What are you working on today?

[xBa380]

The battery mount on our beater Mazda rusted/broke months ago, so the battery just rocks around in the battery box in the engine.

Finally drilled out the broken fastener today and replaced it with a new one from the hardware store. Battery is now all secure once again.

This morning I also ordered 5Qt jugs of M1 0W16, Pennzoil Platinum 0W20 and two oil filters do prepare for my annual oil change extravaganza on our three cars (my third car I have the oil and filter already...). Also have new wiper inserts and a hybrid battery air filter for the Camry incoming.

 

[HemiBenny]

Why can't they make a one piece lug nut that won't cause all those problems?

I don’t understand why any manufacturer would use these things. I’ve replaced everyone of the lug nuts on my Ram and the lug bolts on the Chrysler with solid ones before they had the chance to do this to me.

The person that dreamed these things up needs a kick to the yeehaw.

 

[ctechbob]

Well @ctechbob , I’m having a lot of fun with your favorite things in the whole world! To make the experience even more fun, they’re extremely over torqued and the caps are swollen.


2019 Jeep Renegade.

In all fairness, you could have almost the exact same problems out of a set of studs n nuts.

But yes, I still hate all things wheel bolt.

The person that dreamed these things up needs a kick to the yeehaw.

Ford uses those stupid things too, they're on my list to replace, but luckily my climate means I have some more time to procrastinate.

 

[HemiBenny]

I forgot to post these from last Saturday. (It seems that I never have a day off.)

We had developed a bit of vibration at idle in our Chrysler (pretty common in this generation 200, Dart, Cherokee, and Renegade), so I replaced the Left side transmission mount, and right side engine mount. The torque strut underneath was fine, so it didn’t get changed. The vibration is gone now, not that it was horrible, but I wasn’t going to let it get to that point. You could see the tears in the rubber on the old ones, but it wasn’t near as bad as some that I’ve seen.

Sorry, I didn’t get too many pictures while working, I get too focused on the job at hand. In fact, I didn’t get any pics of the right side being done.
Oh well.

All replaced with OE MOPAR parts.

The old ones laying out, ready to be recycled.

They have 5 of these holding the battery tray in, only one is in a reasonable location, the others leave you asking “why?”

 

[HemiBenny]

In all fairness, you could have almost the exact same problems out of a set of studs n nuts.

But yes, I still hate all things wheel bolt.



Ford uses those stupid things too, they're on my list to replace, but luckily my climate means I have some more time to procrastinate.

Yeah, I’ve ran into my fair share of swollen lug nuts on Fords as well, it’s all aggravating to no end.
My MIL’s Buick had caps, but some of them just fell off one day while rotating her tires. It wasn’t a big deal because all I had to do in that case was use an 18mm instead of a 19mm. I didn’t have to hammer anything on to remove them and make sure that I had replacements there to get the job done.
They all got replaced as well.
These capped lug nuts and bolts really are strange. I don’t see how in the world it could be more cost effective than just producing normal, solid lug nuts and bolts.

 

[ctechbob]

Yeah, I’ve ran into my fair share of swollen lug nuts on Fords as well, it’s all aggravating to no end.
My MIL’s Buick had caps, but some of them just fell off one day while rotating her tires. It wasn’t a big deal because all I had to do in that case was use an 18mm instead of a 19mm. I didn’t have to hammer anything on to remove them and make sure that I had replacements there to get the job done.
They all got replaced as well.
These capped lug nuts and bolts really are strange. I don’t see how in the world it could be more cost effective than just producing normal, solid lug nuts and bolts.

It might be ever so slightly cheaper to not have to polish the area they are going to plate. I'm sure some beancounter somewhere has it figured out.

 

[paulo57509]

I forgot to post these from last Saturday. (It seems that I never have a day off.)

