"Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's ALIIIIIVVE!"
Yes, Järn LIVES!
Got home yesterday and got on my greasemonkey duds and went outside to hopefully finish up my this round of repairs.
Wedged in the new fan shroud, bolted on the fan blade, tightened up the alternator and the A/C compressor. Next, I had to fix another little problem I've known about for a while--the fuel injection fuse. You Volvisti know that the 25 amp blade fuse is located in a peculiar place--right next to the left fender. Right where water can get on it and corrode it and cause the injection unit to give up. I had earlier gotten into a fix with this thing when I took the fuse out to clean the contacts, and the next morning had an awful time getting it cranked. Seems I should have just left it alone since it was working. Anyway, I decided to replace the holder with a new waterproof one. Good thing--in this past go-round of repairs, I found that the original plastic had deteriorated and cracked apart, and the interior wires had become exposed. How it kept working, I have no idea.
I got something simiar to this from the Advance Auto Parts down at the foot of the hill--it really would have been better if the one I got had 10 ga wire in lieu of 12, and as with all underhood electrical stuff, I should have soldered the new holder into place, but it's rated for 30 amps so I let it go, and instead of dragging out the extension cord and soldering iron, I made due with heavy duty crimp connectors. I also made sure to put some heat-shrink tubing around the connection to keep out any other stray moisture. That done and put away, it was time--hooked up the battery, filled up the crankcase with oil, and got ready for the fateful moment.
I put the key in the ignition switch and took a deep breath. Turned the key--bzzutt-zut-buruhhh-pudda-pudda-pudda-pudda-pudda-pudda.... IT WORKS! IT WORKS IT WORKS IT WORKS!!
There is very little in the world that gives you that nice warm feeling all over as when you've torn something up and put it back together again and it works right the first time. Especially when it's a car. Seemingly so simple--fuel, air, spark--but so fiendishly full of hidden evils that can come up and ruin everything. All that jimmying I had to do, all that moving and tightening and loosening and turning and twisting--for such a little bitty engine, there was a lot I could have messed up on. But didn't. It's like Churchill's quip about there being nothing in life as exhilarating as being shot at without result.
The only nervous moment was right after I cranked it and nearly a quart of water started spewing out the tailpipe. My first inclination was to have a heart attack and think I'd developed a cracked engine block, but apparently it was just water that had accumulated in the muffler as it sat. I took it for a slow drive around the neighborhood to see if anything cropped up. Not a thing, other than him feeling a bit more arthritic in his suspension than usual. Back home to the driveway, and clambered underneath to check for leaks.
Not a drop.
And not a drop this morning, either!
Before, he could be reliably counted upon to soil his parking spot with a nice circle of oil every time he was parked for any length of time, but it seems we've conquered that bit of ill manners, too.
It sure is good to have it running right again--I even stopped and bought him a bath this morning at the gas station.
I still have to put the new splash pan on, but I think I need to clean it a bit more underneath beforehand, and I also want to put on my lower subframe braces I bought a while back.
Another thing I did was to do away with the heat riser stove and tubing. Mine has been in tatters since I bought the car, and I really doubt any actual heated air ever made it to the filter box back during the winter, and it ran fine regardless. I have gotten a bit paranoid about the system, though, mainly because several sources have noted that the little thermostatically-controlled door in the filter box does eventually fail (the control unit, that is), and it fails in a position to let heated air continue into the air-mass unit unabated, which can cause THAT to fail from too much heat. And THAT air-mass deal is a VERY expensive part. Again, I don't think mine was in any danger of getting too much heat with all the leaks the tubing had, but it was still ugly looking and I didn't want that. So, off with the hose entirely. The sheetmetal stove was removed from the exhaust manifold, too, since it was now not needed, although I may put it back on later if it seems that everything nearby is getting too hot without the shielding it provided. The only thing left to do is to close the bottom hole in the filter box where the hose attached--this should be easy to do with a plastic lid of some sort that I'm sure I have around the house.
Anyway, it was a good afternoon, finally.
