Nissan Weekend #9

Number Nine weekend was different in a few ways; for starters it was Thanksgiving week, so I had a bit more time than my usual day to a day and a half. It was also the first time I've driven my own car up; I lost overdrive around the time I started this whole Nissan project, so I haven't been very big on driving it for any long distances. Although I would certainly tell anyone who asked to NEVER change transmission fluid after a problem develops (it's like changing the engine oil after a rod starts knocking); that was exactly what I intended to do this time. I found it interesting that all the fluids for both cars cost more than any single part on the car except for the fuel pump (and I haven't even bought the refrigerant yet).

I arrived later in the afternoon on Tuesday, and almost immediately got to work on trying to extract the stud that broke off inside the cylinder head on the last trip. I used to be pretty good at this type of thing; apparently this time I just forgot that I used to be pretty good at this type of thing. The stud was an 8mm, and I started off by drilling about a 3 or 3.5mm hole into the stud a little ways. Since the bolt snapped mostly from age, I assumed that it would most likely come out fairly easily (yeah, and we all know what they say about ASS-u-ME). I drilled partway in, and then put in a reverse drill bit style of "easy-out" ...and that IS what you call them; there are a variety of types. Since I started the hole, I put the easy out in, put the drill in reverse ...and the operating assumption is that while it's drilling (in reverse), it will eventually grab and turn the bolt right out of the hole. There are quite a few different types of easy-out's, and this type happens to be my favorite.

Or should I say, it was until it snapped off pretty deep into the stud. Then I kind of hated that particular type.

This sort of thing is generally a mechanics worst nightmare, and the fault on this one lay right at my own feet for having started out too small. For the laymen out there ...when one has to drill through metal, what does one have to use in order to do that?! ...HARDER metal of course. Once that harder metal breaks off in the softer metal, there IS no more chance of drilling through the hard metal. What I elected to try next was to try to drill a much smaller hole beside where the easy-out had broken, and then try to get the harder piece out. This idea worked fairly well until I drilled in a few millimeters, the drill bit snagged on the easy-out and snapped off right beside it. ...this sort of thing is the very definition of "fucked."

I then spent the next two hours masturbating while reciting the lyrics for every "Air Supply" song I could remember.

Okay, I didn't really do that, but I might as well have. It all sort of blurred together after that point. I tried a lot of stuff, broke more than a few drill bits ...and made absolutely no progress at all (of course). Eventually my sister came out and suggested that I wrap it up for the evening since dinner was almost ready. I declined on both counts since I had eaten a pretty large lunch before leaving Dallas. Between the large lunch and the two hour drive ...those may go a long way in explaining why I was a little bit less than wise in my strategy; I was certainly more than a little nauseous.

Of course, it might also have simply been that I haven't really worked in five years, and didn't really even remember the "correct" way. I think I made one or two more halfhearted attempts before giving up on it. One thing that anyone should keep in mind on almost anything is that once you reach a certain level of frustration, you simply can't work with a clear head. I have doubts that I even began with a clear head in the first place.

I elected to simply stop where I was on the Nissan, and go ahead and change the fluids on the Daewoo. As I said before ...I would never recommend changing transmission fluid after you start having problems. When I was still working, more often than not the car wouldn't even drive out the door after you changed the fluid. In my case, the car has no way to check the fluid though (it's a GM tranny; myself and a LOT of other mechanics cussed the car up one side and down the other when they came out with that particular piece of shit, and we started searching for the dipstick, not suspecting it was on the payroll in the GM engineering dept). There were no leaks, so I didn't really have any reason to think it would be low; I had dropped a quart of fluid in shortly before "just because" though, and it had started intermittently shifting into overdrive at lower speeds. I figured it might be worth it to at least give it a try ...and if it would no longer move, then I'd just have to find a transmission (which I'll have to do anyway).

I'd like to say that the fluid wasn't all THAT bad ...but it takes nearly two gallons of fluid (most cars only take 4-5 quarts), so it really MAY have been "that" bad. At least it didn't have actual chunks of metal in it. The engine oil looked like it hadn't been changed in nearly a year, but not that bad (it wasn't as though it had a huge amount of miles in that time at least).

