Tales Of A Mercenary Mechanic

[Rajobigguy]

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Well, this has been a fun filled and exciting day My friend past away two weeks ago today. His now widow asked if I could take a look in his storage unit, and send her some pics.

4ish years ago, I helped him put some of this stuff in there. My God, there is a lot. Today I did some mapping, like found where some of the motors were, and some other parts. Only one tool box is accessible, 3 others are not. She would like me to put together a decent set for her, but I believe the rest I will be selling at a later time. Majority of the boxes are not labled...and there are a lot of boxes. Holy crap...

So, I've been laughing at another thread. There are TDS people losing their minds about the stock market and tariffs. Troubles I assume are a well off person's issue. Over the past week I've been helping my friend's wife with stuff. He passed away in Maryland, his personal truck is in Maine. His home and wife are in Missouri, and the storage is by me. After some info hunting and phone calls, my friend's body should be in Missouri on Monday, and Death certificates as well. The VA was finally able to help.

People are crying about tariffs. I wonder what it's like for your life to be so perfect, that this is the only thing you have to worry about? I don't get it.

 

[4Waters]

View attachment 1491004 View attachment 1491005
Well, this has been a fun filled and exciting day My friend past away two weeks ago today. His now widow asked if I could take a look in his storage unit, and send her some pics.

4ish years ago, I helped him put some of this stuff in there. My God, there is a lot. Today I did some mapping, like found where some of the motors were, and some other parts. Only one tool box is accessible, 3 others are not. She would like me to put together a decent set for her, but I believe the rest I will be selling at a later time. Majority of the boxes are not labled...and there are a lot of boxes. Holy crap...

So, I've been laughing at another thread. There are TDS people losing their minds about the stock market and tariffs. Troubles I assume are a well off person's issue. Over the past week I've been helping my friend's wife with stuff. He passed away in Maryland, his personal truck is in Maine. His home and wife are in Missouri, and the storage is by me. After some info hunting and phone calls, my friend's body should be in Missouri on Monday, and Death certificates as well. The VA was finally able to help.

People are crying about tariffs. I wonder what it's like for your life to be so perfect, that this is the only thing you have to worry about? I don't get it.

Got some little converters there

 

[monkeyswrench]

Got some little converters there

There's 1 or 2 BTE power glides in there as well...we had some fun throwing together some stupid stuff.

 

[4Waters]

There's 1 or 2 BTE power glides in there as well...we had some fun throwing together some stupid stuff.

Few grand a piece, just don't let her sell them for what he told her he paid for them

 

[monkeyswrench]

Been here and there and everywhere it seems. Yesterday, went and worked on a whole slew of yard equipment. A riding mower that wouldn't start this year, one that hasn't started in quite a few, a towable mower, and a pressure washer that looked brand new...but wouldn't start.

The guy does yard and maintenance work for a rancher, and the stuff was at the ranch. I went down the road that had the name on the arch, and kept going. I passed a whole bunch of hogs in a massive pen...like a half mile long! After a bit, figured I was at the wrong part of the ranch, and headed back to the gate. On my way, saw something I wish I could have got a pic of. A small mountain lion bolted across the road and up a field...from the hog pen area.

I get back to the main road, and text the guy...oddly, I had service. He tells me that I was at the old ranch area, and to head up 3 miles the other way past the airstrip This here is a lot of land to keep track of...

I get where I'm going, and it's beautiful. Cows, pigs, turkeys and some loud guinea hen things. I spent a few hours getting the newer mower back up and running, as well as the pressure washer. Made a small parts list for the other two. Sometime during this, I tell the ranch hand about my sighting. He tells me the boss had took a couple of guys to get the cat, because it's been getting pigs. He gets the boss on speaker, to give him a location...they were getting dogs that could track it. The boss asks ranch hand if I was sure it wasn't a bobcat. "Smaller ears, long tail"
Don't know if they got it, but that cat was headed for a world of hurt...them boys take it serious!

After the yard equipment, was on to @The Chicken 's homestead. He'd turned out some new rollers for his tractor door. Previously, I had reattached the glass to the frame. Unfortunately, there was a first time. I'd used some 3M tape, and I got it all cattywompous. I should have made a centering jig or something. Once it was down, that was it. F'k!

So, removed door again, and stripped the glass off. Reattached with some snot that allowed a little leeway, but had to setup. Yesterday I went to reinstall the door. This door is a geometric puzzle from hell. The upper rollers are non-adjustable, so you have to angle the door just right to get it back on the tracks. The other fuckery, the top of the door seals inside the cab to the frame, and the lower to the exterior. Really cool how it works, total shitshow to install.
Oh, and the glass is something like 500$
And it doesn't really fit through the door...and you're kneeling on some medieval torture device as you fight it

Here's a pic of one of the rollers. This is a lower, much easier to install. They run on a threaded spindle, so you just have to line it up and extend it into the track.

It got some new seals too. It shuts tight, no rattles, but made me real nervous latching it the first time. The bottom 4" or so of glass is unsupported...500$!

