Wednesday, July 02, 2003
I've been wandering around the world for the last twenty years or so and have finally settled down with a garage and basement that happen to have a house attached. I bought an old rusty 1990 Ford F-150 for $600 last year since I know have the garage to work on it. A pickup is also great for having around an older house to haul wood, trash and what have you. Your friends don't mind it being around either. While it runs great, it is a rust bucket and a couple of weeks ago the oil pan rusted out.
On Monday when I drove it to work, it left an oil puddle about the size of my palm underneath it. Wednesday night there was a puddle the size of me under my truck in the garage. I put a pan and oil dry underneath it to catch the rest. I had been warned by the local quicky lube guys that the oil pan was starting to leak, so I wasn't all that surprised when it let loose. So I head over to the library and look for a truck book - Chiltons was on the shelf. I read about replacing the oil pan -- it starts with taking off the fuel intake manifold on top of the truck!! And the radiator fan shroud and the exhaust, etc. etc.
OK - so on to the Internet for some research. I visit a couple of Ford truck sites and find out the leaky oil pan is pretty usual. I also found out that I could probably get away with not removing the top stuff and just jacking up the engine about 1.5 inches watching so I didn't smoosh anything. Did I say it was rusty?? The nuts and bolts took a lot of work -- spraying penetrating oil and hammering to get off. I'd wrestle for an hour or so, then spray some more and let it sit. I also had to order an oil pan and gasket set. Anyway, tonight I finally got everything loose, with just some finagling to get the exhaust pipe out of the way -- all the nuts came off and no studs broke off - whew... I'm going away for the 4th, so it'll be next week before I can dive back in.
In the meantime, here's the Laws of Oz as applied to automotive mechanics:
After getting back into wrenching after several years, I've realized there's laws here that Murphy would be afraid to find:
1. No matter how many wrenches or sockets you carry with you under the truck -- it's always the other one in your toolbox.
2. No matter how big a box of nuts and bolts you have, you won't have the one you need.
3. If there are six open parts stores and 1 closed one -- guess which one has the part you need?
4. Your socket is always going to be one extension to few away from the nut.
5. If you buy a brand new set of Craftsman 6 point sockets from 3/8" to 1", the first nut you work on will be 5/16".
6. The only thing worse than a jack that won't go up high enough is one that doesn't go down low enough.
7. If you grab your metric wrenches, the nut will be standard, if you grab your standard wrenches, the nut will be metric. If you grab both, the nut will rusted tight and rounded off.
8. If you have but one drain in the floor of your garage way back in the corner, no matter where you drop that last nut, it will find it.
9. No matter how long the extension cord or garden hose you buy, it's always a foot too short.
10. If you have 6 nuts to loosen, the hardest one to reach will be the tightest.
sigh......
2fers: www.ford-trucks.com and www.fordtruckworld.com
On Monday when I drove it to work, it left an oil puddle about the size of my palm underneath it. Wednesday night there was a puddle the size of me under my truck in the garage. I put a pan and oil dry underneath it to catch the rest. I had been warned by the local quicky lube guys that the oil pan was starting to leak, so I wasn't all that surprised when it let loose. So I head over to the library and look for a truck book - Chiltons was on the shelf. I read about replacing the oil pan -- it starts with taking off the fuel intake manifold on top of the truck!! And the radiator fan shroud and the exhaust, etc. etc.
OK - so on to the Internet for some research. I visit a couple of Ford truck sites and find out the leaky oil pan is pretty usual. I also found out that I could probably get away with not removing the top stuff and just jacking up the engine about 1.5 inches watching so I didn't smoosh anything. Did I say it was rusty?? The nuts and bolts took a lot of work -- spraying penetrating oil and hammering to get off. I'd wrestle for an hour or so, then spray some more and let it sit. I also had to order an oil pan and gasket set. Anyway, tonight I finally got everything loose, with just some finagling to get the exhaust pipe out of the way -- all the nuts came off and no studs broke off - whew... I'm going away for the 4th, so it'll be next week before I can dive back in.
In the meantime, here's the Laws of Oz as applied to automotive mechanics:
After getting back into wrenching after several years, I've realized there's laws here that Murphy would be afraid to find:
1. No matter how many wrenches or sockets you carry with you under the truck -- it's always the other one in your toolbox.
2. No matter how big a box of nuts and bolts you have, you won't have the one you need.
3. If there are six open parts stores and 1 closed one -- guess which one has the part you need?
4. Your socket is always going to be one extension to few away from the nut.
5. If you buy a brand new set of Craftsman 6 point sockets from 3/8" to 1", the first nut you work on will be 5/16".
6. The only thing worse than a jack that won't go up high enough is one that doesn't go down low enough.
7. If you grab your metric wrenches, the nut will be standard, if you grab your standard wrenches, the nut will be metric. If you grab both, the nut will rusted tight and rounded off.
8. If you have but one drain in the floor of your garage way back in the corner, no matter where you drop that last nut, it will find it.
9. No matter how long the extension cord or garden hose you buy, it's always a foot too short.
10. If you have 6 nuts to loosen, the hardest one to reach will be the tightest.
sigh......
2fers: www.ford-trucks.com and www.fordtruckworld.com