Once I had that out of the way (maybe an hour or so), I wrapped it up for the night. Oddly enough, this was the first time I had done work that I didn't have to take a shower immediately after; none of the work was particularly "dirty."

I didn't sleep well that night; my mind kept racing about what in the hell I was going to do about that stud.

After coffee the next morning, I went down and got to work. As I said before, I think sometime in the night it occurred to me that I WAS a professional. This time I sort of narrowed my focus a bit; I used a very small drill bit and elected to make my single goal for the moment just to get completely through the stud. I probably snapped 8-10 bits, but finally was able to get all the way through. I hammered on the stud with a punch and then drilled again and again until at last, the harder metal pieces broke out with the hammering. The top 14-15mm was pretty butchered, but there were even a few intact threads left at the bottom, so I count myself pretty lucky in that regard.

The stud-shopping was a bit of an "experience" to say the least. There isn't a thing in the world unusual about an 8mm x 1.25 exhaust stud; it appears the most unusual thing about finding them is finding somebody at the parts house that remotely knows what they're doing. I looked up the studs online at Autozone and O'Reilley's websites, and was shown the part, but no part listing (N/A). I figured that it was likely just because they were SO basic, that they were most likely kept in the general hardware bins. I happened to be right by an Auto Zone and so I stopped in to ask. The guy looked it up and said it wasn't available. I asked him to go check the hardware bins ...to which he replied that they HAD no "hardware bins" for that sort of thing. I considered telling the guy to turn around so I could point at them ...they were in plain fucking sight from where I was standing at the front counter. I elected not to mostly because this sort of thing is something that I've grown entirely too used to at Auto Zone; for the most part, the employees either don't know or simply don't care.

I ran to O'Reilley's and got almost the same song and dance ...he looked it up, told me it wasn't available. I asked him to check the bins, and he went back and (almost) immediately came back with a box of studs ...slightly longer than what I needed, but definitely workable. I had noticed even on the last trip that there was another broken "end" of a stud in my little box with all the "exhaust stuff" ...but since I hadn't noticed another broken stud, I sort of assumed (ASS-u-ME again) that the machine shop guy had probably extracted it. Regardless, I knew I'd need more than one for "just in case" if no other reasons; I got three of them.

I had also finally gotten busy on my exhaust shopping in the meantime. I had quite a few choices before me on how to proceed with the system. The least expensive way would have been to have gotten a small section of pipe and welded in a universal catalytic converter. Given how the muffler was rattling around inside, I didn't hold high hopes of it lasting any real amount of time though. I had heard online in a few forums that I could have a custom system made. I looked up the individual pieces at the dealer and the pricing wasn't QUITE as bad as my worst nightmares; I guess what started the whole thought process ticking away was that when I googled "exhaust pipe" to look aftermarket ...I quickly found that the sections themselves were fairly inexpensive (there are 4 pieces total); the muffler and the catalytic converter being the worst (just the cat from the dealer was over $900). One thing that stymied me was that the dealer had discontinued the section from the exhaust manifold to converter ...but only on MY model (non-turbo, non 2+2). As I price shopped around, I was finally able to find an outfit online that I could buy the ENTIRE system in direct-fit replacement for less than $400. This was far and above the least expensive (almost by half), and the top selling point is that I'll never have to touch it with a welder or cutting torch. If anything goes out, I can simply bolt in the new component. The downside is that I have to wait longer to get them, so there was no trying them out on this trip.

I was still left with the less than comfortable feeling that the discontinued section might haunt me and decided a trip to the dealer might be in order to at least ask about it. Although they really had no answers on that matter, but I picked up a couple of the exact exhaust studs ...just in case.

Strangely enough, the aftermarket stud was almost perfect; the non-threaded sleeve section slid right into the butchered area on the head, and the threads appeared to grab right into the bottom. In retrospect, I wish I had used some super duper thread lock (since this is the kind of thing that can get you into trouble down the road), but it took the 16 lbs of torque when I put the manifold on, so hopefully it'll be fine. I rolled the engine over on the stand to bolt the other manifold on, and lo and behold ...I found the other broken stud that the machine shop guy had NOT extracted.

