Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
They are. Most of the problems have to do with the clutches. The rear main seal and/or the transmission input seal can leak and contaminate the friction linings. Ford has a procedure for cleaning them once this happens. My understanding is it’s a bit of a crap shoot… Sometimes it works, a lot of the time it doesn’t. Another issue they had was with clutch chatter and vibration. If it got bad enough, the only course of action was to replace the clutch. Ford at one point was pre-emptively buying back cars with DPS6 transmissions to avoid potential lemon lawsuits. I was told by a room mate of mine (we both provided technical assistance and advice courtesy of Ford) that the key to making the clutches in those cars last for any amount of time was to drive the car like it had a clutch. Once you got the car moving, you had to keep it moving since it didn’t have a torque converter that it could just stall against. (That’s probably not great for your ATF either, but tranny fluid is a lot easier to change out than a clutch lol.) Luckily for you, as far as I know it was only ever used in small cars in the U.S. (basically the Fiesta, the C-Max, and some Focuses) and was never used in the Fusion.
Hmmm… interesting, not exactly a new idea, but still interesting.
Pontiac had an option on the 1970 GTO’s that was known as “VOE” (vacuum operated exhaust.) As I understand it, it was basically a set of move-able baffles inside the mufflers that operated on demand via engine vacuum. It was only available in 1970 and was only available for a short time due to goofs in the marketing department- https://youtu.be/7JNj9sEdPF0
I’ve started seeing aftermarket mufflers like that on the market in the last few years. But if it was me, I wouldn’t worrying about any sort of silliness like that video shows on the Fairmont. Either have an “ON/OFF” loud switch for the exhaust or if you want to get really scientifical about it, research/figure out a way to have the cut-outs open up when you want them to when the loud switch is in, say “RACE” mode if you’re worried about back-pressure vs. flow, turbo-lag, etc.
Yeah, the repetititve hammer strikes of an impact gun really do make a difference… Giving any sort of stubborn fasteners a few tappy-tap-taps with a hammer or the end of a wrench or whatever is a great way to loosen them up, as long as you don’t mess up the fastener.
Using an impact socket will make no difference unless you have an impact gun. Impact sockets are actually softer than “standard” chrome-steel sockets so they’re less likely to crack and blow up in your face under extended rattle-gun use. They’re also generally heavier than standard sockets to better transmit that hammering action (more mass moving around=more force.)
You MIGHT be able to run a pneumatic rattle gun off your compressor if you give it all she’ll suffer, use good line, and keep the distance as short as possible… I was looking at the specs on some of Horror Freight’s higher end 1/2″ guns (I have one I use at work, and it’s not too too terrible.) and they’re both rated at 6 CFM at 90 PSI. But, if my junkyard fuel injector science is correct, as the pressure increases, so does flow. Another possibility might be a cordless or 120V plug-in rattle gun.
If you suspect the valve isn’t fully closing/seating, I would begin with a leak-down test. Based off your compression numbers, I would THINK that that’s a non-issue, but I’ve been wrong before. (We all have though.)
What about spark plugs? How did they look when you pulled them? Is it a coil-on-plug ignition system or something else? When trying to track down misfires, it can help to swap suspected faulty components (plugs, coils, fuel injectors, plug wires if possible, etc.) to different cylinders to see if the misfires “follow” the component.
Saw this thread recently and thought I’d throw my $0.02 in. When I first left the Army and went back to school, before getting fed up with it and throwing my hat into the automotive world, it was in a non-destructive testing program. If you’ve ever had or bought a part that was magnafluxed or “sonic-tested” (It’s called UT or ultrasonic testing in the NDT world.) you’ve had experience with NDT. A lot of NDT involves welding, inspecting welds, that sort of thing. To that end, I spent a couple months in the afternoons goinng through a basic welding class and having a blast cutting up metal and burning up 7018 rod. Here’s the stuff that stuck…
Basic welding methods- if you can imagine a way to stick two pieces of metal together, somebody’s already thunk it up. Lasers, explosives, thermite, you name it. If I remember right, there’s something like 100+ different welding methods. For the purposes of brevity, we’ll talk about SMAW, GMAW, FCAW, GTAW, oxy-acetylene, and resistance welding.
Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW)- Ah yes, good old stick welding. This is what I learned when I was going to school. Basically, you strike a welding electrode (A.K.A a stick) on piece of metal like a match and weld it up. If you want to learn welding, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND starting off with stick welding. You’ll lay down lots of gorilla snot welds. You’ll stick rods. But if you want to get into the other welding practices like GTAW or oxy-acet, you’ll have a leg up. The only consumable is the welding electrode and as long as you can get that sucker into a spot and strike an arc, you can weld it. Plus, the rods come in a variety of different flavors. Wanna seal up that pesky crack in a cast iron engine block? Heat it up nice and toasty with the torch and use a high-nickel rod. Need to make a field repair in the middle of nowhere? I’ve seen a video of a guy stick-welding off a deuce-and-a-half truck with a 24-volt electrical system using a pair or jumper cables and some vice grips as an elctrode holder. Seriously, learn stick welding…
Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) A.K.A Metal Inert Gas (MIG)- Apparently, this is the easiest welding practice to learn. What happens is a motor feeds a steel wire off a drum through a “gun.” Also being fed through the gun, outside the wire is an inert shielding gas. Pull the trigger on the gun, the wire and gas flows, you’re welding. Like I said, very easy to pick up, and very suitable to high-volume welding. Nothing against it, it has it’s time and place, but I feel that stick-welding is more versatile.
Flux-Core Arc Welding (FCAW)- Similar to SMAW/MIG but instead of the the shielding gas being outside a solid wire, the wire’s tubular and with a flux inside of it which burns and forms a shielding gas. I dunno, I kinda like my shielding gas OUTSIDE the electrode…
Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) A.K.A Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG)- Now, this is the king of the hill. If you’ve the dough and the itch to make some really nice welds, especially on exotic materials like aluminum or stainless steel or you just like multi-tasking, this is the way to go. A sharpened tungsten (which has amazing high heat properties) bit held in a welding gun passes electricity to the work piece while being shielded on the outside by an inert gas like argon. While this is going on, the other hand feeds a filler rod into the weld. Some GTAW set-ups also have a foot-pedal to vary the voltage being fed to the tungsten tip. The process is pretty much smoke and splatter free and can produce amazing welds. In fact, douche bag and carbon steel though they may be, Jessee James TIG welds all his bike frames just for the aesthetic effect.
Oxygen-acetylene welding- Part welding, part soldering. Essentially, you heat up the metal with an oxy-acet torch and feed a filler rod into the weld. Good for thin metal, but the torch is also good for other stuff we may discuss later. 😉
Resistance welding- If oxy-acet is good for thin stuff, resistance welding is even better. If you’ve ever seen spot welds on the under-body seam of a uni-body car, you’ve seen resistance welding. Two copper jaws get clamped around a couple of pieces of thin metal. Something like 10 or 15 kilovolts (yes, kilovolts, with a thousand) gets passed the jaws. That amount of juice melts the base metal without the need for a filler and the parts get welded together.
May add some more info later, but I think that’s enough for one night…
TL; DR- have a vijeo- https://youtu.be/2fUAHkUfTps
Depends on your budget and what you consider “top of the line” to be. For my money, KD makes a diesel compression tester that goes for a little under $100 online. (I’d figure $100 or thereabouts with shipping.) I work in a shop and I’ve got some KD stuff in my box. It doesn’t get used much, but it seems to be good quality. Downside to this tester is it doesn’t seem to come with a lot of different fittings, so there’s that…
I think your best tool for diagnosing whether or not you have a heater core leak is gonna be the fluids leaking from the vehicle. I can see a couple of possibilities here-
1. Fluid leaking from passenger side INTERIOR of vehicle. Fluid has sweet smell/taste. (or bitter taste. I have seen Chrysler-specific embittered coolant in the past.) Suspect faulty heater core or line.
2. Fluid leaking from passenger side INTERIOR of vehicle. Fluid has no specific smell or taste. Suspect clogged air-conditioning evaporator drain or line. This is water condensing on the evaporator. Normally, this water would drain out somewhere in the passenger side engine bay area, but if the drain becomes clogged, it can overflow and drain out in the interior of the vehicle.
3. Fluid leaking from EXTERIOR passenger side engine bay area. Fluid has no specific smell or taste. Suspect a normal condition. Water condensing on a cold air-conditioning line, the air-conditioning expansion valve, or draining from the condenser.
4. Fluid leaking from EXTERIOR passenger side engine bay area. Fluid is NOT water (DOES have specific smell, taste, color, etc.) Suspect other fluid leak. With the way most Chrysler vehicles are set up. (I have a similar vehicle, 2000 Dakota 4.7, manual) I would suspect an engine oil leak or a leaking transmission line.
Well, I don’t see this idea violating any of the laws of thermodynamics, so, possible, yes. Worth it, probably not.