Got home yesterday and got on my greasemonkey duds and went outside to hopefully finish up my this round of repairs.
Wedged in the new fan shroud, bolted on the fan blade, tightened up the alternator and the A/C compressor. Next, I had to fix another little problem I've known about for a while--the fuel injection fuse. You Volvisti know that the 25 amp blade fuse is located in a peculiar place--right next to the left fender. Right where water can get on it and corrode it and cause the injection unit to give up. I had earlier gotten into a fix with this thing when I took the fuse out to clean the contacts, and the next morning had an awful time getting it cranked. Seems I should have just left it alone since it was working. Anyway, I decided to replace the holder with a new waterproof one. Good thing--in this past go-round of repairs, I found that the original plastic had deteriorated and cracked apart, and the interior wires had become exposed. How it kept working, I have no idea.
I got something simiar to this from the Advance Auto Parts down at the foot of the hill--it really would have been better if the one I got had 10 ga wire in lieu of 12, and as with all underhood electrical stuff, I should have soldered the new holder into place, but it's rated for 30 amps so I let it go, and instead of dragging out the extension cord and soldering iron, I made due with heavy duty crimp connectors. I also made sure to put some heat-shrink tubing around the connection to keep out any other stray moisture. That done and put away, it was time--hooked up the battery, filled up the crankcase with oil, and got ready for the fateful moment.
I put the key in the ignition switch and took a deep breath. Turned the key--bzzutt-zut-buruhhh-pudda-pudda-pudda-pudda-pudda-pudda.... IT WORKS! IT WORKS IT WORKS IT WORKS!!
There is very little in the world that gives you that nice warm feeling all over as when you've torn something up and put it back together again and it works right the first time. Especially when it's a car. Seemingly so simple--fuel, air, spark--but so fiendishly full of hidden evils that can come up and ruin everything. All that jimmying I had to do, all that moving and tightening and loosening and turning and twisting--for such a little bitty engine, there was a lot I could have messed up on. But didn't. It's like Churchill's quip about there being nothing in life as exhilarating as being shot at without result.
The only nervous moment was right after I cranked it and nearly a quart of water started spewing out the tailpipe. My first inclination was to have a heart attack and think I'd developed a cracked engine block, but apparently it was just water that had accumulated in the muffler as it sat. I took it for a slow drive around the neighborhood to see if anything cropped up. Not a thing, other than him feeling a bit more arthritic in his suspension than usual. Back home to the driveway, and clambered underneath to check for leaks.
Not a drop.
And not a drop this morning, either!
Before, he could be reliably counted upon to soil his parking spot with a nice circle of oil every time he was parked for any length of time, but it seems we've conquered that bit of ill manners, too.
It sure is good to have it running right again--I even stopped and bought him a bath this morning at the gas station.
I still have to put the new splash pan on, but I think I need to clean it a bit more underneath beforehand, and I also want to put on my lower subframe braces I bought a while back.
Another thing I did was to do away with the heat riser stove and tubing. Mine has been in tatters since I bought the car, and I really doubt any actual heated air ever made it to the filter box back during the winter, and it ran fine regardless. I have gotten a bit paranoid about the system, though, mainly because several sources have noted that the little thermostatically-controlled door in the filter box does eventually fail (the control unit, that is), and it fails in a position to let heated air continue into the air-mass unit unabated, which can cause THAT to fail from too much heat. And THAT air-mass deal is a VERY expensive part. Again, I don't think mine was in any danger of getting too much heat with all the leaks the tubing had, but it was still ugly looking and I didn't want that. So, off with the hose entirely. The sheetmetal stove was removed from the exhaust manifold, too, since it was now not needed, although I may put it back on later if it seems that everything nearby is getting too hot without the shielding it provided. The only thing left to do is to close the bottom hole in the filter box where the hose attached--this should be easy to do with a plastic lid of some sort that I'm sure I have around the house.
Anyway, it was a good afternoon, finally.
posted by Terry at 7/14/2006 10:11:00 AM
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