ribs

I am leaving my house, right now, at 3:05 in the morning to start working on my car. I haven't slept since yesterday morning. I couldn't fall asleep thinking about how many hundreds of pieces my car is going to be in tomorrow, so, now I go. Wish me luck. I think I am going to start out by building my engine hoist. I am trying to build one that looks like this (I did my best to try to buy the same sized wood that the picture looks like it contains):
.

Later.

Lemon Yellow 87 n/a

**** keepin you awake? Same here. Pass the pipe cracker.........

Paladin..

Heheh, I thinks that awesome Ribs....I was up for two days straight when I was ripping apart a used engine I bought from an 84 944 n/a. As far as the crack goes :-P you might wnat to hold off untill you're done :-)

Good luck man!!

ribs

All right! I'm loopy! I had to stop working shortly after I started. I jacked the front of the car up as high as it would go with my crappy 2 ton floorjack and jackstands, took the plastic underbelly off of the car, then I looked over the directions for the procedure I was about to do and I realized I needed to take the air box, intake manifold, fuel rail, and some other stuff off before I jacked the car up. I couldn't reach the stuff with the front of the car 20" off the ground. It was about 4:30 or 5:00 in the AM after I realized this, so, I started to jack down my car, 1/2 way each side at a time (keith told me to jack it up at the front cross member, but my stupid miniture floorjack didn't reach it with the jackstands further back), I got one side half way down, then I went to the otherside to jack it down, and, of course you have to jack it up so you can relieve the jack stand...but...guess what happened?

My friggin' piece of crap floorjack quit on me. I tightened the air screw as hard as I could with a big screw driver, but still, every time I would jack it up to close to full extention, it would start slowly leaking the air out, causing the car to fall back on the jackstand before I could get it out. After a couple more minutes of trying this, it wouldn't even jack up...it quit.

So I am waiting for a store to open that carries 3 or 4 ton floorjacks (walmart only had 2.5 ton, and it looked identical to the one I had...I want one with a twist release handle, not the crappy airscrew kind I have now). I went to walmart to pick up $50 or so of stuff I kept forgetting to get that I absolutely needed (hmmm...3 packages of shop towels, degreaser (simply green), 8-19mm $6 cheapo hand wrenches, another 50 foot extention cord (I need to draw electricity from 2 circuits because my air compressor keeps blowing out the breaker for the circuit when I also have my 500 watt halogen worklamp running on the same one), a tackle box so I can keep track of what screws go where with some masking tape, duct tape in case I need it (I can always find a use for duct tape), plastic baggies (I'm sure I will find a use for those, too), shaving cream (I ran out), a plastic drop cloth so I don't get oil all over the space I rented, 3 packs of gum, teflon tape (for the airtool fittings), a $5 hacksaw for my front koni inserts, and a magnetic wand so if I drop screws I may be able to retrieve them).

So now I wait for an automotive parts store to open so I can get a decent floorjack, which will probably cost me at least another $50. Now I have about $250 or so left in my budget for this project. So...its either: replace a control arm if it is busted (I looked the one I thought may have been popping...I'm pretty sure it was just my swaybar hitting the support because there is no bushing there...so I think I am good for this one) or...getting my fuel injectors cleaned and balanced, getting an alignment, and going in half with my friend on the powdercoating stuff. I think I will go with the latter.

So...that brings me to now. I await patiently as napa, autozone, autoexpress, or pep boys open (should be 8 or 9 o'clock) so I can continue my journey and get really greasy.

Oh...I almost forgot...I still need a new ground strap (I will probably do an extra groundstrap to be safe) a new main battery to relay box line (10 gauge wire good for that?), and new battery terminals (why not, you know?)...and that should be about it, unless one of my hoses is broken, in which case I am going to have to use my credit card, which I don't like doing. Anyways, thanks for the support...hopefully you won't hear from me until this evening after I have completed my days work (I'm still waiting on a lot of parts...most of them should come in today, but my fuel lines, windage tray, and something else probably won't be here until tomorrow or next week), but chances are I will get stuck on a bolt or something (but...I have a blow torch if that is the case...fun stuff) so I may come back and pester you all.

billybones

Sounds like fun!.. I have a question though. Where did you find a space to rent? I live in a town house and have wonderd if there was such a thing? Though I have never looked. I was just wondering what the deal was? thanks and good luck.

ribs

[quote]Originally posted by billybones:
<strong>Sounds like fun!.. I have a question though. Where did you find a space to rent? I live in a town house and have wonderd if there was such a thing? Though I have never looked. I was just wondering what the deal was? thanks and good luck.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I rented a storage space for a car at a local "self storage" place. Its $120/month, and the owner said as long as I wasn't working on my car every day I was renting it would be cool. I can work on my car whenever I want, and there are no houses within 1/4 mile so nobody is going to complain at the sounds of impact wrenches at 4:00 in the morning since noone will hear them. I was going to get a $20 discount, but he said that since I am using his electricity, no discount. Most places don't have electrical outlets in the cube, so either bring heavy duty extention cords or tap the lightbulb (if it has a lightbulb) with one of the lightbulb socket to AC outlets.

bs

hey ribs, you might want to consider getting some of that oil absorbent stuff that looks like kitty litter... it's cheap and works amazingly well to suck oil and such right off of and out of cement.