I drilled a 3mm hole all the way through the stud and filled the hole with penetrating oil. I widened the outer hole to about 5mm, and then used a 6mm easy-out to extract the stud. Total time spent: maybe 6 minutes. Total time spent kicking my own ass for not doing the first one that way: still counting. I guess it's mostly a catch-22 about confidence; you trust in your ability to start with the larger size easy-out, or risk the major fuck-up of breaking a piece of something off that may never come out.

I bolted the other manifold and cross-section back on. I had spent a bit of time painting all of the heat shielding since the exhaust paint was so useless last time, and it all looked quite pretty when I was finished. Now came the moment I had been waiting all this time for; I was at last ready to take the engine off the stand and hang it on the engine hoist again. I made the swap with no effort ...there were three more freeze-plugs to replace that were obscured by the stand. The was nothing wrong with the ones I removed, but I'd rather take no chances on a $.50 part that the transmission has to be removed to change.

I had suspected that I probably wouldn't have much help with re-installing the engine since my BIL was having to work much later than expected. I had taken it out in two sections (removed the engine from the top, and dropped the transmission out through the bottom); it always saves a LOT of time to be able to pull and replace them as a single unit ...the problem is that they simply won't both fit most of the time. The transmission is quite a bit longer than the engine, and they apparently call the under the hood area the "engine compartment" for a good reason. I still thought I might be able to swing it if I could get the front of the car jacked up high enough.

I bolted on the motor mount brackets, the transmission shield and engine braces, then went to grab the flywheel which was laying facedown on a floormat in the corner of the shop.

...a corner of the shop that had flooded a bit a couple of months before when they had 20 inches of rain.

When I picked up the flywheel, the mat came with it. I peeled the mat off, but the rust damage to the flywheel was pretty extensive. I used a wire wheel to clean off the worst, and then a sanding disc to take off the high spots. It didn't take long to figure out that it simply wasn't going to work in its present condition. The most aggravating thing was knowing I HAD another flywheel for it ...right in the shed at my apartment in Dallas. I had replaced the clutch in the mid to later 90's when I worked at Goodyear, and I had been almost certain that the flywheel & clutch disc was going to be metal on metal; I had bought another flywheel "just in case." It turned out that I didn't need it; it was in nowhere near as bad a shape as I had imagined (the car had over 100K on it). I had some machinist's read me the riot act when they found I had resurfaced the flywheel using a brake lathe though ...apparently that is a really bad idea, but it happened to work fine for me ...I never had any problems, and even when I took it apart this time there were no obvious problems or undue wear. You just don't NOT replace a $20 clutch disc when the transmission is out of the car no matter HOW good it looks.

So I had to call around a fair bit in order to find somebody who actually had the machining equipment to resurface a flywheel. I finally found a guy in Sulpher Springs (about 50 miles away) who agreed to do it. The downside was that on the drive, I quickly learned that changing the transmission fluid on the Daewoo hadn't exactly done anything for it except make it a bit noisier than it had been before. It looks as though I'll probably be finding a used transmission sooner rather than later. On the upside ...before I left, I was able to snap a picture that I'd been waiting nearly 5 months for:

I lost a pretty huge chunk of time on "the great flywheel diversion," but between that and all the time with the first stud ...it was being about par for this trip so far. I bolted the flywheel up ...I hadn't seen any real reason to replace the pressure plate; I simply knocked the surface rust off with my sanding disc and I figure it will be fine. I'll have to give a little bit of Auto 101 lesson for the laypeople to explain the next part though. An engine turns ...that's about all it does; performance is measured largely by how fast and how HARD it turns; short of turning the engine off, you don't make it stop turning; that's why you have a transmission/differential. The transmission has a splined shaft that slides through the clutch disc and mates into the flywheel (into a little thingy called the "pilot bearing"). The clutch pedal pushes a thing called the "throwout bearing" which literally pulls the pressure plate backwards, releasing the clutch disc (thus, the engine still turns, but the transmission does not); the disc is sandwiched in between the flywheel and the pressure plate.

