What are you working on today?

[Creekside]

Started working on my latest auction find, 2015 Ford Transit Connect 7 passenger with the 2.5. I bought it in Iowa a couple weeks ago and had my retired parents go pick it up.

It isn’t perfect by far-lots of hail damage and the roof is absolutely wrecked from ladders being placed on top but for just over $5000 I feel I did fine. It has 124k miles. I’ll drive it for a while and probably sell it. For now it’s cheap miles for running to Iowa every 2-3 weeks.

Today I removed the top sections of the ladder rack but left the rails that sit on the body. Took it to Big O and had the back tires replaced with new Sailun Atrezzo SH408(they were 8 years old and cracking, fronts are much newer). Ran it through the local automatic car wash while I was in town. Tonight I dropped the oil and filter and refilled with Schaeffer 9000 5w30 and a Fleetguard LF3339(cross to a Wix 51516). You can see that the pan is still lower than the longer filter. Next up is figuring out how to do a transmission service or as much as can be done even if it’s just sucking out a little fluid and refilling. Plan to order a full set of Weather Tech mats for it too.

 

[clinebarger]

Is this a common occurrence on these engines or a one off / bad luck thing?

Not common & would've been covered under factory warranty if it wasn't so old.

 

[meep]

Started working on my latest auction find, 2015 Ford Transit Connect 7 passenger with the 2.5. I bought it in Iowa a couple weeks ago and had my retired parents go pick it up.

It isn’t perfect by far-lots of hail damage and the roof is absolutely wrecked from ladders being placed on top but for just over $5000 I feel I did fine. It has 124k miles. I’ll drive it for a while and probably sell it. For now it’s cheap miles for running to Iowa every 2-3 weeks.

Today I removed the top sections of the ladder rack but left the rails that sit on the body. Took it to Big O and had the back tires replaced with new Sailun Atrezzo SH408(they were 8 years old and cracking, fronts are much newer). Ran it through the local automatic car wash while I was in town. Tonight I dropped the oil and filter and refilled with Schaeffer 9000 5w30 and a Fleetguard LF3339(cross to a Wix 51516). You can see that the pan is still lower than the longer filter. Next up is figuring out how to do a transmission service or as much as can be done even if it’s just sucking out a little fluid and refilling. Plan to order a full set of Weather Tech mats for it too.
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I rather like these. Incredibly practical. Should be stellar for your purposes.

 

[Creekside]

I rather like these. Incredibly practical. Should be stellar for your purposes.

I had never owned one but it’s surprisingly easy to work on. It seems that Ford put some thought into these for the people/fleets that would keep them a long time. The “sealed” transmission is a huge letdown though.

 

[53' Stude]

I had never owned one but it’s surprisingly easy to work on. It seems that Ford put some thought into these for the people/fleets that would keep them a long time. The “sealed” transmission is a huge letdown though.

I’ll gladly send you some 3614 wire backed filters if you’re interested.

 

[meep]

I had never owned one but it’s surprisingly easy to work on. It seems that Ford put some thought into these for the people/fleets that would keep them a long time. The “sealed” transmission is a huge letdown though.

Is it truly “sealed?” I’ve found ways to get amsoil squeezed into everything I own… sometimes with hoses…

 

[GW.]

New right rear caliper, rotor, pads on my daughter’s 2016 Acura RDX. Just did rear brakes a month ago and the original caliper stuck whipping out that side. Piston wouldn’t return. Went with AC Delco coated rotor, Carquest pads, and Carquest caliper.

 

[D60]

Yesterday was primarily a link bar day. Link bars, for the most part, make for easier days. At some point during the week I started drilling another batch of 304 stainless logs with a new spade drill setup....got through 11 of 20 and 3 cutting bits before the vibration backed the screws out of the bits, causing the bit to come lose and quit cutting. Now waiting on more screws and cutting bits. I'm getting 3 logs out of a cutting bit, as opposed to 1.5 logs out of a high speed steel drill. Still not optimal but definitely an improvement. I've attached some pictures of the spade drill setup. After getting as far as I could with the stainless drilling, the lathe chuck had become very hard to open and close. I had to remove the fingers, thoroughly clean out all the accumulated chips and gunk, and reassemble. Probably hadn't been done before and the lathe is a year old. Works good as new now.

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I've been procrastinating on my 3-jaw for the same maintenance. It's like only in one spot and just enough to be annoying but not annoying enough to do anything about it -- kinda the same reason the wife lets me live.