IceShark

Ribs, I hope you are very short or have something more than 2 cheap jackstands to stick under the car. If you are getting it so high you can't reach in the engine bay that is a tip over waiting to happen if supported wrong.

Wash that Simple Green off AL parts REAL good as it will attack it and leave white oxidation after a few days/weeks if you don't. Actually I wouldn't use it.

Don't bother trying to keep the floor clean. Just degrease and hose out when the project is done. Plastic baggies are nice for small parts removed - just write on them with a magic marker.

Electrics: If you are replacing the original ground, use at least #4 gauge then run your additional one from the front of the block to the front frame ground points for the lights. Pick up some fine stranded arc welding cable for this, tinned would be nice. Are you going to replace the positive feed to the fuse/relay board or just sister it up? Usually the OEM has 2 #8 gauge wires, which would be a total of 16.7 mm^2. A #10 has 5.3 mm^2. A #4 is 21.2 mm^2. So if you are going to totally replace use at least one #4. Remember the original was speced light for the job it has to do. May also want to check out the existing positive that runs to the alternator to see what that looks like. As far as battery terminals, check out marine types that have a threaded post and wing nut - makes it much easier to make good connections to that won't corrode. But there may be a hood clearance issue depending on the style so you may have to look around.

Good luck.

Matt O.

Ribs, don't you have school or something? At 5:30 I was just waking up because my puppy was whining and I have an 8 am class anyway... Good luck with your car!! Need any manuals or anything?

-Matt

Tabor

Ribs, is this your first major project on your car? If so, WOW . You really jumped right in.

Eric

ribs,

You are DA man! Good Luck on your project.

Eric

Lemon Yellow 87 n/a

Ribs dude. Good luck. Sounds like it will make a good story someday. As for me, my huge project= clean garage (I call it a car-hole) and replace all shocks and springs. I'm more afraid of the car-hole project to tell you the truth.

txhedg

Ribs:

I just wanted to warn you, I have a friend who has had TWO different storage units broken into. In one he had 2 4-wheelers stolen, and another he had a jet ski and a bunch of tools taken. The theives once drove into the storage unit door with a truck, and the other time just bolt cut the lock.....so, be carefull about leaving expensive tools, etc sitting in the storage unit. If they see you coming and going and working on a car, they may assume there is some good Sh~t to steal (impact wrench, compressor, etc)

Just be carefull!!

Also, two other thoughts:

I used 2 ga cable to do my battery ---&gt;starter ---&gt; alt connections. I also ran it thru firebraid sleeving to avoid another short like you and I both experienced, and to keep the high engine temps from making me re-wire the car ever again.

I also installed a 150 amp fuse block between my battery and starter (actually, I have a kill switch, so the fuse is between the batt and kill switch) to hopefully avoid another arc-welding problem we experienced. I think it was about $30 for the fuse holder and 2 fuses from a local marine shop. I figure its a good safety precaution.

good luck with the rebuild....I feel your pain abot not sleeping. while in the heart of my fire repair, I would wake up in the middle of the night with visions of wire schematics in my head (I am not making this up...it was weird...I had a few "great ideas" that came to me when waking up at 3:00am)

ribs

Wow...so many resposes...thanks guys. I'll try to do this one at a time, but first a status update: So far, I have the fuel rail off, fuel injectors out, intercooler out, airbox out, intake manifold hoses out, underbelly and front plastic splitter thing out, throttle cable and cruise control off, all the intercooler piping out, and I am 2 bolts away from finally getting this damn intake manifold off finally, but unfortunately I don't have a 4mm hex bit, and neither does anywhere around here. Soon comes the fun part, when I am going to degrease the entire engine and try to make it look pretty. Then I go onto replacing suspension components (my koni yellows as well as 90% of the parts I ordered came in today), doing rod bearings, belts, hoses, battery wiring, suspenison bushings, aux water pump, brake pads, SS brake lines, SS fuel lines, ATE blue, battery and altinator wiring, installing my new gauges, etc. etc. I have my weekend already planned. ...