We had developed a bit of vibration at idle in our Chrysler (pretty common in this generation 200, Dart, Cherokee, and Renegade), so I replaced the Left side transmission mount, and right side engine mount. The torque strut underneath was fine, so it didn’t get changed. The vibration is gone now, not that it was horrible, but I wasn’t going to let it get to that point. You could see the tears in the rubber on the old ones, but it wasn’t near as bad as some that I’ve seen.

Sorry, I didn’t get too many pictures while working, I get too focused on the job at hand. In fact, I didn’t get any pics of the right side being done.
Oh well.

All replaced with OE MOPAR parts.
View attachment 178677View attachment 178679View attachment 178678View attachment 178680View attachment 178682View attachment 178681
View attachment 178687View attachment 178688

The old ones laying out, ready to be recycled.
View attachment 178689

They have 5 of these holding the battery tray in, only one is in a reasonable location, the others leave you asking “why?”
View attachment 178683

I've never seen cable clamps like these. How are they tightened?

 

[AutoMechanic]

Was at work till 7:30 was supposed to get off at 5. Boss came around to everyone about 4:30 asking if we would come in tomorrow for the yearly shop cleaning and we are like uh no we have plans for tomorrow it’s not a day we work on. I was mad at that. Had he let us know in advance it might not have been a big deal so we all had to clean tonight. Luckily the pressure washer people were able to come tonight. They had us move our toolboxes so they could pressure wash the walls. We all hate the yearly shop cleaning we are the only shop that does it at my dealership. Ours is the cleanest shop though.

Work was already slammed today unfortunately so making it where we had to stay late sucked too. We start at 7:30am so leaving at 7:30pm is rough. But I did stop and drop everything at 8am as I had to preorder my new iPhone before they sold out. So when 8am came around I said pause for a minute and ran to my phone to order my new phone. I wish they would make the preorder start on a weekend to not distract us at work lol. I’m glad I ordered when I did as all the models sold out within an hour. They said they had never seen me run so fast lol. I literally ran out from under the Tundra I was working on to order the phone. So spending almost $1200 today on the phone and adapter it was good lol. If anything the phone made the day worth it. The rest of the time it was just work, work, work, rush, rush, rush because they over scheduled us today. Done several diagnostics today. Fixed someone’s DIY brake drum screw up. Chased a lube tech in the parking lot who thought he was too good to stay and help clean claiming he cleans enough during the week. It was just a busy Friday. Nobody likes busy Friday’s.

 

[D60]

I've never seen cable clamps like these. How are they tightened?

View attachment 178697

With the nut you see . Sorry, couldn't resist.

Pretty sure my JL clamps are similar. I haven't torn into one but I'm assuming it's something like a worm gear or toothed rack?? edit: maybe I'm over-complicating it and it's just a ramp/wedge situation?

edit edit: yep wedge
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/help-with-positive-battery-terminal-part.88427/

 

[HemiBenny]

I've never seen cable clamps like these. How are they tightened?

View attachment 178697

Just seat them all the way down on the battery post and tighten that 10mm nut, that’s all I’ve ever had to do until this weekend. As @D60 said, it’s a wedge situation with the nut.
My positive didn’t seem to tighten down very well, even while trying to squeeze it together a bit, so it got replaced with a more “conventional style” clamp while doing this little project. The negative tightened right up after I got the positive sorted, so it has stayed for now.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of this style of clamp. There’s plenty of posts in other forums about these things refusing to tighten up after a while.

You can see the bevel on the bottom of the nut here.

 

[Kennedy01]

Tuesday I did some pressure washing on the house. Wednesday I went to the shooting club with a friend to shoot pistols and a few of his rifles. Thursday I didn't do anything at all. Yesterday I had a neighbor bring over their sons Toyota 4Runner for an oil change and tire rotation. Today I'm running errands before going back to the shooting club for awhile.

 

[53' Stude]

Well @ctechbob , I’m having a lot of fun with your favorite things in the whole world! To make the experience even more fun, they’re extremely over torqued and the caps are swollen.


