What are you working on today?

Dug out some POA triv grass spots filled in with Kentucky Blue Grass plugs I grew over time they will spread and fill in. Picked up my daughters college car from the body shop late yesterday rear bumper flew off on the NY thruway. Supposed to leave for college this morning but check engine light came on. Had to change two coils I already changed out two last year. OE coils a issue with this car I should be good now.

IMG_20250823_135219731_HDR.webp
 
This last week at work I've been working my way through an order of 32 link bars, which is taking some time because I've been drilling and tapping them in addition to skimming and chamfering. Also had six hub bearings to press wheel studs into, and drilled out 10 304 stainless logs. Doesn't look like much typed out, but it's plenty of work being the only full time manual lathe operator.

At home, after work, I've been helping the neighbors son work on his new to him 2004 Dodge Ram 1500. He's made himself a decent chunk of change working on OPE over the last year and he's now of driving age, so himself and his dad bought this truck for him for transportation and for hauling pieces of equipment.

The truck is a plain jane model with rubber floor mats, steel wheels, regular cab and short wheelbase. It's got the 4.7 magnum, automatic transmission and two wheel drive. Mileage is right at 198k but overall the truck is in good shape, and I think they did good. We've been doing maintenance items on the truck, including new spark plugs and ignition coils, pcv valve, radiator, water pump, thermostat, radiator and heater hoses, and fluids. It needs upper control arms/lower ball joints, but they aren't so bad that he can't drive it to school and whatnot. We're going to tackle the front end work over labor day weekend as I'm getting Friday and Monday off for a four day weekend.

This week we won't be tinkering with the truck after work because I've got to work 4 10s instead of my usual 5 8s.
 
Last edited:
Day 2 on the Honda Pilot, new pads and rotors on the front. These didn't go as smoothly as the rears. First surprise was the rotors were pretty well rusted on, no go with the mallet or the hammer. I had some bolts in my collection to thread into to the holes on the top hat to pop them off, but that was also a no go, the threads stripped out. So, some large carriage bolts through the caliper mounting ears, and that popped the rotors off. Then I get to the right front bracket, but the caliper pins are frozen solid on that one. Drat. Get online, and the Advance Auto where I got the pads and rotors has a right front caliper and bracket in stock. A quick trip in the Midget, and the new caliper is on. Note to self, grease those caliper pins every spring.
PXL_20250824_194934726.webp
 
Last edited:
Built a quick 1/2 shift accumulator compressor for the 4R70/5

Mounting bolt spacing is 3.410" for anyone wanting to do this, but you don't want your jackscrew perfectly centered -- I just eyeballed mine and gud 'nuf. I tapped 5/16‐18 but you can use most any thread you want.
20250824_155254.webp

It just sent me down a rabbit hole, more here if anyone cares:
D

Thread '4r75 solenoid testing'

Ok the P0732 is back in my wife's '08 F150. It will shift to 2nd but you have to accelerate slightly past the normal shift point and then let off the accelerator. It never seems to slip, it's just reluctant to go to 2nd, and if you dip into it too hard after the shift it grabs 1st again when I don't think it should.

So, I half expected to find broken accumulator springs, but they're good.

I then turned my attention to the dual-solenoid pack, and was able to command it with my Otofix and get a reliable click from each.

I then pulled the harness/wire strap anyway (first time dealing...
 
Undercoated my wife’s fusion with noxudol 300/700. Had a limited amount of product so I hit the important areas. Used a little over a liter of both. Removed all undercarriage shields and wheel well liners and Washed with salt brine remover with heated pressure washer for prep and touched up some areas on subframe with needle scaler, but wasn’t bad at all. For 12 years in the rust belt the car is in fantastic shape for never being undercoated. Hopefully should keep what’s there at bay for years to come. Total time probably 8ish hours invested including drying time with fans and compressed air. Only this one picture sorry!

IMG_5469.webp
 
Nothing fancy. Yesterday my wife was dragging the arena using our old Polaris Magnum 500. She shut it down when it was puking coolant from the over flow. Its not unusual for it to piss around bit as I keep the system topped up. Well this time it was bad.