I did one summer internship as a Ford service engineer a few years ago. My “commodity” as they called it, involved, among other things, steering systems. I went in having only read about electric steering in text books and by the end of the summer, I could tell you anything you wanted to know about Ford’s Electronic Power Assist Steering (EPAS.) For starters, the only serviceable component was the outer tie rods. That was it. When the rack failed (or even threw certain codes) you replaced the whole rack assembly. And they were expensive too. It depended on the make and model, but pretty much every rack was over $1,000. JUST FOR THE RACK!
They were finnicky too. Rack got too hot, you lost power assist. Voltage got too low or too high, you lost power assist. Rack encountered too much resistance because of a bad tie rod end or a binding strut bearing or low tire pressure, you lost power assist. In fact, the only F-150’s that didn’t use EPAS were the Raptors, probably because the EPAS racks just weren’t robust enough for that kind of application.
And then there’s the electrical and electronic stuff. Most of the EPAS racks used two massive fuses, and I mean MASSIVE. Like 80 amp maxi-fuses. Not to mention that the racks also contained the computer modules (and almost certainly some associated programming code related to steering operation, diagnostics, etc.) for the EPAS wired into the computer network for other functions such as stability control.
I think assembly lube slathered on all the camshaft surfaces (lobes, bearing circles) should suffice. The hive-mind says something like Permatex thread sealer on all the head and intake bolt threads with a bit of oil under the cylinder head bolt heads is the way to go.
It probably won’t work, at least the way you plan. The axle shafts between a ’77 C10 and 2000 F-body are almost guranteed to be different. (Inner spline count, length, etc.) If you want to give it a try, I’d recommend carefully and thoroughly reading this first-
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/ccrp-1204-budget-gm-rear-disc-brakes-swap-junkyard-builder/
My guess as to the clutch slipping when cold is that the previous owner had some sort of “race-y” (we’ll get to that in a minute) type clutch installed. The lining of clutches is similar to those of brakes. Certain brake lining materials (semi-metallics come to mind) have a coefficient of friction like a hot d***, but not until they’re warm.
As for the clutch slipping when it’s humid- same brake analogy. Some newer cars will actually automatically apply the brakes eeeeeeeeeever so slightly when it rains to clean any moisture on the rotors to maintain brake effectiveness. There’s probably moisture ingress into the bellhousing that’s affecting the clutch…
Clutch only lasting 12,000 miles? Well, at some point we were all young, dumb and full of… uh, love? Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the previous owner decided to offset the cost of his fleabay, made-in-Xuan Zhou “racing” clutch by not having the flywheel turned and then dumping the clutch at every red light.
As far as these stage 2 through 73 “racing” clutches go, they’re mostly designed to handle extra power while still being something you can deal with on the street. This is usually accomplished through different lining materials, heavier pressure plate springs, or a combination of both. Proper racing cluches may use some of these methods, but are most definitely something you don’t want to deal with in a daily driver.
Put some Stabil or other similar fuel preservative in the tank. Different regions use different blends of gasoline depending on the season, but I imagine a southern winter blend gasoline will be pretty close to a northern summer blend gasoline.
Change the oil if it hasn’t been done recently and fill it up with whatever viscosity you plan on using once the car is on the road. I’ve heard that blow-by gases from the engine can form acids in the oil pan that just go to town on the soft metals in bearings. Normally this isn’t a problem, assuming the oil is changed regularly. It is a problem for cars that sit for extended periods without fresh-ish oil in them.
Disconnect the battery so it doesn’t get drained. Better yet, remove it completely and keep it on a trickle charger. Most good shops do this with the batteries they have on hand so they’re good to go when and if a customer needs one.
Tires shouldn’t need to be changed, just make sure they don’t go flat.
To understand these torque ratings it’s useful to first understand how an ugga-dugga gun works. Inside most good-quality guns you’ll find a pair of heavy steel “hammers” that are driven either by an electric motor or some sort of, well, basically air motor. The hammers spin around and strike the output shaft thereby imparting a force to it. What the torque readings on these guns generally indicates is that the gun can remove a fastener that’s been tightened to a particular torque value or tighten a fastener to a point that when checked with a torque wrench, the wrench will indicate that the torque value is X-number of foot-pounds. Another way to think about this is removing a bearing with say a 20-ton press vs. a BFH and a socket. They achieve the same result, but in different ways. While the press/torque wrench does it’s job in one big “push”, the hammer/gun does it’s job through lots of tapping and knocking. Tap, the bearing moves a bit more, tap, the bolt turns a bit more…
There’s some marketing wank involved with these ratings as well. For starters, to my knowledge, there’s no agreed upon test equipment or procedures amongst rattle-gun manufacturers, but you can bet dollars-to-donuts that they’re gonna use whatever gives them the best rating for that particular gun in a perfect laboratory setting. Thus, your mileage in the real world may vary. To make matters even worse, some guns are “biased” meaning that they can achieve a particular torque rating in one direction, but not the other. But of course, the manufacturer is gonna market the gun using whatever value is highest.
