dr bob

Sorry for the late notice.

Ryan PM'd looking for a chance to do the motor mounts and oil sump gasket on his sale-pending S4. Karen blessed a Sunday activity, saying something about Karma. pro-bono work, charity and the need to help the less fortunate. Ryan qualifies because he doesn't have a place to do the work. Plus there are a few parts of the job where four hands are a whole lot faster than two.

Rob Edwards has the crossbar support needed for the MM project, and needs to do his rear wheel bearings. We'll do his bearings, and shoot a little training video at the same time so others can see how it's done. We'll be using the Sir Tools B-90 bearing setup to replace the bearings without removing the uprights from the car. The bearing replacement is generally a lot faster than the mounts and pan gasket, so if anybody else in the area has a pair of bearings in their hands but needs them installed in their car, we could do another car pretty easily. There's a service charge to subsidize the cost of the tool, a small fraction of the cost of getting them replaced in a real repair shop.

As always, you get to do the work on your own car with assistance from the support crew. If you'd like to watch, help, coach, cheer, learn, teach, please join us on Sunday in Glendale. Lunch will be provided. If your beverage prefs are beyond water and Diet Pepsi, stock up on those for your visit.

We are on the hill overlooking the intersection of the 2 and 134 freeways in Glendale. PM with your e-mail address, and I'll forward a map with local directions up the windy road, through the steep fire-road access, the curvy narrow street, the moat and the gate, the long narrow driveway, etc.

SeanR

Be there around noonish.

















I wish.

dr bob

Hey Sean, come on out. We'll swamp out the Lincoln Bedroom for y'all. Bring your bride while the locals straighten out her rack problems. They would never steer you wrong!

Rob Edwards

Hey now, the only rack I'm touching Sunday is Ryan's.

dr bob

Rob, if you had a choice, you wouldn't select Ryan's. I know only from lookin' at the pitchers, mind you.

RyanPerrella

I got home just awhile ago. I went out to Anaheim to pick up some parts at 928 INTL, unfortunately i didnt realize that they arent open on Saturdays.... CRAP!

Oh well then i went down to Irvine and picked up Rob E's engine support bar and met his really adorable kids, talked 928 and shared ideas. Lots of good ideas in the pipeline for both of us!

I did get the underside of the car pressure washed. I think i did pretty good but we will see tomorrow.

Ive got all the parts, minus the crush washers for the PS banjo bolts. I was going to try and source some studs locally but everyone was closed on saturday/sunday.

I will be bringing some doughnuts for all of those that show up. Nothing like a few doughnuts to start the day off right!

Bob, I found oil, but not enough of it. My local autozone only has 6 qts, so i will have to stop at autozone tomorrow morning before i head over. They open at 8, i will be there before they open so i may not get to your place until 8:15 or so. I called the store in Burbank and they have what i need but i cant buy it until 8.

All you So-Cal guys and gals, feel free to show up, eat some food, drink some..... drinks, and im pretty sure you'll learn a thing or two.

Now, i am going to search the forums for a procedure on the MM and OPG replacement. I am really unsure of the steps...... SEARCH IS MY FRIEND!

dr bob

Ryan--

I have some 15W- Mobil-1 if that's what you are buying. May have the ATF for the steering but can't say for sure without a cold-feet walk out to the garage.

I used the MM/OPG procedure that's on Pirtle's tips page, no problems. Both Rob and I have done this job before so unless something's wierd with your car there should be no problems.

RyanPerrella

Bob,

Im using the Mobil 1 5-40 Turbo Diesel Truck. I couldnt find the 5 liter jugs of Mobil 1 15-50 so i just stuck with this. I used it before in the GT and liked it, i think it leads to more stable oil pressure readings at idle also

So i need to pick up 2 more quarts of that. I also need to pick up a couple of the big washers from OSH to act as a spacer for the mounts. There is an OSH right here in hollywood that i will go to for that, right next to another autozone.

I should be there by 8:15-8:20

dr bob

Ryan--

I have the 1/2" USS washers. Big box of them. Don't buy more.

See you when you get here. I habe an irrigation drain pipe that's slipped, need to get it reconnected before the rains. Fun stuff to do on race day!

