"Pixel" (Improbcat)
05/10/2020 at 20:55 • Filed to: #project colony ship
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"Pixel" (Improbcat)
05/10/2020 at 20:55 • Filed to: #project colony ship | 5
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Finally b een working on the brakes that went out late last summer. As the wagon proportioning valve was bad and is unobtainaium, I am installing a ‘89 MC with built in valve, but this required the later distribution block and some custom lines.
Since I was doing that I decided new hoses and rear wheel cylinders weren’t a bad idea (front calipers are new last year). Of the 7 hard lines on the car, I’m replacing 5 new, and 1 with a line off the ‘89 donor car. I am once again reminded why I hate 80s ford, as the combination of metric & ASE fittings, and pointlessly weird fittings is making this far harder than it needs to be.
The rear brake hose is held onto the diff with a T40 torx. An d the two lines both going in a 3/16", but one is a 3/8" fitting and the other is a 1/4" fitting, which makes replacing the lines needlessly complicated.
Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> Pixel
05/10/2020 at 21:09 |
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I am waiting for you to report that you can’t get that torx bolt loose. Wheel of death time...
That’s a great project. Is it V8 powered? A 302 with 120 horsepower?
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Pixel
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/10/2020 at 21:25 |
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I’ve already ruined a cheap t40 bit. I’m leaning towards welding a bolt to it in hopes of having something I can get a proper wrench on, and putting some heat into it to loosen things.
Yep. I think it was factory 160hp, as it is the second year with the 5 .0 fuel injection with SD instead of the even more terrible fuel injection bolted in place of the carb. The vague plan is to swap in the 215hp 5.0/trans from a 2wd 1996- 2001 Explorer is I can find one cheap.
Urambo Tauro
> Pixel
05/10/2020 at 21:26 |
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Ew Torx. Well at least it’s not Phillips head , I guess.
shop-teacher
> Pixel
05/10/2020 at 22:02 |
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What a pain in the arse!
Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Pixel
05/10/2020 at 22:27 |
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Supercharged 347 + T5!!!!!!!
I mean, just sayin...
Seriously, this is very cool. It’s a ton of work just busting old, stuck bolts, but it will be really cool when done. I can’t wait to get started on my wagon project.
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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
05/10/2020 at 23:47 |
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T5, eh? We are so caught up with manual transmissions in Oppoland.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/11/2020 at 07:07 |
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It doesn’t have to be a T5. Ford makes some pretty darn good automatic s - the C6 and later E4OD are supposed to be pretty darn stout.
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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> Pixel
05/11/2020 at 08:21 |
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That would be one option.
A die grinder might be another, but all the ones I looked at are pneumatic. Do you have an air compressor?
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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
05/11/2020 at 10:18 |
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I’m driving a turd 2010 Crown Vic P71 and I was told that Ford beefed up the transmissions in 2010-11. It’s way better than the slush-o-matic that was in the 2000 Crown Vic I owned some years back. I like manual transmission cars and I think I am an adept rower. But I like automatics also. You can drive an automatic, and I don’t mean paddle shifting.
In politics news, it sounds like the Navy is really a mess right now. Good time to be prior service.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/11/2020 at 10:50 |
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I think I get less excited about automatics because my formative experiences with them were bad.
I learned to drive in a 1986 GMC S-15 pickup with an anemic 2.8L “High Output” V6 that made a whopping 115 HP . It was backed up by a 700R4 that never seemed to know what gear to be in, and downshifted every time I even looked at the gas pedal. There was so little power to start with, and it felt like the transmission did it’s best to waste all of it.
My next ride was a Pontiac Grand Prix GT with a 4T60E transaxle. There was so much spread between 1st and 2nd it would drop about 8,000 RPM when it shifted... and it only redlined at 5,800 RPM. It was AWFUL. Once you got over the 1-2 shift, though, it wasn’t bad. Of course I was young and stupid then, maybe it wasn’t as bad as I remember.
Mrs. Snuze’s GMC Terrain has GM’s new 9 speed transaxle in it and it’s surprisingly good. It doesn’t hunt, minimal needless downshifting, and upshifts are supple at light throttle and surprisingly firm if you get on it a bit. I’m actually quite a fan.
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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
05/11/2020 at 10:58 |
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I rented a GMC Colorado last summer with their VVT V6 and it had 8 or 9 forward speeds and paddle shifting was a blast. My ‘97 GMC Safari has the venerable 4.3L Vortec with the four-speed automatic that I view as the precursor to the Colorado power train. But oh, the complexity of the new truck... Nice vehicle to rent, but I’d be scared to death to own one.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/11/2020 at 11:49 |
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I grew up with a 91 Safari with the 4.3L and AWD. That van was a tank, and the 4.3L was a great engine.
The Colorado likely had the 8 speed auto. GM made 4, 6, 8, and now 10 speed RWD autos. FWD vehicles went from 4 to 6 speeds, and were stuck with that for a long time and then suddenly jumped to 9 speeds. Although they use the ZF 8 speed FWD auto in a couple applications.
The 3.6L V6 in the Colorado is a pretty good engine that’s been around for a while, and I assume mostly sorted out. The real nightmare was the previous gen Colorado that had the 2.8/2.9 and 3.5/3.7 Atlas inline 4 and 5 cylinders. S trong engines, but oh my word did they have problems.
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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
05/11/2020 at 12:45 |
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I always assumed the AWD Safaris would be dogs, more so than the RWD ones are. People have made 350 swaps into the Safari... I’ve had to replace injectors several times and I’m pretty good at that job now. I just replaced the power steering pump which was original to the car and 243,000 miles.
Yes, I think the Colorado had 8 speeds. I thought it was a fabulous vehicle, though that four-door cab is a ridiculous configuration, IMO. And the rear seats don’t stow or pop out, so not much interior cargo space, and a bed too short to do anything meaningful with.
That last episode of Hot Rod Garage, months ago before the the MTOD franchise got its full head well and truly up its butt, had them pointlessly building up one of those I-6s.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/11/2020 at 13:07 |
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The AWD was fine, not much more of a dog than the RWD. Ours was crazy reliable - my dad bought it new in 1990 (1991 MY) and sold it to our mechanic in 1999 with about 215k on the clock. He drove it a couple more years and then sold it with about 240-250k to a guy in his church. That guy shipped it to his parents who were missionaries in Guatemala, and the last we heard (early 2000's) it was down there running around with over 300k miles on it. In all that time the only problem it ever had was a faulty transmission wiring harness, that occurred about a year after we got it and was fixed under warranty. After that it was flawless, never even had a valve cover lifted.
The newer Colorados are nice, and I think they are pretty good looking trucks. At one point I was considering a base 4 cylinder one. But I agree that the crew cab is not a great configuration on a small truck.
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Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
05/11/2020 at 14:03 |
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suffice it to say, I’ve done much more maintenance than that. But it’s pretty much never left me stranded.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/11/2020 at 15:00 |
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To be fair, it did get regular maintenance - filters, fluids, etc. Got some spark plugs and wires at one point. But nothing outside the normal. Up around 180k miles my dad and I put shocks on it. The old ones were so worn you could compress them, and they’d just stay compressed, and pull them apart and they’d stay apart. I was about 12 and found it endlessly fascinating.
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Pixel
> Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
05/11/2020 at 19:35 |
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I have many options for fucking up a bolt. :)