Category: Reunion Wrenching

Roughly prioritized and edited as we go. Also pinned to the top, so new posts are below.

• Major
  • ✅ Reinstall propshaft
  • ✅ Transmission flush — Started… and finished!
  • ✅ Rear brakes, replace drums, shoes, and flex hoses — Started and still going and now assembled…
  • ✅ Front brakes, replace flex hoses
  • ✅ Coolant leak, investigate and replace hoses if necessary — Evan thinks this is a heater hose. Checked and re-seated. And it passed the test drive.
  • ✅ Clutch leak, investigate — Replaced slave cylinder, flushed and bled system. Twice…
  • ✅ Tires, evaluate wear — They’re old but are okay for a while longer.
  • ✅ Rust spots, grind and spot treat
  • ✅ R Blinkers stuck on when headlights are on
  • ✅ Tailpipe, replace — Along with the muffer, apparently
• Minor
  • ✅ L/R Windows, replace trim, seals, and glass channels
  • ✅ Passenger door handle, replace
  • ✅ FM Antenna, replace
  • ❌ Door speakers, replace — Speakers acquired, but they do not fit. Gonna have to take this home.
  • ❌ Brake line guides, 3D print replacements from my original designs
  • ❌ Coolant expansion tank, design and 3D print a replacement cap
  • ✅ Battery tie-down, install — The truck never had one, but it should; the universal one is too tall so it needs to be cut down
  • ❌ Sheared bolt extractions (the truck and Xterra each have a sheared bolt that would be really useful if I were able to clear) — We don’t have an extraction kit and decided not to add that to the list this week.
• Random stuff we thought of after too many beers
  • ✅ Bench upholstery? — Oh shit. Well I’ve pulled it and taken it to a shop.
  • ✅ Sound deadening patches, add to doors and floorboards
  • ❌ Radio, replace (because everything is Bluetooth now, but the truck is not) — I’ll do this when I get back home. Amazon’s radio selection is limited in my budget of “almost free.”
  • ❌ Xterra’s windshield, replace because the crack from New Mexico is now three feet long and I have to get it done eventually… — This needs doing, but not today.
  • …?

First thing’s first, we had to unload the Truck from the trailer of horrors and get it into the garage bay, which necessitated a fruitbasket turnover of the five cars in the driveway and garage ahead of it. Think Towers of Hanoi set to Yakety Sax.

After clearing the Jeep, Bumblebee, and Jaaaaag from the driveway, we freed the Volvo that was garaged and blocking the Saab into the rear bay. And then to clear space for the Jeep to drag the Truck off of the trailer (which couldn’t be started on its own since I drained its transmission, entirely on purpose), Ron’s Buick also had to move further down the street. Thankfully around this time one of the neighbors also left. Then we rolled the truck down the ramps and into the garage, and finally I took the trailer back to UHaul.

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Then it was time to reinstall the propshaft and do some preliminary investigating. I am loving being up on blocks instead of rolling around on the street and bumping my nose on a muffler.

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The install was much quicker, thanks to the generous working space and good light. And now the transmission is ready for a new serving of gear oil, which I need to go fetch from AutoZone in the morning. We have decided that the dust boot in the middle is in seriously rough shape, but has enough life left in it that I don’t want to rebuild the driveshaft this week.

While I was fiddling with that, Evan found the most likely culprit for the coolant leak. He tracked a stream of green up the firewall to the heater hose. If that’s it, it’s an easy fix.

So that’s our first pass. We’re planning on a big day tomorrow. Evan is also working on a list of scope creep proposals, and I think I’m going to try and trick George into 3D printing me a couple pieces.

This morning’s coffee is a shot in the dark in one of the Alcan mugs. ♥️

I think, “well that took longer than expected,” is going to be a theme.

We started by taking a closer look at the coolant leak that Evan tracked down yesterday. We re-seated the coolant hose feeding the heater core after determining that the hose port is brass and does not appear to be broken.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon replacing the clutch slave cylinder and flex hose, then bleeding the system, which was straightforward but took a while. Also we learned that the truck has a clutch damper, which seems unnecessary and an an excellent opportunity for air to get introduced to the system. Might also explain why the clutch in this vehicle feels feather light and spongy.

