I'll award myself dumba$$ of the week - or how to remove carpet from a tailgate cover.

So two weeks ago my wife meets me at Walgreens and hops in my car. We come back several hours later and Dusty won't start. It's late and I have AAA. I get it towed home.

Next morning I do some troubleshooting and find that I get spark at the coil but not on spark plug wires. I determined this with a timing light.
Smells like opti right? So I order a new unit as I replaced the cap and rotor, etc. 30K ago. I comes several days later but I'm working 8 days straight.

Yesterday, I'm off and tackle it with gusto. 9 hours later and I'm done. Car starts but sounds rough for a second then it's okay. I let it idle for 5 min while I'm cleaning up tools. Take if for a spin and runs out hard and I feel pretty accomplished. Back in the driveway I see a little pool of oil which is curious. I stop the car at the bottom of the drive and get out to clean it up. I get back in and.......IT WON'T START!!!!!!!!!!! Much cursing ensues.

So today, I put a pressure gauge on the line and nothing....(thanks Flash Gumby for the gauge). test the lines and the tank and all voltage present The good news is I have a pump and sending unit for the 96 9C1 I parted. Drop the tank with a jack onto a pair of skateboards and wheel it out. While draining the gas on Ruby's tailgate I spilled a fair amount onto the tailgate cover (tank was 3/4 full). Removed the cover and had to leave. Came back a couple of hours later and hosed it off. The carpet is lifting and all wrinkled now. Going to have to removed it.

If that's not enough, the AC compressor got fried in Ruby on the way back from the 3yr olds birthday party. Yaaaaay!!!! I'm loving my cars right now, lol.

What year is Ruby? I may have a compressor...

Jason.

Woah, you do have your hands full

Years ago I bought 2 cars, so that I would always have one to drive when the other was in the shop...so when one went in for maintainence, the other would always be there on a sympathy visit. I was still left without a car...go figure.

Ruby is a 92, so I'd say any 91-93 R-12 should work It's a Harrison compressor.

So it gets better this morning. I got to put the tank back up and we get the jack under it, etc. All systems go as a new cold front is moving in and rain is coming shortly (couple of hours max).

Get the rear strap bolts in and ready to raise it but somethings wrong. DOH!!!!!! In my haste to finish yesterday before the party, I failed to notice that the sending assembly from a sedan the pipes are alot shorter than the wagons!!!! More cursing. Drop the tank AGAIN (3rd time now) and pull the whole sending unit.

Up to the work bench and pull the two pumps and swap 'em. Before swapping however, I bench test the two. first the old one. nuttin happens. OK.
Try the second, and like a Tom and Jerry cartoon, when Tom looks at a clam, I hit it with 12v and it shoots gas right up into my face, Mutha F'er!!!! Sprocket Jr. thinks this hilarious and of course he is right.......from his point of view, ha ha. A true moment indeed.

Anyway, I take the time to test out EVERYTING else (all the wires, etc) before I put it back together. This time when it goes back up it stays. We get it all hooked up and she runs great except for the SES light that's on. 38-39 PSI solid now.

The rain comes but I'm dry underneath putting the heat shields back on. Finish, dump 5 gal into the tank in the rain and hop in for a test drive.

Light 'em up leaving the driveway (rain + posi = FUN). Car runs out VERY nice with frest opti and pump (Pump had been replaced in the 9C1 so I know it has less than 160K on it but who knows how much). Take the corner at the end of the street and get a good 75yards crossed up across two lanes, hee hee hee. Round the next bend and after I complete the turn I have a mile of two lane next to the tracks with no oncoming traffic so I nail it (it's raining hard now) and at about 20mph the rears break loose and it fishtails for a good 100 feet before vehicle speed catches up to the tires.


Now waiting for the rain to stop so I can go find out about the oil leak and also the front pads need changing....

It's probably good that I don't drive that car everyday, lol.

Wow. That's one heck of a learning experience! But in the end you had some fun so it was worth it right?