Anyway, when are you coming to CO to clean mine??

 

[14Accent]

The Husky got its first transmission service @ 205 hours on the nose. I've been meaning to do it for a couple years, but due to yard shrinkage it hasn't seen much use. Now that it's been assigned snow duty, I figured I should get to it.

Having a hoist makes the job extra easy, as does Husqvarna placing the battery box above the transmission. Pulling the battery and box allowed be to do 90% of the removal from above, only the parking brake spring and mounting bolts required getting on the ground.

The old fluid was in relatively clean with some very fine metal on the magnet, which makes sense given this machine has never seen a slope in its life. Refilling took all 2 quarts of 20w-50, I needed a splash of 10w-30 I had on hand to bring the level to spec. Finished the job with a new fill cap and a cleaning and she's good to go.

The transmission is almost silent now, much quieter than before. I'm hoping the 20w-50 will keep the little K46 happy running 22" tires with chains, technically they're only rated up to 20" tires.

 

[nthach]

After two years of talk, personal and family obligations, we finally got brakes on a friend’s 92 Blazer that was neglected. Installed Raybestos EHT pads/rotors up front, Powerstop shoes and white box Raybestos drums in the back. New rear lines, wheel cylinders, reman calipers, gravity bled the brake system. I need to cycle the ABS modulator and do a pressure bleed next time. It needs a new trans, a friend will have a shop do that.

 

[michaelluscher]

Neighbor's kids 2010 Civic (R18 128k) tied up my Friday evening
A/C compressor has been noisy since the compressor clutch relay stuck on back in April, it finally came due in the form of the compressor pulley finally locking up, and snapping the belt
If I had caught it earlier, I might've gotten away with just a compressor clutch and pulley kit
Had to meet him in the parking lot to summon AAA for a tow
Oh burning rubber stinks
He also complained of it being hard to start (especially cold) and an intermittent TPMS light
I was afraid he cooked it running it without a belt, but he swore blind it was fine until he parked it, only when he restarted he couldn't turn the wheel and the battery light came on
Good timing there
RockAuto priority next day and some local Napa pickup got the parts within 48 hours of diagnosis

Long story short, it got the following

• Nissens (made in China) new compressor w/oil
• INA (Slovenia) tensioner
• Bando (USA) Belt
• Beck/Arnley (Taiwan) ignition switch
• SMP (Mexico) negative battery cable
• Schrader (UK) TPMS sensor
• Replace the aux jack

Tools were the Autel ITS600 TPMS tool and the OTOFIX V1 Flash (Autel rebadged J2534 box)
Alternator out, water pump pulley off, and thank the good lord the tensioner cap head bolt didn't cause a fight
The water pump pulley put up a fight, I had to be mildly impolite to it

Someone before me broke the 19mm lug for holding back the tensioner, the pulley was also somewhat noisy

Removing the radiator fan allowed finagling of the compressor out
Some people mess with the crank pulley, I wasn't in the mood

In went the new compressor (remove the radiator fan for clearance)

Factory Sanden unit for comparison (observe clutch air gap uniformity)

Got it all in, back together, battery charged
Mad dash to AAP to rent the serpentine tool (must buy one) and it started quite silently
Swapped the ignition switch (looking fairly burnt)

Followed a TSB for cold hard to start which involved reflashing the PCM

Ran it to the tire shop for 1 TPMS sensor swap, DIY the programming

How agreeable

After all that, buffed the headlights real quick and ran it through a cheap exterior only car wash
He's over the moon with having it back, and so very quiet
Next weekend, evacuate and recharge the A/C


It was on a tow truck Wednesday evening and Friday evening before sunset it was up and running again
It may still need a starter, and a laundry list of other things, but it can get him to work

If you have this vintage Civic, proactively replace the A/C compressor clutch relay, they're $5
Save your compressor
Because that's what started all of it, and it made such a racket

 

[Kennedy01]

I've been procrastinating on my 3-jaw for the same maintenance. It's like only in one spot and just enough to be annoying but not annoying enough to do anything about it -- kinda the same reason the wife lets me live.

Anyway, when are you coming to CO to clean mine??

It was actually pretty easy to do, although I had to attempt getting the third jaw finger "timed" a couple of times.

 

[Kennedy01]

This weekend was productive overall. The neighbor's garage door needed the slide latch moved down to the next lowest set of mounting holes. They'd never shut it before and didn't realize the latch was mounted too high. That earned me homemade chicken and dumplings with homemade cornbread Was able to accomplish my house cleaning and exercise this weekend also. This morning I've got to sand and polish some link bars at work.