Looks like the leak was either the hose or its input into the old slave cylinder, both of which were caked in generous coatings of gunk. But this did demystify the hydraulic half of the clutch system for me: it’s quite a production just to make — and I cannot sufficiently emphasize this — a booper that pushes on a lever.

Clutch rebuilt, we sent for takeout. It’s gotten much colder, so we got fancy delivery ramen from Jinya. It was super excellent. After dinner, we had broke out the jackhammers to get the rear drum apart. Drum brakes are stooooooooopid.

After we finally got the rear right brake exploded, we found that something about the shoes that RockAuto sent are very different from the shoes we pried off the truck. The drums are correct, but the shoes and springs kits don’t line up with the attachment points on the hardware.

We determined that the “I Need to Replace my Brakes” kit they sent me does match the spec sheet, so I suppose their kit definition has an incorrect part in it. We called it a night and put together an order for a new set of shoes and springs. That’ll be here Tuesday.

And because scope creep is real, and because when I do the window seals, I’ll need to take the door cards off anyway… I ordered new door speakers. Because look at this shit.

So it wasn’t a hugely successful day, but we did get a lot done. And we still have all week! Too bad we all go back to work in the morning.

We all worked today, so car funtimes started after dinner.

Since we’re still waiting on a replacement shoe kit, we decided to brake down the left rear brake, too, so that we will be ready tomorrow to reassemble them both.

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In the process the mystifying “self-adjusting tensioner” adjuster post broke as I pulled it out, so now I’m on yet another quest to source a part in less than 24 hours.

Thankfully, AutoZone in Broken Arrow has one. Drum brakes are needlessly complicated and I assume tomorrow’s reassembly will take until Valentine’s Day.

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Then Evan was determined to test the vacuum system for leaks — by lightly pressurizing the vacuum lines with smoke and looking for leaks. The vacuum system is fed from the air intake, so if the only smoke coming out is coming from the airbox, you pass! Even if it does look quite alarming. And the truck passed! I am so deeply proud.

After that, we swapped out the front brake flex hoses since they’re looking a little old and arthritic. That sets us up to be able to bleed the brake system after rebuilding the drums in the back, and I’ll have a much healthier brake system all-over.

Tomorrow, I’ll pick up that stupid post from AutoZone in North Dallas Broken Arrow and the new shoe kit will arrive, along with a replacement set of door speakers. I’m looking forward to wrapping up these big jobs — so far it seems like we’ve destroyed a lot of stuff but have a lot of rebuilding left before the truck can leave the bay under its own power (or more to the point, stop).

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Today was a long day at the office for all of us. And thanks to an ice storm in Oklahoma City that left 250,000 customers without power, Amazon delayed my replacement shoes and springs order. So after work… well… I took a nap. And then after that we went to AutoZone Broken Arrow for the adjusters and springs, AutoZone Midtown for the shoes, and Hideaway Pizza for dinner.

After our labors, we were feeling a little low on time and energy to fight with the drum brakes. I think because we’re intimidated by how difficult they seem to be to assemble.

So instead we set our sights on a smaller goal for the evening — pulling the bench seat. Because I have entirely lost my mind and decided to have it recovered. It’s cracking, hard, and stained vinyl that completely roasts on even moderate days. I’ll run it to the trim shop tomorrow between meetings.

I was worried about removing the bench because I did not want the boys to see underneath it. It is notably nasty. So after pulling the bench we did a brief archaeology of what receipts, trinkets, and alien life forms lay beneath.

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A liquor store in Escondido, California. Oh. Yeah no this can’t be you, the total is only $10.

Evan found a receipt. Not sure I appreciate his implication.

Then I set about with scrapers, brushes, rags, and towels with scary paint-stripping coronavirus-killing hazardous chemicals. Meanwhile, Evan helped out with the scraping round, then took to repainting my airbox cover that somehow got stripped when we cleaned it off yesterday.

