In other news, I was working on a Hummer H2 that had a weird hesitation/ stutter upon acceleration. Then one day I was going to take it for a test drive with the scanner connected, and it died as soon as I put it into gear. There was no power getting to the "key on" circuits/ fuses under the hood. I spent a total of a few hours reading diagrams, checking circuits, bypassing relays... And nothing would make it start. So I went to the ignition switch, started following the pink "key-on" wire, and found this: Spoiler One of those shitty, twisted together, booger-soldered wires had power, and the other one didn't. So I followed them under the carpet, to find this... Spoiler I don't know how much you people know about mid- '00s GM vehicles, but they DO NOT have a floor-mounted dimmer switch. I decided to press it in, and lo and behold, EVERYTHING POWERED UP! It seems that boy-genius installed a kill-switch on his Hummer, and put it in one of the most likely places to accidentally get tripped. This was all completely covered by the carpet, by the way. Spoiler I ripped it all out. Fuck that guy. He's paying for every minute of diagnostic time.
Wow. At first I was thinking, "man, gotta love those asshole aftermarket stereo installers.." but this... this I don't understand. Did it kill the running/brake lights as well? So he could go full-dark while driving? Why would you do that, other than as a secret anti-theft device, maybe? I know some people who have a hidden fuel pump switch... sure, you get a block, but then the car dies. This is something I've never seen/heard of before.
Was the final diagnosis a timing issue? Like possibly two cylinders on opposite sides firing at the same time with one firing during the wrong stroke?
It almost looks to me like a flooded vehicle that someone bought for salvage and just did a jury rig repair to get it running and flip it.
It's a kill switch. Well, WAS a kill switch. The lights all still worked, but the whole block of engine fuses had no power.
Can't fire two cylinders at the same time. My guess is that the cam bearing spun, briefly locking the cam, shearing the dowel pin, and the pistons hit the valves.
I was helping my friend at his shop, a NC state trooper brought in his charger for a detail. The trooper neglected to mention the kill switch under the carpet, exactly like that hummer. Took forever to figure out how to start and move the thing.
Oh shit! My truck's A/C compressor started leaking! What am I going to do?! I guess I'll have to buy a new/ reman compressor, right? I've got two words for you: 1) FUCK, 2) THAT. I resealed that bitch. Here's how I did it. (I had already started stripping down the compressor before I got the idea of chronicling this, so some of the pictures don't necessarily match up. Got a problem with that? Take it up with my butt, he's the only one who gives a crap.) Spoiler This is the outer part of the A/C clutch removed. You can open the hood of your car to see what it looks like installed. It's held on with one 10mm bolt, and it has shims under it. THESE ARE VERY IMPORTANT, DO NOT LOSE THEM! If you omit these, you could end up with a compressor that will never turn off. Clean them up, and set them aside for later. Spoiler Once you remove the outer part of the clutch, you will be greeted with the inner part, which is retained with a snap ring (shown here already removed). The inner clutch will usually be a minor press-fit, and require a little bit of persuasion/ tapping to be removed. Spoiler Once that is out of the way, the next thing is the field-coil, the electromagnet that clamps the two clutch-halves together. You could technically leave this in place to do this job, but I removed it anyway to clean it. The plastic cone you see is the installation tool to keep from tearing the new seal. This picture was taken AFTER everything was assembled. You do not put it on before. Spoiler With the field coil removed, we can now see the leak point: The input shaft seal. Spoiler Here's what the compressor looks like, with the clutch assembly removed. Next step is to clean it up. More to come; don't post anything yet.