2019 Jeep Renegade.
View attachment 178582

Yes, I can’t describe the hatred I have for MOPAR lugnuts and these bolts that screw in. I use some Dorman look a like lugnuts at work without issue. The cheap, Chinese garbage chrome sucks.

 

[paulo57509]

Just seat them all the way down on the battery post and tighten that 10mm nut, that’s all I’ve ever had to do until this weekend. As @D60 said, it’s a wedge situation with the nut.
My positive didn’t seem to tighten down very well, even while trying to squeeze it together a bit, so it got replaced with a more “conventional style” clamp while doing this little project. The negative tightened right up after I got the positive sorted, so it has stayed for now.
To be honest, I’m not a fan of this style of clamp. There’s plenty of posts in other forums about these things refusing to tighten up after a while.

Interesting, it's like re-inventing the wheel. I guess it's designed to reduce the chances of fracturing the battery case due to people over-reefing the cross-bolt style terminals.

- Thanks.

 

[mdtaylor86]

Been doing fleet maintenance the last 3 Saturdays. Still have another couple of Saturdays to go before everything is wrapped up.

Today was a 2020 Transit Connect. Oil change, transmission drain & fill, engine air filter (cleaned the mass airflow sensor), rear brake pads & rotors with new brake fluid.

I was also able to get in some work on my Taurus. It needed an oil change and desperately needed some rear brake pads and new brake fluid. The old brake fluid was as dark as used engine oil. Ended up taking 2qts of Motorcraft DOT4 LV to flush out all 4 calipers and get clean fluid coming out. I was so wore out at the end of the day, I forgot to take pictures of the fluid. It was pretty terrible.

 

[michaelluscher]

Oww my back
All 3 engine mounts on the Fusion, thought I broke a nut-sert in the frame rail on one of them, but I powered through it
Tomorrow weather permitting, transmission cooler lines and round 3 of fresh fluid

 

[ripcord]

I put a new thermostat in my truck because it was leaking at the housing. The last guy in there used silicon rtv and no gasket. I have to confess I got a O'Reilly house brand thermostat as that was all they had in stock

 

[RAR]

Assisted my brother with his Jeep project.

He ordered an E85 conversion kit for his Wrangler. It has the 3.6 V6 Pentastar (no ticks yet!) and this conversion isn’t a stretch. After all, the versions in minivans are Flex Fuel already.

Pulled the intake, and while he reviewed instructions I cleaned the dirty intake upper and lower, and while it was open, installed an aluminum oil filter housing. I have two of these aluminum housings on the shelf: one for his Jeep and another for the Grand Caravan project. Swapped that in with the help of several sheets of PigMat to soak up the mess.

Installed the kit, mounted the alcohol content monitor, plumbed in the monitor and the newly cleaned injectors. It all snapped in with no leaks. A couple of the kit’s connections for the fuel injectors were a little dodgy but we were able quickly fix it. Stuck the computer for the system on the air filter housing and we were completed.

A couple codes since this new kit is likely getting acclimated to the Jeep. But it runs smoothly. No check engine. No leaks in the fuel lines we installed. No leaks from the new aluminum oil cooler and filter housing. So a successful project install.

Now: he needs to get some E85. I’ll recommend he get the E50 option (our local Cenex station offers E30, E50, and E85 options). Just to try it out.

 

[silversport]

replaced the blower resistor on my 2005 GMC Denali...I had lost complete fan speed control (it has been having a mind of its own since my purchase in June) this week...

appeared to be one of 3 fixes...the blower worked sometimes so I didn't think it was that...it could be the blower resistor or the HVAC control module and that was far more expensive so I tried the lesser priced "fix" knowing I could return the resistor if that wasn't the fix...

not happy with buying a no-name part but the OEM doesn't seem available (mine had the 3 prong connector in back for Auto HVAC) but so far I can turn the fan on and off as well as in between...

pic of the OEM part

 

[Pablo]

Real tung oil

 

[TiGeo]

Figuring out if my rotors are done. Close! Slots are about gone. Dumb me driving track pads on street over the last few mos. has hammered them.