 

[D60]

After months finally got the NV4500 rebuilt and back in the '97 CTD. I was a little nervous because even though it shifted great on the bench the first few shifts on the initial drive were difficult -- and twice it simply wouldn't go into 5th. But after just a few miles all shifts are crisp and easy. I guess the synchros just need a minute to, well.....synch And yeah, running Redline MT85

New flywheel from LUK with ARP bolts:

The contrast of Al/steel/Al is kinda comical -- or I'm just easily amused:

Yes, I know a cast iron tail housing is reco'd for max reliability but it made it 170k as-is. The 12V is bone stock, also.

Stabbing her back in:

At one point I actually took my digi angle finder and measured the angle of the block skirt (oil pan mating surface) and then matched my transmission jack to that. The NV4500 has a flat bottom so this made it easy. I was off by 1* and correcting for that really seemed to help (as well as shop-brew alignment dowels in a couple bellhousing bolt holes of course).

 

[cptbarkey]

The battery died in the Silverado. It was a 3 year Walmart unit that died 1 month after the warranty expired. I purchased some side post to top post adapters, and put in a AGM Group 35. I'm done with Group 78s.

Removed the bed from the project Kubota RTV, the engine needs to come out. I'm fairly certain something is knocking in the bottom end. Started draining fluids, the diesel tank had a bit more then I anticipated. I left to pickup my daughter from school and came back to losing about a half gallon in the driveway. Its a good thing I love cats and have a few hundred lbs of cat litter. I have a donor/parts RTV with a good engine at the ranch that will also be pulled sometime soon.

 

[clinebarger]

Rebuilding a 4L60E in a 2004 Suburban....It's a 18 month old Jasper reman. Shop that installed it refused to honor warranty because it was ran low on fluid. Which is true....But the shop sold him a new driveshaft with the reman transmission.
The slip yoke is low quality & wore out against the output/extension housing bushing which was a aftermarket brass "dimpled" brass bushing causing a pretty good leak.

Owner of the low mileage Enclave doesn't want to fix it, Offered to take possession & not charge a tear down & return to roller fee. Of coarse the owner thought I was taking advantage.

 

[The Critic]

2013 Infiniti G37X with 82K. It was semi-recently acquired from Carvana.

Carvana does very little reconditioning of their vehicles -- it's LOF, safety and smog only. Maybe wipers. They actually missed a few safety items that their warranty ultimately paid the dealer to address.

I performed a 75k service - LOF, rotate, inflated all tires (including spare), brake fluid exchange and cabin air filter. It needs a lot more maintenance work, but that is being saved for a later session.

 

[cptbarkey]

Last week helped a neighbor diagnose a bad starter on his xB, he bought a low mileage OEM unit from lqk online. Replaced it tonight and runs good. The little 1.5L will outlast most anything on the road.

Also found his 1/4 wrench that he lost/dropped in the engine bay several years ago. It has been wedged in the transmission switch area for a very long time.

 

[clinebarger]

Assembling the failed Jasper 4L60E, It's definitely not the worst I've ever seen but to call it remanufactured is a outright LIE!

The only new parts installed by Jasper.....
*Pump, Rear Stator, Rear Sun Gear & Extension housing bushing.... Out of 12 bushings.
*All Frictions & a Band, Don't recognize the manufacturer...It's not Borg Warner, Alto, or Raybestos.
*Seals, Molded piston, & Gaskets.....Did have a GM bonded separator plate.
*Pump Slide Pin
*Output Carrier/Planetary, Aftermarket Wuhan Institute of Simpson Gearsets.

Didn't notice the aftermarket Output Carrier til I cleaned it up & found some the loose/wobbly gears....Then I noticed the color of the casting is a lot brighter than a OE Carrier & it's not balanced.

The oil slinger, Which this aftermarket Carrier has was used on HP passenger cars (Corvette, Camaro, Holden/GTO) And is called a High Speed Output Carrier.

If this carrier was installed 18 months ago? That's horrible to be worn out as it is!

Had a good used one (On the right)

 

[The Critic]

Assembling the failed Jasper 4L60E, It's definitely not the worst I've ever seen but to call it remanufactured is a outright LIE!

You’ve illustrated the difference between a bespoke reman process vs. a volume rebuilder who is held to certain production, profitability and lifespan metrics.