One of the locals was hanging out by my car...highly energetic

This pic was from a week or so ago, when I was headed home. Some days are long, some aren't. Some require driving to some fairly remote locations. The days are never boring, and desk jobs wouldn't see stuff like this. Also, it helps you understand why people live out there...

 

[The Chicken]

I've had to change that Takeuchi door before.
It sucks.
I'm glad I'm not the one who had to do it this time!

 

[monkeyswrench]

Got the other front done! 2 down, 4 to go...and only 2 more Alcoas to polish. This one had never been polished. I didn't realize that until I was pulling it off. It still had lathe grooves on it, and the Alcoa sticker. Over the course of the past couple nights, I sanded it a little, and polished it up. Not a show shine, but good for a work pig. I have to fix a fuel leak on the injector pump/lift pump pickup line, and she should run again. Bits and pieces, slow going, but a truck like this is still fetching more than I'd spend, and more than I have.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Yesterday, did an oil change on a big truck. Near 10 gallons of oil, and a damn expensive filter the size of a muffler Ya'll with pusher coaches...big maintenance bills come with them. This was a known "work truck" on the boards here, the "Freightshaker". The thing is a true beast though, short of machining abilities, it can do near anything.

Today was a more "normal" day...kinda. started out with dropping a kid at school, ordering up parts for tomorrow, and doing an inspection. Inspection was on a 2018 Tahoe. Transmission done for, no codes, no tow hitch...only 68k on the clock. Poor people drove it up from the valley on Friday...and needed a ride home. The converter is shuddering, and wrecked the rest of the frictions as well. These trannys seem to have line pressure issues, valve body or pump related. Sucks, these are really nice vehicles. I like the 4L60 in the wife's car though!

From there, headed over to a lady's house to do rear brakes on a 2018 RDX. It's the one I did the timing belt on a few pages back. She'd called last week about an intermittent sound. I'd looked, and brakes were low. Weird though, squealing was far from consistent.

Got there with parts I picked up last week, and started in...

Yep, it was the snitch strip! The rotors were slightly grooved, looked to have ingested some rocks, or previous guy pad slapped. With the rears being solid/non-vented rotors, I opted to put new ones on. So much easier on small cars!

From there, went home to input my stuff from the inspection. Back to the school to pick up son, and went to pick up the parts I ordered this morning...then dropped him off at wrestling practice, filled up the 1/2 ton prius at the gas station, waited a bit then picked up son, to come home.
Luckily, by this time, wife had been home with other son for a bit...which meant dinner was already in the oven

Oh well, another day in the books. Time to hose off and get ready for bed.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Yesterday was an exercise in profanity. Tranny cooler line in a 7.3 Super Duty. Two things: The Dorman piece is close, but some bends may not lie on the same plane as intended. The other thing, I'm damn sure they are dropped in attached to the powertrain. It gets really interesting

Today, I went to Flagstaff for a couple inspections. Both locations, the service writers need a good thumpin'. The first is just a pain, leave messages, and never calls back. Got there, and at least the car was there. Did my thing, then stopped and picked up some parts for our resident off grid solar guru. He needed some things soon, but one of them has to be shipped truck. PITA, and I am in Flag once a week or so. As I'm waiting there, I see my front left is low. So, I air it up with a 12v compressor, and get going.

Service writer #2. Get there, and reiterate that I need to see the compressor wheel on the car, it's "damaged", and some codes. "OK, no problem. I'll get the tech." Mind you, it's about 10:30. He hands me the keys, paperwork and points my to the lot the car is in. About 10min later, writer comes out and tells me the tech called in sick, "I hope you have your tools"

Oddly, tools were pulled out for picking up solar stuff. So, that was out. Pretty sure I'm not supposed to teardown anyway. I did have my scanner with me, so at least did that. Lots of other codes they failed to mention. Some of which may be important. Some not.

Did my other stuff, but really couldn't prove or disprove a damn thing. Well, I tried. Pretty sad though, looked like the car had been there over a month already.

Then, get back to my car...tire is flat! Oh, I hadn't mentioned this yet, supposed to be at a meeting at my son's school at 2
Rolled back and forth to find the puncture. I had unloaded a floor jack this morning...and also currently have a stuff piled on my spare. Time to get creative.

I keep this little purse thing and a 12v compressor in the car...luckily, in the back seat and not by the spare.

In that bag, is that green gun thing. The silver cup on the end threads on to an Ice pick kind of thing. You shove the spike in and work the cup into the puncture area. You then pull the spike, leaving the cup in the hole. You load the gun with a rubber mushroom deal, and thread it into the cup. Pull the handle a few times, and it pops the rubber patch through the hole. Use the gun to pull the cap, which pulls the thing tight. About the 9 o'clock position, you can see the exposed stub. I water tested it, then used my knife to cut it flush, and water checked again. By water checked, I mean spraying water in the area with a hole poked into the lid of a water bottle.

I then hauled ass home, stopping half way to check the tire. With the wind blowing today, and the car being so light, it was hard to tell driving what was what. Still holding air!