Thinking the fan circuit died, I found the thing would not start. No power. Tried to pull start and of course the recoil handle breaks. FU I say and leave it.

So digging in, I cleaned and reseated the 2 position key switch, no change. Battery has full juice and it will start and run using my solenoid jumper. I tracked it down to loose connections at the handlebar switch group. I closed the pins and reseated. Works great again.

The overheat was not the problem but a symptom of the switch group connections. Fan works now and she was topped up on coolant.
 
Worked on two things today. First was a 2022 New Holland tractor that the AC was not working. My fiance and her son bought this about a week or so ago. AC was working at the dealership but when it was delivered it was not working.

Yesterday I put my gauges on it and the static pressure on both gauges were around 100 psi so I knew it had refrigerant in it. I discovered that I was not getting power to the AC clutch. I checked the fuse and swapped the relay with another one and still no power. I ran out of time to do more testing but found out that my fiancé's dad had messed around with it when it was first delivered and had got it to initially work by unplugging and plugging back in the connector for the high-pressure switch.

Today I went to that switch and pulled up the rubber boot that covers the end of the switch and discovered that one of the soldered wires had broken loose. Her dad had not messed with that part and had unplugged it at the connector which was about 10 inches down from the sensor. I soldered the wire back on and the AC now worked and was very cold, so I didn't bother putting gauges back on it.

The next vehicle I worked on was my friends 1946 Willys Jeep with a transplanted 235 Dauntless V6 in it. I worked on it previously and we put a new electric fuel pump on it, new plug wires, new rotor, and a new gasket for the fuel sending unit that was leaking. Jeep ran pretty good after that.

The other day he went to start it, and it cranked several times and then stopped and then nothing. It would not crank anymore, and the fuel pump would not come on. He put a new ignition switch in it but that didn't fix anything.

I come over today and used my Power Probe on the hot wire to the fuel pump and gave it power and it came on, so I knew the pump had not failed. I used the PP on the S wire at the starter and gave it power and the engine cranked over so not a bad starter or locked up engine. When I had installed the fuel pump, I had used an insulated connector on the power wire to make future pump replacements easier, so I tested the side coming from the power source and discovered that I had a ground on the power wire and not power. I traced this wire to its power source and found it had been spliced into the power wire going to the HEI distributor. The power wire from the HEI went back to the ignition switch. The S wire from the starter also went to the ignition switch so we had a common power source for the starter and HEI/fuel pump power.

I unplugged the power wire at the HEI and there was no longer a ground on the power wire at the fuel pump or a ground at the ignition switch where the HEI gets its power from. I ran out of time to do anymore testing but have concluded that I have a shorted coil or the ignition module that lives under the distributor cap. He is just going to get both of them and hopefully it will fix the vehicle.

He has owned this jeep for about 15 years and has not replaced either of those components so there is no telling how old they are. He has no idea what year the engine is or if this HEI distributor is factory to this engine since this engine was in the jeep when he bought it. Some of these engines did come with HEI.

I will go back over when he gets the parts, and I will do some more testing and install the parts if needed.
 
2000 Volvo V70, 124k

New radiator, OE return hose to reservoir, coolant; coolant system cleaned, condenser cleaned, new yellow Zinc hardware where possible, anti-seize, CRC marine wax, deoxit on all electrical connectors, repaired the air dam, etc.

After 15k the return hose was hard. I’ve never seen this happen on a Volvo OE hose in such a short time. Replaced with Flosser braided diesel fuel hose and constant pressure clamps.

My Dad’s car. It has special meaning to me.

IMG_8472.webp


IMG_2630.webp


IMG_2632.webp


IMG_2631.webp
 
Been a long short week. I've done seemingly endless link bars. Productive though. Tomorrow I'll start helping the neighbors son tackle his first front end job. Right now I'm working on a nice buzz from a couple of Coors Banquets. 😊
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
  • Locked
New Tire Time again (Final Review AltiRT43)
Replies
8
Views
5K
RitcheyRch
Back
Top Bottom