The reason I'm explaining this basic little bit of auto class is so my reader will understand that once you bolt down the pressure plate, the clutch disc wont move. The pressure plate HAS to be completely tightened down because it's covered by the transmission once it's pushed into place. The disc has to be lined up perfectly between the flywheel and pressure plate, or the transmission WILL NOT attach to the engine. They actually make a tool for lining the disc perfectly ...I think I even have it back in my main box in Southlake, but since the engine wasn't in the car ...most of the time, I do fine lining them up by eye. The irony here is that no matter how good of a job you do lining them up, they still very seldom slide in without a fight. When the engine is still in the car, it generally still takes two or three people to wrestle the transmission into place.

This time, we have an engine dangling in the air from a chain ...and a single person with a transmission that is longer than the engine trying to wrestle it into place. I started by putting the tranny up on my tool cart and then lowering the engine to the perfect height.

Which did next to no good at all.

I ended up pushing the front of the engine against the hoist, putting the transmission under my arm and LITERALLY wrestling it into place. I used some longer bolts to suck them in the remainder of the way, and then officially had the two attached! I went ahead and installed every single thing I could think of that could be installed with the engine out of the car, then raised the assembly up and placed it with the transmission output facing into the engine compartment.

...and lost any doubt whatsoever that there was no way on gods green earth that I would be able to get that beast into the car all by myself. Almost on cue, my mother came out to check on me and tell me that dinner was going to be ready in less than an hour. I had already eaten lunch while I had been waiting for the flywheel, so I wasn't even remotely hungry. I asked if the BIL had made it in yet, and she said yes ...so I asked if she could send him out to give me a quick hand. She said that he was extremely tired and really wasn't feeling very well, and I told her that I wouldn't need him for very long at all. She reluctantly agreed to go ask him.

When he came out to the shop, he took one look and I thought I heard something to the effect of "no fucking way" but I told him to trust me, and just work the chain on the hoist. We rolled the hoist in, and I literally stood on the back of the transmission turning the entire assembly almost perpendicular to the car ...we had to give one hard nudge to get the oil pan to clear the front crossbar (where the hood release is at), and the whole thing slid right into place. I slid a jack under the back of the transmission, and as he lowered, the pretty (fucking) red prothane aftermarket motor mounts slid right into place on the first shot. Total time ...about 10 minutes. It wasn't so much that we caught any lucky breaks or anything ...it simply went exactly like it was supposed to. textbook.

I was tickled pink, I think the BIL was in awe. I slid out from under the car and jumped up off the creeper...

...totally forgetting that I *can't* do that (at least not without consequences). As my world turned into a washing machine spin cycle, my hand grabbed the side of the (wheeled) crane hoist while the BIL leapt forward to try to grab me, stepping on the (wheeled) creeper. I suspect we looked like a couple of magnets whose polarity suddenly reversed, and then we devolved into a Buster Keaton sketch.

There's a good reason I try to tell people that if I look like I'm going to fall ...just LET me! We both kind of wished we had a video of it though; I'm sure it was funny as hell to watch.

We got a good laugh out of it at least. I sent him back to the house for dinner and said I wanted to work a bit longer and at least get all the mounts in place. I think I spent perhaps another half hour finessing the engine mounts to the "just so" positions and getting the transmission mounts into place. Then I probably spent another half hour just staring at it ..finally back in the car (and taking a few pictures). I can't even say how much of a relief it was just to SEE it back in the car again after nearly six months!

I had told myself that I wasn't going to do any work on Thanksgiving day, but that didn't exactly work out as planned. I slept even worse Wednesday evening though; partly from my mind working, but mostly just because I was in a lot of pain. I took two advil and a valium to get to sleep, and then had to take another dose of the same at 4am.