[quote]Originally posted by bs:
<strong>hey ribs, you might want to consider getting some of that oil absorbent stuff that looks like kitty litter... it's cheap and works amazingly well to suck oil and such right off of and out of cement.</strong><hr></blockquote>

That sounds like a plan...my car already leaked about 1/2 cup of oil when it was just sitting there for a week. I am going to throw a plastic drop cloth I just bought down when I drain oil/brake fluid/power steering fluid/coolant tomorrow or the day after and degrease the motor to try to make it less of a challange to clean up though. Good call.

[quote]Originally posted by IceShark:
<strong>Ribs, I hope you are very sHort or have something more than 2 cheap jackstands to stick under the car. If you are getting it so high you can't reach in the engine bay that is a tip over waiting to happen if supported wrong.

Wash that Simple Green off AL parts REAL good as it will attack it and leave white oxidation after a few days/weeks if you don't. Actually I wouldn't use it.

Don't bother trying to keep the floor clean. Just degrease and hose out when the project is done. Plastic baggies are nice for small parts removed - just write on them with a magic marker.

Electrics: If you are replacing the original ground, use at least #4 gauge then run your additional one from the front of the block to the front frame ground points for the lights. Pick up some fine stranded arc welding cable for this, tinned would be nice. Are you going to replace the positive feed to the fuse/relay board or just sister it up? Usually the OEM has 2 #8 gauge wires, which would be a total of 16.7 mm^2. A #10 has 5.3 mm^2. A #4 is 21.2 mm^2. So if you are going to totally replace use at least one #4. Remember the original was speced light for the job it has to do. May also want to check out the existing positive that runs to the alternator to see what that looks like. As far as battery terminals, check out marine types that have a threaded post and wing nut - makes it much easier to make good connections to that won't corrode. But there may be a hood clearance issue depending on the style so you may have to look around.

Good luck.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Wow...thanks a ton. I am 5'10", so I'm no midget, but I did have the little 2 ton jackstands jacked up to their highest point (16 or 17", higher in the very front of the car because the back is on the ground), so it was hard for me to reach stuff in the middle of the engine bay (its still hard with the car on the ground...it makes my back hurt). I also had a back up set of jackstands right behind them almost fully extended. Unfortuantely the only thing I was able to do was to was remove the belly pan and front plastic splitter thing when I was down there.

I have some aluminum safe degreaser stuff I bought a little while back...I will probably just use that to clean, and keep the simply green for the house.

Instead of plastic baggies, I decided to use a 32 compartment tackle box I got for $4.00, and I just put strips of masking tape across each row, and label the mess of screws and fastners as I put them in there after the part they came from.

I will try not to spill a lot on the floor, but i will not be superconsious of it either as it will slow me down beyond the snail's pace I went at today.

Re. electrics...I got a 4 gauge wire for both the main ground and the fuse/relay panel, and I may or may not use the original wires. I also want to get a ground for the block to the chassis...where can I get the crazy sounding stuff you mentioned? I am going to get a good look at the altinator, and may go ahead and replace the wire while I have everything in pieces. Thanks again.

[quote]Originally posted by Matt Olde:
<strong>Ribs, don't you have school or something? At 5:30 I was just waking up because my puppy was whining and I have an 8 am class anyway... Good luck with your car!! Need any manuals or anything?

-Matt</strong><hr></blockquote>

No...I'm good to go for the manuals . I have 1 class today - a 5:30 pm class...and listen to what happened today: After 34 or so hours with no sleep (I was working on my car half the time), I go into my business statistics class, sit down, and start falling in and out of consciousness. I told myself "stay awake!", but about 10 minutes into class, I was dead out. 10 minutes later, the teacher asks the whole class to say a number between 1 and 12, and, being the ******* the teacher is, he calls on my sleeping *** first. Well, I am out like a lightbulb, and he calls on me again. Of course I gathered all of this from the convo we had after class. Then he comes up and pushes me, I am startled into consciousness, make some strange face, and the whole class is laughing at me. He tells me he wants to see me after class.

I go up to see him after class, and he asks if I know why he wanted to see me. I told him I apologize for falling asleep...it won't happen again, and I have just had a rough couple of days. He asks me if this is going to happen every time, after I told him it won't happen again - case in point, ignorant *******. He obviously thinks I am on drugs or heavily drinking, but the truth was I was just fixing my ride. He then tells me about how much I embarrased myself in fron of the class, and I asked him if I farted, and he said "no, I had to touch me to wake me up." Under my breath I said "next time, I'll touch you back". I am sure he heard it, and asked me to repeat it, but I said forget about it. He tells me that he highly suggests that I get some sleep, and to get my act together. This ******* has seen me 2 times since school started monday, and he already thinks he knows all about me. I just say very sarchastically "yup, sure, whatever" on my way out and knock over a trashcan in the hall. He yells for me to come back, but at that point I was ready to physically maim this *******, so I just kept walking.

