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)
No comments:
Post a Comment