Roo Wagon Down again

Ray,
Just keep blowing your new horns and you won't hear any other noises.
COL

What he said.

Ray, I'm anxious to hear what happens when you remove the serp belt as far as the noise. My OCC had a funny noise, I was sure it was the AIR pump, (used a stethoscope) but I took the belt off, and as crazy as this sounds, I attached the belt to each pulley individually, and the other end of the belt riding around a large diameter hole saw attached to an electric drill (yes you've read that right) and I was surprised to find it was my water pump!

Lynol, when can we expect a "YouTube" on that operation.

Tom

silverfox103 wrote:

Lynol, when can we expect a "YouTube" on that operation.

Tom

lol. It's like I say in my videos, "I'm not a professional; I'm just a guy with some tools."

Okay. Been away for a couple days, but here's the low down.

I pulled the belt. Noise disappeared.

I checked out the water pump. It's good. AC compressor, good (but I think my blower motor is dying... that'll be fun). Alternator was/is charging, and the PS pump is brand new as of a year ago or so.

Figured it out: the fan shroud was warped along the bottom and it was hitting eeeeever so slightly. I realized this when I was listening to it run and leaned gently on it to look over, and the noise went away.

So I pulled the fan, grabbed a razor blade, and etched the bottom of the warped shroud a little bit for clearance.

Noise gone.

Oil leak still there, but it's minor. It's looking like it is that adapter gasket set again, because I saw it dripping straight down the filter. It's been raining all week, so I haven't been under the car, but I've been checking the oil level every day before I drive it, if need be.

So.... we're almost happy.

He's alive.

WOOHOO,the Roo wagon rides again!Whats next kid?

Maybe front suspension work. I've had everything sitting in boxes for months.... That might be fun.

Blower motor is 3 screws after you get the dash cover panel off the bottom. Takes like 5 minutes to do. If you want to wait a few weeks I can help with those suspension parts.

Stingroo wrote:

Maybe front suspension work. I've had everything sitting in boxes for months.... That might be fun.

Uh oh,..

ever see the movie "chitty chitty bang bang" ??

Nick

So Ray. I guess you don't need a new engine now? Right?
Dick

Right.

Thankfully.

Nick - ha.

That's great news, dude! Seems as though a major crisis has been averted!

And it has made some good reading material!

8 pages of suspense.... Waiting for the climax..... And, nuthin'.... Oh well, it was a good story , I'm glad it wasn't all that bad for ya Ray. Drive on.

Mike

A good title would be "Will Rays Wagon Run Or Not"?

Like "Will it blend?" but just, "Will it run?"


Answer: apparently so. It did just fine on the way to another job interview today.

How about "As the Wagon Rolls"?

Stingroo wrote:

I pulled the belt. Noise disappeared.

Ok, first off: congratulations! That must be a big load off your mind. Things are looking up and I'm sure you'll be telling us you got a job in the near future.

Now, what good is experience if we don't learn from it? While you initially fretted about a lot of other possibilities and approaches, you did eventually follow phantom 309's (and those that repeated it) sound advice* for a simple easy check, leading you to a simple easy fix. So the lesson for today:

The #1 rule of troubleshooting: do the simplest and easiest checks first, because:
a) simple checks don't cost much time or money, and
b) that's usually what's wrong anyway.

Congrats again!



*bad pun, but I couldn't resist...

It is good to hear that your issues are relatively minor. You might want to invest in an engine stethoscope, because you can listen to the other parts individually too.

I've got one. Handy little tool.

So, just to sum it up, finally I hope for your sake; car overheated due to pulling a trailer without the fan shroud, and what caused the noise that you isolated by pulling the belt?

Wow, if only every car repair was that easy and painless. Congratulations, and good luck on the job search.

So back to looking for a new heart for Grimmy.....Glad it worked out.

Dont know about you guys but I am happy its running again!

Glad it is running as well. Now if he sells Grimace maybe other things can start to turn around for him. Good luck finding a job.

Nope. All of that money goes into the house. Sale of necessity, not desire.