RyanPerrella

good to know about the washers, so i am leaving now, i will see you shortly

Rob Edwards

Great day yesterday- I got to Bob's at 11AM and Ryan was already bolting the pan back into place. Chris arrived in his beautfiul 29K mile '79, Jim Bailey stopped by in the very brown '80, and Paul (UKKid) graced us with his presence later in the day as we were buttoning things up. Mrs Dr Bob was busy in the garage as well with her compound miter saw, building varmint-proof lettuce cages for the garden. We had lunch on the back porch, with a nice view of the ocean. From Glendale. Do the math.....

FWIW, Ryan and I figured out a trick of sorts for getting the upper crossmember bolts back in, thought I'd share before I forget. It takes two people. One person below feeds the bolt back in (from the front) while the other person takes a long rod (we used 1/2" extensions but a piece of broomstick would work), puts it on top of the lower 'collar' part of the support bracket the bolt runs though, and taps on it. This flexes the bracket up and down a bit and allows the bolt to slide in relatively easily.

Maybe I've read this somewhere before and just remembered to try it, but I don't think so.

RyanPerrella

Yeah great little thing we discovered, made the bolt realignment very simple actually, it went right in.

I must admit that everything went according to plan, no surprises..... well I did find the starter ear was broken off, but not the end of the world. I also have a really swollen pinky finger that was a total freakish accident...... OUCH!

Post surgery i must say the car is much more refined! DUH! The car also sounds quieter at startup and on the freeway it just seems much improved, much smoother. All in all i am very very happy with the results....... now to just get it out of here...

dr bob

Yesterday was a somewhat productive day. Ryan's car arrived around 8:30am, with the bottom cleaned up pretty nicely. Thanks to Sean and Danny for that tip. The mess was in someone elses driveway, always a good thing. We went after it hot and heavy, and at two hours had the crossmember out on the floor and the pan loose. Ryan gets the credit for getting all those difficult pan bolts out. Did a little casual cleaning on the gasket surface of the oil sump, tied the Silicone gasket on with half a dozen wire ties (Thanks to Bill Ball for that trick). Ryan then started putting it back together. Jim Bailey graced our gathering about then, so Ryan was doing more work than I was. Rob arrived before lunch and dove right in under Ryan's to help. Chris Purvis ('Lopez' here on RL) arrived for a bit, and quizzed Jim quite a bit about his OB. We fired up the grill for some picnic lunch while Ryan and Rob finished buttoning the underpinnings. After lunch, three of use wrestled the crossmember back in and got it bolted up. Rob mentions above how he was able to flex the bracket on the car from above to help align the PITA lateral bolts above the crossmember. Paul ('UKkid' here) is visiting the Lake Elsinore area for a skydiving holiday, so he was able to come by to visit some, Paul was 'coaching' Ryan as the bolts all got the torque wrench treatment. Total time for the pan gasket /MM project was less than 7 hours, including the break for lunch. That's about half the time it took to do mine single-handed, a testament to the idea that an extra pair of hands really does pay off when doing this job.

Meanwhile, we back Rob's car int the other bay to make quick work of his rear wheel bearings. All came apart quickly, especially after Ryan pointed out that the parking brake needs to be released if you want to remove the rotors. ooops! On assembly I got a bit ahead of myself with all the other activity, and ended up putting the hub back on without the brake backing plate. I remember Bill Ball's admonition about doing that, but only too late. Another big ooops, since the new bearing was ruined during the subsequent hub extraction. New one on the way today UPS from 928 Int'l, should get here tomorrow so Rob can have his car back. It's sitting on coke bottles in the garage now, poor thing. Rob is getting spoiled driving my S4 with RogerBox, a big step up from his GT.


Here's a candid picture. Plaid shirt and dirty hat facing away is yours truly, with Rob Edwards facing the camera, Paul on the right. Listening and watching as I repeatedly and again and again explain and demonstrate how %$@^!!! easy it is to put Rob's parking brake shoes back on. Really!

RyanPerrella

YEAH I was just thinking about all the horror stories about this job with junked up arms and stuff. At the end of the day it was really pretty clean.

I was going to thank Bob for the prep in telling me to pressure wash the bottom of the car prior. This really helped!

SharkSkin

Great work, guys! I'm glad to hear it all went smoothly.

An alternate method of getting those bolts in that worked well for me was to use the taper on an appropriately sized roll head prybar like the one in the pic below to line it up, then the bolt slipped right in. I essentially pushed the prybar out of the hole with the bolt.