Here's the compressor, cleaned up: Spoiler It might not look like that much of a difference, but it makes a world of difference when you're working on it. Spoiler Now that (most of) the greasy shit is out of the way, you can see the snap ring that holds the input shaft seal in place. You could theoretically replace the seal from this point, but realistically, it's very unlikely that you'd get it installed properly, which would mean doing this job twice. So you have to remove the front housing. Spoiler Here's the outer housing removed. This thing WILL NOT come off easily. It requires tapping upward on the housing while pulling upwards, because the compressor uses spring-loaded dowel pins, which I will show in the next picture. DO NOT try to pry between the two housing halves. The gasket is laminated steel, and is reusable, unless it's really screwed up.This one looks just fine, so I'm putting it back into service. Spoiler Here, you can see the pain-in-the-ass dowel pins, which are a necessary evil. While we're at this point, pay attention to the sealing surfaces of the input shaft. Clean them off, and if there is any sort of groove in it, it's junk. This one is good to go. Spoiler Here's the inside view of the old seal. An important thing to mention here is that the inside of the case is very clean. If you see any metal shavings inside here, stop immediately and get a new compressor, replace your condenser, and flush out all of your refrigerant lines. You've got bigger problems. Spoiler Here's how you remove the snap ring for the input shaft seal. It is neither rocket science or brain surgery, but you need long-reach snap-ring pliers to get it out.
Now we're in the home-stretch: Spoiler Here's the old seal next to the new seal. This is the inside view, for the record. New seal installed. Spoiler Spoiler This is the seal installation "tool." It keeps the new, unforgiving Teflon seal from getting scratched upon installation. You install the new seal into the outer housing, install the snap-ring, lube the input shaft with refrigerant oil, and slowly slide it down over this cone. There will be some resistance, but just go slow and steady, and you should be fine. Spoiler Remember those shims I told you about a couple of posts ago? This is where they go. I put a little bit of oil on them to make them stick inside the clutch housing. Now you plop that onto the input shaft splines, bolt it on, and go.* *after vacuuming and recharging the system, of course. DONE. But open to questions.
I know very few mechanics that would go that route, nevermind regular joes that just do there own maintenance. Nice to know it can be done for relatively little money compared to compressor swap, though. My BIL bought an refrigerant vac/recharge machine, whatever they're called, for his shop. I'll definitely look back on these posts if I have the need. I can fix AC in a house, haven't had a need to fool with it on a vehicle, yet, knock on wood.
Make no mistake: I am only doing this because it's on MY truck. There's no money in these kind of repairs, unfortunately. If it were a customer, I'd just replace it.
So my truck is starting to piss me off more and more just small things. I know brand new trucks are expensive but god dam, F350 crewcab longbox XLT 4x4, no other options is over 72k with tax. 10 years ago the top GMC diesel with every option was 74k. That is some serious fucking inflation.
Yeah.... I ordered a Ram 3500 6.7 cummings Limited with a few special order things on it, and even with the trade in it was over $100k. I looked at it like it was the last truck I'll ever buy, so I bought THE truck I wanted for the rest of my life. It hurt, but worth it.
I've got a 2017 Titan. It came with a lifetime power train warranty, I hope to keep it long enough to actually use that warranty. If I ever need another truck and an EV pickup still doesn't fit my needs, I think I would buy an older one and just do thorough restoration and rebuild. I'd love to have a 90's F350 dually with the 7.3 fully restored. Come out way ahead financially. I don't think I will ever need $100k worth of truck.
To be fair, a big part of it is because I can. Otherwise I’d buy a used minimal Ram with the 6.7 to tow the trailer. But dude... air conditioned seats and 19 speakers.
Everything is insane right now. I was checking out a boat forum and someone was selling a 2003 Laveycraft with the 496 motor for $89K obo. A guy chimed in and said he bought the same boat, but a 2004 with the 525 motor in 2010 for $38k https://www.riverdavesplace.com/forums/threads/2750-nu-era-sport-off-market.235089/#post-4090708 Smog shop owner down the street has been eyeing a new 4Runner for a bit. Eventually pulled the trigger last week. He said they gave him a legit $10k more for his 2017 F-150 trade-in than they offered last year. Friend of mine is looking for their first home. Found a house in just a standard, run of the mill neighborhood for $600k. They offered $625k and got outbid by $50k. The fact that a starter 3/2 ~1700sqft home on a postage stamp lot in the greater Sacramento area is $600k is fucking nuts. If all this doesn't point to a bubble, I don't know what does.