What are you working on today?

Did it last night, but forgot to post about it. On my Silverado the oil pressure gauge would peg to 80 (max) and just chill there then drop to zero after a few minutes and dance around. I knew it wasn't actually at 80 because there wasn't oil shooting everywhere and I knew it wasn't really at 0 because Uncle Rodney hasn't made an appearance. Last year I put in a cluster because other gauges weren't working and I had put a genuine GM oil pressure sender in back in 2020 (2K miles or so ago) when I had the intake off to do the knock sensors.

Last night I changed the sender. Well I had seen that there was a way to do it without pulling the intake, but that must have been done using child labor because I wasn't getting my arm down in there and then get it back out. So I popped the throttle body off, unbolted the rails from the intake manifold and got the intake out. Gave the whole back area a liberal douching of brake cleaner and changed the sensor, p/n 12677836, slapped everything back together reusing gaskets which will make my auto shop teachers clutch their pearls. Truck runs great, well as great as can be expected, and the oil pressure gauge now chills around 40 and goes up and down like it should.

Didn't take any pictures, but this is from last week when I did an oil change on it. I did the oil pan back in December which was a giant fiasco and I was getting rid of the Pronto 10w40 that I put in there in case we recreated the Exxon Valdez in my driveway. Which we actually did partially when I realized the oil cooler bolts were loose.

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Did it last night, but forgot to post about it. On my Silverado the oil pressure gauge would peg to 80 (max) and just chill there then drop to zero after a few minutes and dance around. I knew it wasn't actually at 80 because there wasn't oil shooting everywhere and I knew it wasn't really at 0 because Uncle Rodney hasn't made an appearance. Last year I put in a cluster because other gauges weren't working and I had put a genuine GM oil pressure sender in back in 2020 (2K miles or so ago) when I had the intake off to do the knock sensors.

Last night I changed the sender. Well I had seen that there was a way to do it without pulling the intake, but that must have been done using child labor because I wasn't getting my arm down in there and then get it back out. So I popped the throttle body off, unbolted the rails from the intake manifold and got the intake out. Gave the whole back area a liberal douching of brake cleaner and changed the sensor, p/n 12677836, slapped everything back together reusing gaskets which will make my auto shop teachers clutch their pearls. Truck runs great, well as great as can be expected, and the oil pressure gauge now chills around 40 and goes up and down like it should.

Didn't take any pictures, but this is from last week when I did an oil change on it. I did the oil pan back in December which was a giant fiasco and I was getting rid of the Pronto 10w40 that I put in there in case we recreated the Exxon Valdez in my driveway. Which we actually did partially when I realized the oil cooler bolts were loose.

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Got me wonderin'.....what's worse -- an occasional Uncle Rodney or monthly Aunt Flo? Tough call.....
 
New Toyota wiper blades on my 2008 Highlander. This was garage kept this whole life until now. I just recently parked it outside and the blade just fell apart. It was probably time though surprised the Toyota blades cost just as much as the fancy ones at Walmart and now I can get the replacement rubbers when they wear out.
 
2000 Taco with 263k.

Rear parking brake cable is seized in its housing and I had to get the drums off to look at shoes.

On one drum one M8 jackscrew hole was stripped. On the other drum both holes were stripped. Through shear luck I got them worked off (minimal rust) enough to have room behind to drill and tap.

I also elected to tap two additional preexisting holes so now each drum has four options for jackscrews.

Tapping
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Worked beautifully
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I tried to stamp them so the next tech doesn't curse me, although M10x1.5 is the other common size anyway
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2007 Chevrolet Equinox
Replaced brake booster and Master cylinder....which consisted of R&I of the following: battery, battery box, fuse box, one heater hose and unbolting and pulling the abs module to the side. Also rotated tires and changed the oil
 
Got back on the 2014 Nissan Juke 1.6T, The customer finally approved the bare minimum to get this thing back on the road.

Got all the RTV cleaned up, New Balance Shaft/Oil Pump Chain & Tensioner, Reset the Timing Chain.

