot.

Felonious Monk/Fignozzle

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Art, dangit! It's all YOUR fault!
« Reply #19 on: July 03, 2006, 04:13:10 PM »
Well, I was *just* going to give up and have it towed to a mechanic, when mfree posted his suggestion.

I am going to try the process you suggest tomorrow.
You guys might save my a$$ after all.

And, I might wind up a non-girlie man semi-literate backyard mechanic in the process.

Thanks guys.