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May 12th, 2012
 | 04:06 pm - Automotive misc.
Took on a couple minor things on the Mercedes that were non-critical, but had been annoying me.
First was the climate control system. The car has automatic climate control, and it worked, after a fashion, but it was always overshooting in cool weather -- it would heat for too long, then blow cold air for too long. From reading other people's comments on the system, it seemed the problem was likely to be a foam hose that goes to a vent on the dash that samples the air temperature. When it fails, the system samples the temperature inside the dashboard instead of the temperature in the car. I took out the glove box to access it and, sure enough, the 30-year-old foam hose was rotted out. As luck would have it, I'd bought some foam pipe insulation a while back to stuff a costume tail with, and the leftover length turned out to be precisely the right size. I won't get a chance to test the fix until this evening, most likely, when things cool off -- the A/C hasn't worked since God was a boy, so it's really only the heater that I'm hoping will function more smoothly.
Secondly, I went through and troubleshot the central locking system. On this car it's vacuum-operated and of the typical European "all the doors mimic the driver's door lock" style. The vacuum line to the whole system had been plugged off, which is usually a sure sign of a massive leak somewhere that someone didn't want to deal with. There are five vacuum elements that operate the locks -- one in each door (except for the driver's door, which has the control valve), one in the rear hatch, and one for the fuel filler flap. This system has a reputation for being tough to troubleshoot, but it's pretty easy if you have a MightyVac or some other hand-operated vacuum pump; just take apart the tee connectors under the carpet and test each part of the system individually. Three elements turned out to be bad, but two of them were bad only on the unlock side. So, by selectively plugging off hoses, I now can lock everything except the rear hatch from the driver's door, and unlock the passenger door and fuel flap. Eventually I may replace the bad parts to get the whole system working, but at the moment it's not worth the $75 or so in parts it will cost to do that.
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March 29th, 2012
 | 06:54 pm - I smell like 90-weight
Hm, never did post about the automotive work I did this weekend, although I did tweet about it.
The Mercedes needed a new left driveaxle. One of the CV boots had gone and steadily increasing driveline vibration told me it wasn't going to last much longer. I'd been putting it off a bit because the job is a messy pain in the ass; unlike more modern cars where you can just unbolt the CV joint from the drive flange on the diff, on this one the differential has to be opened to remove a circlip that retains the axle's splined shaft inside the diff.
All things considered it went fairly smoothly. The fill plug in the diff turned out to be stuck — very stuck, I'm guessing, since someone had managed to mostly strip the 17mm internal hex. I ended up refilling the diff through an air vent on the top. This worked but was slow, and I ended up wearing some of the gear oil on my arm because I had to keep lifting the hose out to let the air out as I added oil. If you've never experienced the smell of hypoid gear oil, let me just say it is not quickly forgotten. It has a strongly sulfurous smell, a bit like someone startled a skunk while it was bathing in used motor oil. By the time I was done I smelled like it, the garage smelled like it, and the hallway outside the garage smelled like it...
The hardest part of the job was actually getting the circlip back on the axle. It was far too big for my circlip pliers, and in too restricted a spot to really get to with circlip pliers anyway, so I had to resort to tapping it back into place with a punch. Every time I got it crooked it popped back out and landed five feet behind the car. It took about two hours, but eventually my persistence won out.
I had already planned to replace the diff mount, which also serves as the rear subframe support, because it has to come out to do this job anyway. I'm glad I had a replacement on hand; the old mount turned out to be bent. Not sure how they managed that...maybe by jacking the car up by it with a very heavy load in the back? Anyway, this probably explains my uneven rear tire wear.
Tip: When you have to support something like a differential or engine while removing/reinstalling a mount, use a scissor jack instead of a hydraulic jack. It gives you much finer up/down control and it won't slowly sink under load.
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February 20th, 2012
| 07:55 pm
The timing belt change on the Honda is done (along with all the other stuff I decided to do while I was at it.) This is the first modern car I've done a job this extensive on -- modern, that is, in that it's not a chassis designed in the 1970s. Some of the changes are interesting. For example, there seem to be very few flat gaskets; the water pump gasket and even the valve cover gasket are O-ring type seals that fit into machined grooves. There are also some interesting design touches that are obviously meant to facilitate automated assembly -- for example, some of the engine mount studs taper to points, so they can act as locator pins when the engine is lifted into place from below. Likewise, the water pump has sleeves around two of the bolt holes to make it self-centering when it's pushed into place
I actually don't have a lot of major complaints about this job, except that some of the timing cover bolts are very tricky to access. (Perhaps it would be easier if I had smaller hands.) Also, the alternator belt is a pain to adjust. They gave me nice little jack-screws for adjusting the tension on the power steering and A/C belts; why couldn't they give me one for the alternator, too, instead of making me use a pry bar?