DBeaSSt wrote:

Wow. That's one heck of a learning experience! But in the end you had some fun so it was worth it right?

totally. Didn't do the front brakes (will do one eve this week) as the neighbors are having a BBQ.
Wife called and says Ruby is making REALLY loud noises. Of course she's 15 miles from home. Just drove over there and the AC bearing is screaming. Drove it home and it was quiet most of the way until I got off the highway then it got noisy again. smells bad so I think the S belt is burning up a little although the pulley is turning. SO I guess we are back to one car for tomorrow.

Tuesday I'm going to the tag agency on my lunch and swapping Ruby's tag onto the OCC and sideline Ruby till I can get her woes sorted out....
Somewhere here I gotta get back to the kitchen remodel. Today starts week 7 of no kitchen sink......

Checked that compressor for you. It'll work. Sent you a PM...

Jason.

Your adventures brought back memories. This past summer I also had the unique combination of leaking ps pump AND compressor locking up. To make it even more interesting, this was on my black 94 RMW. Fluid leaked from the front of the pump all over the compressor. I was at work and had just moved the car about 10 feet - heard an awful racket from under the hood, left the car running and got out to check. I thought it was the air pump so here I stand revving the motor and concentrating on the drivers side. All of the sudden I realize that there is smoke POURING out of the pass side and all the oil and crud on that side is popping and sparking. I ran and got the fire extinguisher and stood guard for 10 mins or so. I was sure it was going to burst into flames at any second. The good thing is that even though we all can hate our cars when things like this happen after a while it is good for a laugh!

Jon

94X2 wrote:

Your adventures brought back memories. This past summer I also had the unique combination of leaking ps pump AND compressor locking up. To make it even more interesting, this was on my black 94 RMW. Fluid leaked from the front of the pump all over the compressor. I was at work and had just moved the car about 10 feet - heard an awful racket from under the hood, left the car running and got out to check. I thought it was the air pump so here I stand revving the motor and concentrating on the drivers side. All of the sudden I realize that there is smoke POURING out of the pass side and all the oil and crud on that side is popping and sparking. I ran and got the fire extinguisher and stood guard for 10 mins or so. I was sure it was going to burst into flames at any second. The good thing is that even though we all can hate our cars when things like this happen after a while it is good for a laugh!

Jon

My wife's 94 had the 4th of July option about 6 months ago, lol.

I thought I was being smart by opting for the same solution (buying two identical '94 wagons so that ONE was always OK while the other was in the shop - I'm useless with mechanical stuff myself!). For the last TWO weeks, both cars are suffering from tailgate issues. Do I need to buy a third wagon? Hee-hee !

Fred Kiehl wrote:

Years ago I bought 2 cars, so that I would always have one to drive when the other was in the shop...so when one went in for maintainence, the other would always be there on a sympathy visit. I was still left without a car...go figure.

brokecello wrote:

Woah, you do have your hands full

He's been hanging around with Ray, and Ray's luck is rubbing off.

Tom

I had thought the same thing,some of Rays bad juju has attached itself to John.Ray has plenty to spare and I am going nowhere near Ray until he gets his wagon back together.

Flasheroo wrote:

I had thought the same thing,some of Rays bad juju has attached itself to John.Ray has plenty to spare and I am going nowhere near Ray until he gets his wagon back together.

Ray WHO?

Meaning, I don't want to know him, until he's over his string of bad luck!

Gotta love fuel pump swaps
Back when I had the 96 "rustmaster" I did a pump swap in it to see if the engine ran. Dropped the tank (that the gauge claimed was empty) only to find it topped off. Found that out when I pulled the filler neck off and got a nice shower of gas. End up loweing the tank and the filler neck as one piece and pump the gas out with my tank pumping contraption I made from an old fuel pump (old TBI pump, 10ft of ft of hose and drill battery). Swapped out the pump and sending unit, made some new tank straps out of sheet metal and was good to go. It was late so I kind of slapped it together.
A few weeks later I drove the car down to NJ (100 miles) and it pulled strong the whole way. The next day I go for a short drive no less than 2 miles away and the car just dies out of no where. Notice a long trail behind the car. Get it towed back to find the pressure line fitting decided then to pop off the tank because I didn't push it on all the way! Why it decided to be nice to me and fall off near Lynol's house and not in the middle of no where on the Garden state parkway is beyond me, but greatly appreciated