[quote]Originally posted by Tabor Kelly:
<strong>Ribs, is this your first major project on your car? If so, WOW . You really jumped right in.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Yeah...biggest project ever. Second biggest was plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and a new radiator and hoses for my all-trac, so this is quite a step up. I still have a load of work to do, but most of my parts came in today so I am happy.

[quote]Originally posted by Eric:
<strong>ribs,

You are DA man! Good Luck on your project.

Eric</strong><hr></blockquote>

Thanks...you know I will need it .

[quote]Originally posted by Lemon Yellow 87 n/a:
<strong>Ribs dude. Good luck. Sounds like it will make a good story someday. As for me, my huge project= clean garage (I call it a car-hole) and replace all shocks and springs. I'm more afraid of the car-hole project to tell you the truth. </strong><hr></blockquote>

I fear that I will irreperably damage something and have to get it towed to a mechanic. That would suck. I really hope it starts right up once I get it all back together.

[quote]Originally posted by txhedg:
<strong>Ribs:

I just wanted to warn you, I have a friend who has had TWO different storage units broken into. In one he had 2 4-wheelers stolen, and another he had a jet ski and a bunch of tools taken. The theives once drove into the storage unit door with a truck, and the other time just bolt cut the lock.....so, be carefull about leaving expensive tools, etc sitting in the storage unit. If they see you coming and going and working on a car, they may assume there is some good Sh~t to steal (impact wrench, compressor, etc)

Just be carefull!!

Also, two other thoughts:

I used 2 ga cable to do my battery ---&gt;starter ---&gt; alt connections. I also ran it thru firebraid sleeving to avoid another short like you and I both experienced, and to keep the high engine temps from making me re-wire the car ever again.

I also installed a 150 amp fuse block between my battery and starter (actually, I have a kill switch, so the fuse is between the batt and kill switch) to hopefully avoid another arc-welding problem we experienced. I think it was about $30 for the fuse holder and 2 fuses from a local marine shop. I figure its a good safety precaution.

good luck with the rebuild....I feel your pain abot not sleeping. while in the heart of my fire repair, I would wake up in the middle of the night with visions of wire schematics in my head (I am not making this up...it was weird...I had a few "great ideas" that came to me when waking up at 3:00am)</strong><hr></blockquote>

The storage space is in a ghetto, but they have razor and barbed wire fences (nothing a thick rug couldn't get anybody over), poor lighting, and poor electricity. Luckily I am going to be in the storage yard most of the time when people would try to commit crimes (late at night...thats just my style), so unless they pull a gun on me I doubt they will be making off with any of my stuff.

Regarding the electronics...I got 4 gauge wire (nobody had 2 gauge that was long enough or cheap enough) for the battery ground and main to relay panel. I still need to get the altinator cable...any advanatage by having this one 2 gauge over the other 2? Maybe it is exposed to more heat, so a firebraid may be in order. It sounds like you got your **** all kinds of wired up...if only I had more money, I would wire the entire car in 2 gauge...but, I will be out of money for this project tomorrow when I take my injectors to get cleaned and balanced. I don't know what I am going to do about an alignment.

About the visions of wire schematics...you ever see the movie Explorers from the 80's? That is all about that. I have been having very strange dreams...especially in class today.

I think that just about wraps that up. Later.

IceShark

Ribs, you got to get some sleep buddy.

What stuff didn't you understand that I was mentioning?

Anyway, #4 gauge should be ok for you especially if you do the following: The alternator will be handy so go get a variable voltage regulator w/h brushes and crank it up to about 14.3 to 14.4v. If you can't measure it, take the alt into an alt/starter repair shop and have them sell it to you and set. Having the shop sell it and set should cost about $20. This will make a big improvement in your entire electrical system for reasons I won't go into now.

Then when you reinstall your alt you want to punch a hole through the alt cone heat shield and run a #4 wire to the output terminal. Make it long enough to slack over to the side of the engine bay to a handy tie off and then down towards the headlight ground on the frame rail under the headlight buckets. Leave a little extra and cap off the end of that live wire. Later, or now if you have enough time, you can install a headlight, fog and driving light upgrade and all that light load will be off the main electrical system. You will never have low voltage problems again. The whole car will be running at about 13.8 to .9 volts under the worst of conditions. And this will be damn easy to do now.

Also remember to have or replace the cooling duct from the alt cone heat shield that runs up to a little air scoop in the bumper. It is 60mm diameter hose, and cheap. Clamp the hose on the cone end before you reinstall because it is a real bitch to clamp on if the cone and alt are in place unless you have a half inch long screwdriver and hands the size of a newborn.