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It’s not perfect, but it’s a helluva lot better — and has cured me of my ambitions to knock out any other projects this evening. So we’ve retreated back inside. George documented the whole process with his new camera, which I’m quickly becoming quite fond of:

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Between acts at the daily circus, Evan and I ran the bench to the trim shop. At some point today, I started to think, “well, it doesn’t look that bad,” maybe this really is stupid. But once we’d left the garage bay, it was clear that some of whatever had been growing on the floor had also sunk deep into that bench. We arrived at the trim shop and the workers there led us over to bolts of fabrics they had available.

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There were all kinds, from carefully boring to jarringly outrageous. I decided to stick to something plain — textured enough to disguise some wear, but simple. I’m not trying to totally renovate the truck into something ostentatious, nor do I want to make it look even older than it already is. Should be done by Friday. But the gentleman to set up my order scribbled my phone number on a datebook and left the bolt of fabric I’d selected on the bench. No other paperwork, conversation, or fine print — so I’m a little unsure of what I’ve committed to. Are we on the same page about any of this? We’ll see.

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Back at the house, Evan and I reassembled the drum brakes — a ridiculous exercise in stretching springs and clipping together a bunch of pieces that seem to support each other only once installation is complete. Thus making it a very difficult process to navigate slowly. But we did it. And now having assembled two but tested neither, we’re pretty sure we think we’ve figured out how to do it.

I’d like to point out that the Haynes manual does not explain how to do this. “Installation is reverse of removal.” But removal involved hammers and breaking things. We pieced the new brakes together from that stupid parts explosion and educated but whiskey-soaked guesses. Most of a vehicle’s stopping power comes from the front brakes; I’ll be fine.

Then we replaced the flex hose at the rear axle. Tomorrow, we’ll put the drums and wheels back on and then bleed the system to see if it works.

Our last task was to disassemble the attachments on the doors and pull the door cards. This clears me to start working on trim pieces around the windows and repair the passenger side door handles at some point tomorrow.

Once again, George has documented our progress! I could get used to this.

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My day at the office started with this little accident which could pretty much sum up the whole mood for the day:

But I have decided to go ahead and play hooky as planned tomorrow, thanks to another colleague who has offered to represent my interests at the only meeting I really felt obliged to attend.

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Toward the end of the day, the week-long constant rain and cloud cover rather suddenly cleared so I went on a run and Evan did a bike ride. Then we continued our procrastination by getting takeout and making a run to the liquor store. Finally, we realized no one was going to make it happen if we didn’t — and we ventured back to the garage to put the new drums on the rear wheels and bleed the brakes.

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Evan was delighted at how easy and quick the brake bleed turned out to be. Apparently they usually take a lot longer and force a lot more air out of the system. He kept mentioning this throughout the process. Should I be worried? But the brake pedal feels as heavy as ever after we were all done. Guess we’ll find out.

With that done, we’re back where we’ve started: likely driveable. It feels quite momentous, actually. And it was still early-ish, so we started picking off some of the secondary items on my list.

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A couple years back, the passenger door handle broke and, rather embarrassingly, I have yet to fix it. Until tonight! This was probably the most egregious bit of my truck’s dilapidation and repairing it felt like repaying an old debt to a friend. It was annoyingly difficult, but I think the punishment fit my crime of letting it go so long.

While I did that, Evan applied some rust converter and primer to the floor under the bench. He also added and completed a scope creep item: he applied sound deadening padding to the inside of the doors and the floor. Even tapping on the doors with my finger is dramatically quieter than it was before — since the truck hadn’t shred of sound deadening material anywhere on it before.

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George put the rear tires back on and then worked with Evan on putting the replacement battery tie-down while I finished up some work on the doors and did a little cleanup. Breaking down a few of those parts boxes really made me see how much we’ve accomplished already.

Yet again, George offers the best record of the evening:

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Tomorrow, I imagine we’ll sleep in a bit, then get started on the window trim pieces while we wait for the bench to be ready. What I don’t know is how to squeeze in getting the exhaust replaced during business hours before I have something to sit on to drive. And of course the brakes still have yet to be tested and the transmission needs to be refilled…