While weight, size, and price are important considerations, IMO more power=more betterer. Look at it this way, they’ll both (ostensibly) loosen a fastener that’s been torqued to 600 ft/lbs, but I gurantee you the bigger gun will it do it faster. As far as screwing up fasteners goes, I wouldn’t worry about it. At one point, I worked at a salvage yard that specialized in Jeeps. Most of what me and the other guys blew apart was 20+ years old, some of it was 40+ years old. Even in a drier climate like where I live, rust and corrosion will eventually take their toll. We always sold frames and body pieces seperately and some of those body-to-frame bolts were STUBBORN f***ers. Our SOP was to hit them with the ugga-dugga gun until they either came loose or broke clean in half from fatigue. I don’t think we ever broke just the head off of one. In fact, most of the heads that we did break off (we tried to avoid this obviously, but s*** happens sometimes) were on smaller fasteners that had too much torque applied to them in one big “push” with a breaker bar or a cheater pipe.
-Box to keep all your stuff in. Starting out, a little 5 or 6-drawer service cart like this works great- https://m.harborfreight.com/tool-storage/tool-carts/30-in-5-drawer-glossy-red-tool-cart-61427.html
Even a lot of experienced techs will have a little cart like this that they keep the tools they use the most in and a bigger box where they keep the tools they use less in. The inside of the lid makes a great place to tape a wheel lug nut torque chart (just make sure it’s laminated.) I’ve also doodled the rotation patterns for both FWD and RWD/4×4 cars on mine with a paint marker because I can never f***ing remember the patterns and you just look like a lazy a** at work if you have to look it up on your phone.
-“Thin wall” sockets. These are like regular impact sockets, but the outside has a plastic liner that doesn’t scratch wheels. They can be bought as a set with the most common lug nut sizes. Despite their name, they’re rated for rattle gun use.
-Oil filter wrenches/pliers/whatever. I like to use flex-head, band type oil filter wrenches, with a pair of good-sized Channelocks when those don’t work lol. REMEMBER, oil filter wrenches/pliers/whatever are for taking filters off, NOT PUTTING THEM ON. Whoever has to work on the car next, whether that be another lube tech or a service tech, will thank you.
-Oil filter housing socket set. Basically a set of sockets for removing the “caps” on newer cartridge-type oil filter housings.
-Inspection light. Wally World sells a pretty nice one made by Coast that runs on AAA batteries for a whole whopping $10.
-Small prybar. About 12 to 18 inches should work. This is useful for removing hub caps.
-Brake pad inspection gauge. Used for measuring the thickness of the linings on brake pads. You can buy these individually however, if you plan on making the automotive field your career, I would recommend buying a brake service kit. These kits usually include these gauges, plus other tools for servicing brakes.
-Tire tread depth gauge. Can be purchased at most parts stores for a couple of bucks.
-Tire pressure gauge. Don’t cheap out on this. I’d recommend finding an all-metal “pencil” model with a tab on the back of the head for removing air if necessary. A good one like this shouldn’t cost you more than $5 though.
-Tire chuck. For inflating tires. Most guys I know like the models with a digital pressure read-out.
-Rubber mallet/dead-blow hammer. Sometimes because of galvanic corrosion (corrosion between dis-similar metals) alloy wheels can get stuck to brake drums and rotors. When this happens, a good whack on the inside edge of the wheel/tire is usually all it takes to remove it. A soft-faced (rubber or plastic) hammer prevents damage to the wheel.
-Valve stem core removal tool. For quickly deflating tires. Usually available at parts stores for a couple bucks.
-Coolant tester. Looks like a turkey baster, but with either some balls or a pointer inside of it. If your employer requires you to check the vehicle’s coolant as part of your service, these can help you see the color of the coolant as well as tell you the freezing/boiling temperature of it.
-1/2″ breaker bar with a 1/2″ to 3/8″ adapter. Works great for cracking stubborn 3/8″ drive drain plugs on axles and such.
-Clear or white zip ties. The longer the better. If you’re required to check the color and condition of brake fluid, power steering fluid, gear oil, etc. as part of your service, you can stick the tip of one of these into a drain plug opening or a reservoir, get a little bit of fluid on the end of it, and get a better idea of the color and condition of the fluid.