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February 18th, 2012
| 10:26 pm
The thing about doing a big car maintenance job like a timing belt change is it tends to expand due to "while I'm in there" syndrome. It starts with, "while I'm in there, I might as well replace the water pump too." And then, "while I have the valve cover off, I might as well set the valve clearances." And then you notice the spark plugs you took out look kinda worn, and maybe a new valve cover gasket would be a good idea, and oh yeah the rubber in that engine mount you took off to get to the timing belt looks pretty hashed...
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February 11th, 2012
 | 07:51 pm - Yet another old radio (Crosley JM8GN "Magic Mood" portable)
I recently acquired an interesting radio from my late grandfather's estate.
This is what collectors would call a "novelty radio" -- it's a battery-powered portable shaped like a book. Made in the late 1950s, the instruction sheet proudly declares it to be a TRANSISTOR radio, but it's actually a tube/transistor hybrid, with three subminiature tubes and two transistors.
( More pics and info behind the cut )
So does it play? I don't know yet. As was typical for tube portables it takes a high-voltage "B" battery, in this case 45 volts, and a 4-volt "A" battery for the filaments. These are no longer made and modern equivalents wouldn't fit in the case; however, I may power up the bare chassis at some point just to see how it does. The set appears to have been used at least once but, like a lot of tube portables, doesn't appear to have seen much use.
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February 9th, 2012
| 05:22 pm - Punch lists
Decided to stick the punch lists for the two cars up on Trello, so I wouldn't have to keep track of the little scraps of paper I'd written them on before. here they are, if anyone's curious. The Honda's is longer mostly because I just got it and have to take care of maintenance items that may have been deferred by the previous owner.
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February 2nd, 2012
| 11:19 am
After working on the Mercedes diesel, there's a certain difference in scale with the Honda that's sometimes startling. Today I was looking up how much coolant I needed to flush and refill the cooling system. I was thinking in terms of "how many gallons?" -- the Mercedes takes 11 liters, almost 3 gallons. The Honda's capacity turns out to be...four quarts.
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January 29th, 2012
| 04:34 pm - Minor automotive update
Took the Del Sol in for new tires and a wheel alignment yesterday, those being two jobs I simply don't have the equipment to do myself. The alignment was slightly out, which explains why the car had a mild pull to the right; it will happily track arrow-straight with my hands off the steering wheel, now. I also took it through a carwash, and was gratified to find no leaks from the targa top. These cars have a reputation for being leakers but mine seems to have good seals. I have a minor squeak from the top when the body flexes; I need to pick up some of the special silicone grease Honda sells to lube the seals.
Today I rotated the tires on the Mercedes. Normally I'd leave that to a shop, too, but I wanted a good look at the brakes and suspension. Everything seems okay except that the left inner CV joint boot split clean in two when I jacked up the back end, so now I get to add "new drive axle" to the to-do list. Whee!
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January 20th, 2012
| 04:12 pm - Bread Machine Recipe: Honey Nut Cheerio Bread
This recipe was born when I wanted to make granola bread, but didn't have any granola and decided to try a different cereal. It's very tasty toasted or as a base for breakfast sandwiches.
1-1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp sugar
3 cups (380g) flour
1 cup Honey Nut Cheerios
2 Tbsp dry milk
1 tsp salt
1-1/4 tsp yeast
Use the "white" setting. Makes a 1-1/2 pound loaf.
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December 26th, 2011
| 08:29 pm
About two days ago I noticed the Del Sol had started making an odd, chattery, rattling sound at certain speeds and throttle settings. It was intermittent, and the sort of thing you really couldn't hear well unless the stereo was off. I couldn't duplicate it by revving the engine in neutral. It bothered me because I couldn't identify it. Today I inspected the engine bay (again) and finally noticed that the center bolt on the left engine mount had backed out most of the way, letting the engine drop slightly lower on that side.
Fixing it was a simple matter of jacking the engine up to take the weight off the bolt and tightening it back up. One minor complication was I found the car was too low to get my floor jack under the oil pan; I ended up using the tire-changing jack instead, because it's a scissor jack and collapses down a couple inches thinner than my regular floor jack.
My original reason for being in the engine bay was to confirm the engine number, so I could order a timing belt kit. I'm going to take on that job in the next few weeks, since it appears to be due. I'm going to replace the tensioner and water pump as well, as long as I'm going to the trouble of getting in there.
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