Let’s just say that today brought with it a mountain of opportunities to practice patience. And… that’s really good thing–hard, for sure, but a good thing. No growth without challenges to face. And today had plenty of challenges.
They started early today, much like yesterday. I think I focused on gratitude yesterday, so the challenges weren’t ever described, but they started quite early and kicked my butt quite a bit.
Anyway, today was similar. The first job I went to… well… kicked my butt. It was back to that blasted Ford Ranger with the misfire on cylinder 2. When I left it last time, I’d tried putting in a coil because it had power into the coil but weak park coming out of two of the towers on the four-tower coil, so… easy diagnosis, right? Power in, not correct power out.
Except… I put in a new coil, and… same problem. Weak spark at the same two coil towers.
😶
Okay… so the what? Well, I hear arcing in the electrical connector to the coil, so I buy a new pigtail, wire it in. That should solve it!
Nope.
Same problem.
Really?!?!
So… I just started grasping at straws. Both plugs on cylinder two looked pretty gnarly, so I replaced them. The wires on cylinder two were oversized where the contacts touch the plug, so I replaced them.
Still no dice.
I did a compression test.
Fine.
Injector pulse test.
Fine.
What. The. Heck!
I ended up throwing up the white flag because I had other cars I really needed to go to. I think I’m going to have David go back and take a look at that one. I was pretty frustrated.
After the Frod, I had a couple of easy jobs, which was nice. Then I went to one that was going to be a good one. A bit late in the day and a longer one to be late in the day (I think it was a bout 6:30 when I got there, and I figured it’d take about 2-3 hours.
Well… shall I tell the tale? Ooof. It was rough (it’s *still* rough, if that gives you an idea).
It was a coolant leak. GM decided to make some connector pipes out of plastic, and they’re notorious for leaking on some of the models. It’s a repair I’ve done before. Not that big of a deal–usually.
But when I got everything pulled apart, all four ends of the bypass tubes broke off inside their metal housings. two inside the tensioner (yes, you read that correctly. GM put coolant passages through the belt tensioner housing!!! Of all the…
Yes, Granddad, it is “General Motors junk.”
Anyway, so two ends broken off there, one inside the water pump, and one in the plenum!
Ugh.
Ugh!!!
So now I have these plastic ends that are busted off, and the plastic is chemically bonded to the metal. Awkward places. Crumbly. Can’t let little pieces go further in.
Nightmare.
But then I had an idea! My spark plug easy out kit!
It worked! I was able to get them out. It took some work, but they worked!!! I got all the plastic out, and it was amazing. But when I looked where the pipes had been, there was so much nasty residue, and I needed to clean it out because it was likely not going to make a good seal with the new parts and would just leak again unless the residue was cleaned. So… I had to clean the residue.
I had several bright ideas for that as well. Nylon drill brushes that wouldn’t scratch the mating surface of the two parts. Wooden handled tools to scrape the harder residue the nylon brushes couldn’t handle. Then… my plastic razor blades.
I was so proud of all the great ideas I was having.
Until…
The coolant opening that went into the plenum was super hard to clean out. It was hard to see let alone see, reach, and clean. I ended up taking a pair of needle nose pliers and holding the plastic razor blade trying to scrape the residue away. It was such a good plan, until the unthinkable happened.
The pliers slid to the end of the plastic razor blade and squoze the edge of it in just such a way that it shot out and directly into the intake plenum!
I managed to use my cell phone camera to see the razor blade inside. It was just inside the round opening, but just below it, so you couldn’t just grab it and get it out.
I had another brilliant idea.
Super glue! I could put some super glue on my finger and then touch the the razor blade, glue my finger to it, and pull it out!
Brilliant!
And it was brilliant, except the execution wasn’t so good. I put my finger too far in, such that when I tried to pull out the razor blade, it caught against the opening of the hole, and I couldn’t raise it any higher to get it out! I ended up having to pull my finger out without the razor blade, but with it glued to the razor blade, it took some force to pull it out. Which did what?
Yeah… it shot the razor blade even further inside–deep inside… so far I could barely see it.
I had the idea to try the razor blade and glue method again, this time with long screwdriver. But then… things took a turn for the even worse. The plastic razor blade got jostled out of sight.
😶
No. Nooooooooo!!!!!
That added easily 6 to 8 hours to the job and cost me everything I’m going to make on the job and more. I spent the next two or three hours or so disassembling a ton of stuff so that I could remove the upper intake manifold and then the lower intake plenum.
After I finally got the plenum out, guess what?
No razor blade to be found.
!!!!!!
Yeah, by this time my frustration boiled over into just plain anger. I was mad. And I was discouraged.
If it got dislodged from the plenum into the block, I’d be done for. That could plug up the block and overheat the motor, and pretty much the engine is useless. No way to get the plastic out.
But it would have been like 1-10,000 chance that it could have fallen in the block. That would be crazy. A square razor blade, making a right-angle turn on it’s own, and going six inches to the side before dropping into the block?
No. It can’t be. No way!
But… no razor blade was in the plenum.
Finally, after looking all over. Looking as far into the block as I could and shaking the plenum, even pouring water through it in the hopes it would dislodge it… nothing.
Finally, I gave it one last gasp. I bare-hand smacked the plenum several times, and finally, finally, when I looked in again through the opening the razor blade had gone through, there it was.
Wahoo!!!
So… now… I get to hope I didn’t damage the plenum. Or the block. I’m gonna end up spending hours cleaning, lots of money on parts, and hours putting together. What a… an opportunity. 🙃
Ooof.
What a day. I’m covered in oil. I’m exhausted. I’m… ugh. What a rough one this one. Almost would rather buy the car from him than fix it. 🙃
Anyway, my friend Brittani helped me get back to the land of the sane after going through all that. I’m grateful for her. And speaking of gratitude… it’s 1:22 a.m., so it’s probably time for some of that!
#1. I’m grateful for Brittani. She’s such a wonderful support for me.
#2. I’m grateful to have at least a more decent perspective right now than I did a few hours ago.
#3. I’m grateful that days like today don’t happen that often, but I’m grateful that though they aren’t fun, they don’t cause me any lasting problems.
#4. I’m grateful it’s October. Not that there’s anything specific I’m looking forward to. It’s just… fun. 😊
#5. I’m grateful for hot showers and soap to wash off this oil that’s all over me.
#6. I’m grateful that my customer was fantastic tonight. He just rolled with everything. Took it all in stride. Wow. Such an amazing, positive attitude.
Well, folks, it’s time for bed. I’m in the middle of a deep conversation with a friend, so I’m going to bid you farewell. Loves and hugs.
Lift the World.
~ stephen
Lift the World 