I got busy Thanksgiving morning, and started by pulling off the front brake calipers to rebuild, since I had already done the rear (about the only two hydraulic components I have NOT replaced or rebuilt has been the brake master and the clutch slave), and the front was still jacked WAY up from the engine install. As I was cleaning those down and painting them, the BIL pulled their Jeep in. It had been making a horrendous squeaking noise, and between being in the business and actually owning one myself for so long ...I knew exactly what was wrong: sway bar bushings. It's ALWAYS the sway bar bushings! He had not been having luck finding any at the "usual" parts houses, so I ordered some pretty (fucking) red prothane bushings for it. The bushings weren't QUITE as cut and dried as simply taking the old ones off and bolting the new ones in, but at least we didn't need any presses either. While we did that, he changed the oil as well.

I got a bit aggravated when I saw him pull out the owners manual and heard him mutter "how many quarts of oil does this take? ..four?!" I hollered over "It takes six."

It wasn't an educated guess. Every six and eight cylinder on the road takes five quarts ...all but the Jeep 4.0 liter inline 6 (and they've been using that same engine for nearly 30 years); it takes six quarts. It doesn't hurt that I owned one myself, but you just don't forget the one oddball of the bunch. He kept looking and kept looking, and no matter how many times I told him...

...he finally put in 5, checked it and added the sixth. *sigh* There was another altercation with the rear suspension that I won't go into at this time, although it ate up quite a bit more time. Once we were as done with that as we were going to be, I got back on mine for another hour or so (until Thanksgiving dinner was ready); I re-installed the front calipers and gravity bled them, then pulled out the inner fender skirts and removed the remaining two (hidden) bolts securing the front bumper cover, and removed that as well. With the bumper cover off, the radiator was extremely visible; there was a very corroded looking spot that looked scary enough I figured I should take it back with me & have it checked out (besides, after all this ...why not redo the radiator as well?).

I had told myself that I wasn't going to do any more, but I still only ate a very moderate plate of the Turkey-day gluttonfest; when the Cowboys game started, I headed back out to work a little while longer. I mostly did everything that could be done under the car until the exhaust arrives. Driveshaft, splash covers, starter, all the underside wiring; I think I even made Mom's day when she came out once by having her help me bleed the new clutch master cylinder that I was just now getting around to installing. Although I went ahead and installed the alternator, power steering and air conditioner, I elected against trying to hook up the fuel injection until the next trip (although I DID set the injector plenum on top to keep the dust out ...and to take the picture below).

I almost have to find it a bit ironic that I really got the least amount of actual work done this time since probably "weekend 3," but I had by far the most visible results this time; I lost what probably amounts to at least a full day on the stud and flywheel, and more time still on the Jeep. But the engine is in, so it LOOKED good! The Sis and BIL sat down and had a talk with me Friday morning before I left, and essentially told me that I was welcome to take as much time as I needed on the car; they DID suggest that I consider perhaps coming out during the week to do the body work since I wasn't in any danger of hurting myself doing that work though. They both grate on my nerves a lot from time to time; I can only imagine how much the reverse must be true as well.

Sad to admit, but I think part of it was probably that the Sis and BIL may have needed to actually see the results that I've been largely visualizing all along (it's certainly been the only thing that's been keeping *me* going all this time). I certainly can't fault them on that; it's tougher for people who aren't used to this sort of thing.

Hopefully she'll be running again on the next trip, which will be Christmas week (as long as the weather cooperates). Most all the parts are in at last, so hopefully it'll all go downhill from here!

Nissan Weekend #8

We arrived a bit late for my eighth week of work on the car, so it was the next morning before I could really get a good start on things since this was also the first weekend since Daylight Savings Time kicked in; it FELT as though I had lost a ton of work time, but it was mostly just the sun going down sooner. I had actually been considering skipping out on the trip this time because I was still in the process of developing a really ugly head cold at the time, and didn't think it would be a really good idea to share that with the sister and BIL. My mind was changed when I found out that my sister already had a head cold that made mine took like the sniffles in comparison. I seem to have this thing with my health; I've learned how to ignore my own stuff, and don't tend to care much about how it's going to effect me (face it ...I always get sick after working on the car). I prefer to draw the line on that when it comes to sharing it with others though.

Since my sister had what appeared to be what might have been a slightly more virulent version of the Bubonic Plague or perhaps the Spanish Flu, I felt a bit more off the hook in that regard at least.