They had the timing cover welded up instead of buying a new one, Had to pay me to Helicoil 2 engine mount bolt holes in the cover....Think they saved $75.....???

Letting the RTV sit overnight & I'll smoke/pressure test it in the A.M.

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Tonight I put a set of RockAuto sourced KYB Excel-G shocks on my brother's bullnose F-250. I've rarely seen shocks so completely worn out as the ones that I took off. It had Rancho's on the back and all the bushings were completely missing so the shocks had been rattling around for who knows how long. In addition to the missing bushings the Rancho's were, shall we say, completely flaccid. The fronts were Carquest branded and almost as bad.
 
Getting 44 bell bottom concrete piers installed under the house, 15ft deep. Its not a fun process to be around! They are currently installing the 19 interior piers and busting through the floor

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I'm sure it's very disruptive for your family, but that looks like an interesting process. Did they build your house over a filled in swamp or something? That's a lot of deep support to be adding.
 
I think I hit 40 hours before lunch today. But a good friend blew out a pex line in her garage and my wife called asking for help. Said I could do it if she could drive … I’m just spent. Fortunately I had the exact length and diameter in scrap. Took me a minute to find my way around, and then just got lucky.

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Replacing a CV in a 2000 Taco that I replaced in Aug '22. Based on part numbers I believe the "Import Direct" axles from O'Reilly are just Trakmotive, and Trakmotive is capable of producing impressively garbage-tastic garbage.
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CVs are so frustrating to me. Aftermarket sucks, OEM is usually cost prohibitive if even available, and ordering quality TPE boots causes considerable delays.
 
Done a lot of brakes today. Hadn’t done any in a couple weeks so I guess today made up for it lol. I love doing brakes. Other than that really slow today a couple oil changes and tire rotations and alignment but that’s it.

So far the new management has done fantastic at work. Our new shop manager ordered us all diagnostic tablets so we don’t have to use the ancient laptops anymore and he also listens to what we say and gives us what we want and need. I finally was able to talk him into keeping anti seize and brake grease by the case in parts instead of having to ask for it and wait an hour for the parts store to bring it. I’m the only one who burns through anti seize though so I went ahead and took 6 bottles of it with my managers permission. I literally use it on everything except drain plugs and a few other things or places where loctite is needed. He made a deal with me since they couldn’t get a case of copper or nickel anti seize he said I’m allowed to ask for two bottles at a time of those so I always have an extra on hand for when I run out. It takes me a month to 3 months to use an entire bottle of it it lasts most people years though lol.

Shop snitch took pictures and called the big boss to complain and also threw a fit that he wouldn’t feel like the top tech anymore because now everyone was going to have a tablet and not just him. Big boss told him that it’s up to the manager what goes on so basically told him to stop complaining lol. I walked out of the bathroom and seen him in my toolbox taking pictures so I confronted him about it and he got written up by my shop manager for it. I told him absolutely no one touches my stuff without permission.
 
Worked on the 92 Cavalier again today trying to figure out why I have no voltage on the serial data line at the DLC. I accessed the ECM so that I could test the wire at the ECM and I had no voltage there either. I checked all power and grounds to the ECM and they were all good. I checked the connector that is between the ECM and DLC and didn't find any corrosion or issues that I could see.
I have a 93 Cavalier parts car sitting the in the field and according to the parts stores and Rock Auto, they use the same ECM so I go pull it out and plug it in to my car. I'm still getting 0 volts at the ECM. The main service number on both ECM's are the same with just the four letters following it were different. For the heck of it, I try starting the car and it starts and runs with no CEL or any lights on the dash.

I'm now thinking that maybe the ECM is not the problem and that something is pulling the wire down to ground. I can't imagine that both ECM's have the same problem on the same circuit. Service data says there should be 4.7 volts on that wire. The factory wiring diagram shows that it is supplied a 5-volt feed inside the ECM.

Not sure what I am going to do from here. I'm not going to pull the dash to try and access all of the wiring from the ECM to the DLC. I may cut the wire at the ECM and the DLC and run my own wire and then splice into another 5-volt supply and see what happens.
 
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