Glad to hear it's fixed and it was NOT a big deal! Now post a pic with the new steering wheel installed Ray!!

Funny but similar. My girlfriend and now wife had a 1988 Thunderbird (the Thunderturd, her name, not mine..ha) when we met in 1994. I hated it. Gold over tan V6 car. Bench seat, column shift, yellowed plastic headlights, dim digital gauges, and the a/c was dead. Her Dad gave it to her, it had been her Mom's car. I hate Fords! Right after we moved in together, someone ran a stop sign just as she was pulling through an intersection and knocked the front bumper totally off. Car still ran, fender barely dented, just knocked the nose cap off. Still, the insurance totaled the car...and sent Misty a check for $3500. I was so tickled I about danced in my apt parking lot.

I gave Misty my nearly-new 1993 S-10 pickup and took the money and bought a really sharp 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix LE. 305, floor shift, buckets, gauges with a tach...I loved it. Misty didn't like the Landau top...and neither did I, but the car was so nice otherwise, and I loved it.

Now to the point of my story...a week....only one week after I bought it, it developed a knocking/tapping sound from under the car. I was totally depressed. Here I'd spent every cent of the insurance money on this car (which Misty, while trusting me, was not sure of...to her it looked like an older car than her T-bird...and WAS older by three years, but to her it looked a lot less "modern"in general).

It sounded like the lower end. On a Chevy 305, one of the most bulletproof engines ever made. I was blown away. We had just moved to Austin, did not know anyone and had no connections. Had a tiny aprtment, Misty working at a temp service and me at a gas station. I had no money to fix a car.

The mechanic at the station put the car on the lift, and after scaring me...oh you're going to need a motor for sure Mike....he then smiled and said "Come here dummy", and walked under the car. The plastic torque converter cover was hanging down just a bit. Two of the bolts holding it to the trans were gone, and the two on the other side were loose. He lifted it up, and the noise was gone.

Haha, you live and learn. That GP ran like a watch the next three years I owned it. You always want to check the little things first!

-Mike

Oh and yes, as usual...I miss that car!!





Here's the S-10 and GP in the parking lot of our first apartment together:


I replaced the goofy aftermarket wheels with 15-inch Pontiac Rally II wheels. MAN that was a sharp GP!


Oh and here's Misty's T-Bird she had when we met. I was never so thrilled to see a car get hit! I don't miss this one AT ALL!

Gee Mike, I was gonna say that I couldn't believe you didn't put Poncho rallyes on it. Guess I don't have to.... Lol.

toomanytoyz wrote:

Gee Mike, I was gonna say that I couldn't believe you didn't put Poncho rallyes on it. Guess I don't have to.... Lol.

Hahaha, yep I knew when I bought that Grand Prix that those aftermarket wheels would have to go. Those Rally II's were 15-inch, and came off a salvage-yard late 80's Firebird. When I bought them they were reverse-painted...light silver on the inside and dark grey on the outside. GM did that on some Birds in the late 80's (and the '86 GP 2+2) ...but those looked wrong to me. I re-painted them back to the "correct" silver-over-grey in the parking lot of our South Austin apartment and mounted them with 70's-style arrowhead center caps (the 80's GP's had optional 14-inch Rally II's with ugly chrome center caps..didn't want to use those caps though, and the 15-inch wheels filled out the wheel-wells better and looked stock).

When I got those Rally's on there, that GP looked SO MUCH BETTER. It just looked so "right". I was thrilled with that car.

I finally sold that car to one of my Techs, Gustavo, at the a/c shop I worked at in the later 90's. Used the money for the down payment on a beautiful 32K-mile white '95 Bonneville SLE for Misty...and got my S-10 back from her.

I got to watch the GP sit in the parking lot the next two years at our shop, but was not really happy with the stereo Gustavo butchered into the car....or the huge wheels he put on it...and when he had "The Hispanic Mechanic" airbrushed onto the back of the trunklid (no joke)I about wanted to beat him....

Sorry for thread-jacking!

-Mike