I had a few things happen in between visits; mainly, I had taken home the rear brake calipers to rebuild in the meantime. Since the ZX has 4 wheel disc brakes, the emergency brake is built into the caliper; it was my first time to try to rebuild one of that type and was certainly a learning experience. Most cars these days use a separate assembly for the emergency brake (generally a miniature drum system), so this was a pretty interesting system; it wasn't "difficult" to work on so much as small and tedious. Most of the tools that I really needed to do the job were in my toolbox at my brother's house in Southlake; mostly I just needed a good pair of snap-ring pliers (emphasis added). I ended up buying a new pair at Auto Zone since I had to buy some brake fluid to lubricate the rubber anyway (and the "universal" pair was only $12; probably less than gas would have cost to have made the drive). I spent more time trying to make the ones that I bought work (in an area that they wouldn't work in) than it would have taken to have actually driven to Southlake and back though (probably 5 times), but I finally got them done with what I had to work with. I had also bought some more high-temperature paint at Wal-Mart, and discovered that the buck I saved in price at Wal-Mart over O'Reilley's didn't quite make up for the shit quality of the paint. Not only did it take hours for the new stuff to dry (rather than minutes), it rubbed off when I put any kind of pressure on it even after it DID finally dry. They rebuilt nicely though, and certainly looked much "prettier."

The trouble with the transmission input shaft seal during week 7 ended up being a bit of a pain as well. It seems almost ironic that O'Reilley's would sell a seal that you have to remove a housing to get to, yet not only do they not sell the gasket for the housing ...the books show that it doesn't even exist! The guy at the parts house was trying to sell me some form-a-gasket for it; I think I wrote about mechanics and permatex two "weekends" ago. I told the guy if he was trying to sell me gasket material to use in leui of a gasket in an area where the transmission had to be removed to get to it, he had obviously never removed a transmission from a 300ZX before. This is one point that I think EVERY mechanic would agree on: you don't take chances on anything that takes a good four hours just to get out. Since I needed to find out about the part that had fallen out in peices anyway, it wasn't really all that much of an imposition to simply get it at the dealer. One of the other fuck-ups O'Reilley's made was they only given me ONE shock when I had ordered two ...originally, I had felt sort of "screw it" about the shocks since I thought they would still be good (I had replaced them while we lived in Irving, but had thought I had messed the threads up on one side). The side that I had taken off the last time wasn't the side I had forced the nut onto, and THAT shock was only marginal at best; I'd need both sides (besides, it's silly to go to this much trouble and skimp on something THAT basic). It turns out that the reason I had only gotten one instead of two was because that brand had discontinued my particular unit ...and rather than tell me they didn't HAVE two, the warehouse just changed the amount to one and sent me the one they had (grrrr). They upgraded me to a different brand/quality for the same price at least.

The parts guy at the Nissan house had to take the housing and the mangled peices out to the shop to ask a tech what they were, and came back to inform me that it was a shim. The bad news was that they came in numerous sizes. I hate guessing about such things (especially when it's a bit hypocritical to worry about a gasket, yet to guess on a shim size), but that's exactly what I did ...I got the size in the middle. The one that I got was a bit thicker than the mangled one, but not by much; given that the old one was in peices, I guess it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it had to have been moving around to have gotten chewed up in the first place. While I was at it, there were also two dust boots on the tranny that I figured I should ask about: one for the clutch-fork, one for the shifter (both were in bad shape, but not exactly unusable at least). I had found an online source for both of these, but they were a bit pricey; I was absolutely shocked when the DEALER wanted less than a quarter of what the aftermarket outfit wanted; I bought both on the spot (they even had both of them in stock).

The first thing I did when I got my tools unloaded and arranged was remove the fuel tank heat-shielding between the exhaust and rear differential and took them outside for a coat of paint; while they were drying, I took off the rear differential cover. The car is 23 years old, and to my knowledge that fluid had never been changed (besides, it was a good excuse to take off and shine up the cover). Half of the mounting for the rear end was attached to the cover, so it ended up being a bit more of a job than simply unbolting it with the air rachet; it wasn't too bad though. Not unlike most of the things on the car, it was simply a bit more time consuming than it would have been on ...say, a Ford truck maybe (yes, that was sarcasm; most people talk about stuff being "easier" on a pickup or whatever; the job itself is identical ...the only real difference is in the amount of crap you have to take off to get to it).

Once the cover was off, I cleaned and sanded it with the 600-grit sandpaper (ooooohhh ...SHINY!) and gave it a nice clear-coat. While that was drying, I pulled off the other lower control arm assembly and began cleaning off all the "crud" with a wire wheel, and getting the paint started on the smaller peices before going after the actual bushings on the control arm. My idea on the "week 7" post about drilling out around the rubber worked like a charm; the center metal sleeve pushed out with little resistance after drilling about 6 holes through it, although grinding out all of the remaining rubber proved to be no less of a pain in the ass than it was on the other side. I didn't even attempt to remove the sleeves this time. Once the rubber and the inner sleeves were out of the way, I taped off the holes and gave the control arm a nice coat of paint. This arm, I didn't go quite as "thorough" as the other side; I can't say as I missed the spots I did "on purpose" so much as perhaps being a psychological thing (or something) ...when I noticed that I had missed painting the inside section on the arm, I just kinda said "fuck it" since I knew you can't see inside of the damned thing (unless you are really looking) anyway.

One other thing I did was take the wire brush to my two exhaust manifolds and try out the black header paint (good to 5000 degrees, according to the can) I had bought. I used two coats on both, and couldn't really tell a whole lot of difference. I went ahead and painted the heat shields for the manifolds with the high-temp (500 degree) engine paint. The header paint was overly expensive and a total waste of money. It is probably closer to a "stain" than an actual "paint" ...but didn't make much difference at all in the looks except for changing the shade slightly. *note to self: if anyone ever asks, tell them not to EVER waste money on exhaust paint.

So now I had a bit of time on my hands. I went ahead and put the (nice, shiny and dry) differential cover back on the rear end, filled it up with fluid again and re-hooked up all the mounts. I almost felt guilty about not buying the rear-end and transmission mounts in (pretty fucking) red prothane, but always get over it every time I look at my checking account. I then went ahead and got after the transmission; I even sanded off the section by the shifter that I hadn't painted black on the last trip, and then gave it a clear coat before putting the new shifter boot on. I also removed the driveshaft cover to get at the rear seal, and found that I had managed to misplace the rear seal (that I had bought a month or so before) somewhere down the line. After looking around for an entirely unreasonable amount of time, I decided it would be faster to simply buy another new seal for six bucks and take care of it on the next trip. The input shaft cover, seal and shim went in almost without incident; I started bolting it down and then noticed the shim laying in the bottom of the bell housing (oops). I was a bit more careful the second time, and hopefully it's all fine (at least I was more aware the second time, but I still don't have x-ray eyes); I don't foresee any troubles, but anything "unknown" is still a bit worrisome.

The bitch about Daylight Savings Time is that it's a lot more difficult to "lose track of the time" when the sun starts going down so much earlier. The paint had mostly dried, so I slipped the new pretty (fucking) red prothane bushings into the arm and went to put it back on the car. I sat on the creeper, put it on my stomach, and slid up under where it bolted in. I was able to get it into place fairly easily and got the two main bolts put back in, then replaced my stomach with a jack. As I was starting to attach the bolts from the axle to the wheel hub, I had to deal with something a bit unsettling: I couldn't get my right arm up to put the bolts in. Not "the angle was all fucked up" or "I couldn't get the holes lined up" ...I literally just didn't have the strength in my shoulder to lift my arm that high. I had to wheel the creeper at an angle that I could place my elbow on my stomach and put them in that way. There was simply no more strength left in my shoulder; sometimes I can force it ...but this time, it basically just "told" me that it was done being forced. I hate being reminded that I'm a cripple, even when that particular problem isn't really even related to why. The shoulder hasn't been the same since. Oh well ...it always feels better when I look at what I started with:
I got the bolts hooked up, and was getting started on trying to figure out how to get the dust boots on the shock absorbers when two things happened. The first was that I figured out that JC Whitney had once again sent me the wrong part. It was a universal boot (I had kind of been afraid of that when I had first looked at them), but I had figured I could make it work. I had forgotten that the rear suspension design is pretty fucked up on the Nissan though ...they use rear shock absorbers rather than McPherson style struts, but the upper mount for the shocks is identical to the upper mounts used by struts, minus the springs. In other words, there was no apparent place to hook the tops of the shock absorber dust boots to since they don't use an upper shock absorber mount. As I was wasting way too much time trying various ways to make it work ...the sister and BIL came out and informed me that it was time to wrap it up for the night; it was dinner-time and I still had the next morning to work. The BIL looked at what I was trying to do though, and mentioned "did you try to attach it upside down?" I looked at it and had a "by Jove, I think that might work!" moment!

I also had a "but that's plenty for today" moment as well. It wasn't a pretty night for me; my right shoulder was in so much pain, I didn't get very much sleep ...even after taking a double dose of valium as well as Ibuprofin and Tylenol. It was also obvious that the cold that had started in my head was moving into my chest.

The next morning I got back after it. The BIL's suggestion about putting the boots on upside down worked like a champ; I hooked up the shocks and bolted the rear stabilizer bar back up. Getting the rear calipers on, adjusted and bled all by myself was slow, but nothing out of the ordinary really. Next came bolting the fuel tank heat shields back up, and then finally ...the fuel tank. The fuel tank was a bit more of a pain in the ass than I had expected it to be; the shoulder issue may have been a factor, but mostly I think it was just a general pain in the ass. The fuel lines are short (and more than a little bit hard with age), and the tank is large and bulky; about the only thing that might have made it easier would have been a floor lift. It took me a while, but I got it all back in and hooked up, although I may well have to drop it at least a little bit again later ...there seems to be a few problems with the filler hose neck being too loose; the bolt-ups even seem a bit off. None of this will effect getting it running, so I can fix that part at my leisure (although doing it before I put any gas in might be a good idea). Looking at the pictures, I'm thinking a nice coating of that black rubberized undercoating spray on the tank might not be a bad idea either.
I put the wheels back on the car, dropped it back into the rollers, and went back to the engine; I reinstalled the distributer and was ready now to put the exhaust manifolds on. The sister came out, and was really in "a mood" ...when I asked, it turned out she and BIL had just had a big fight. I think the gist of things is that my welcome was/is starting to wear a bit thin. There were words about it "taking so much longer than we had thought" (uhm ...not really; eight weeks including getting the car here from Waco isn't that bad considering all I've had to do; especially given my physical limitations) and "...how much longer will it take to be done?" (I couldn't even make a guess, although I'm almost positive I'll be putting the engine in on the next trip; I probably won't have it actually running on that same trip ...don't get me lying about the body work, but I guess I could skip that part here if I have to, as long as it's running). The fight must have been a doozy ...I've not seen my sister that upset in ages; her demeanor never improved, and she would barely even look at BIL when I came back up. We're all pretty stressed about how things are with Mom; I feel no anger to speak of towards them. Figuring things out on the fly is often just "what I do."

I guess that was just the note to end the weekend on too though, because just as I was bolting the first manifold on, a bolt snapped off inside the cylinder head. I took the manifold off, had one look at the (flush with the head) break ...and simply put my tools up. I was sick, in pain, and it appeared I was being presented with an although undefined eviction notice, still apparently an eviction notice. I was done for the weekend; and the next "weekend" was less than two weeks away: Thanksgiving (and I would have to come back to Dallas on Friday, due to some other plans).

Also tells you a bit on how far behind I am in my writing these accounts. Oddly enough, I had felt pretty bad about not getting very much done on that trip, but as I read about what all I did, it doesn't seem THAT bad. I took the cruise control servo home with me to clean up, but that was it this time.

'tis the season, I suppose. ho-fucking-ho!

The saga shall continue.

(wow, and it doesn't look a bit fucking different in this picture as it did from back in those "week 1" pictures ...hmmmmm)