What Car Maintenance/repair Have You Done?

I only do the mechanics I have to do for whatever reason. I dislike working on most engines, but now I have a son who is a very professional mechanic who does the heavy lifting for me. As far as batteries go, the generators have been replaced by alternators and rectifiers, so they work better at low speeds. We have two on-road vehicles now: a 2012 Toyota Camry and a 1994 Doge Ram 1500. There is no maintenance to be done on the Toyota, as we bought a lifetime oil change when we bought it and nothing other than a few filters and a battery have needed to be done since then. The ol' truck has been a different matter. My son replaced a steering box and tie rod ends, as well as the exhaust system. I have been getting the oil changed commercially, but the place I went to changed hands and the service now is terrible, so I do the oil changes myself. If I can find another place I like to do the oil changes and lube, I will have them do it, as crawling around under the vehicle is tough with the bad back.

More on batteries. My wife's car turns the lights off, etc., but the old truck does not. If you accidentally leave the lights on when exiting the vehicle in winter, the battery runs down and then freezes, thus voiding the warranty. My brother (whose wife just died) discovered while she was in treatment that her car (Toyota Rav 4) would run the battery down in a heated garage while sitting due to the parasitic drain, but his Honda Ridgeline did not. According to him, Honda has a system that will shut off all power if the vehicle is idle for a period of time. He said the only down side was that it took about a minute for the car to reprogram itself when the key is inserted. It downloads radio setting, GPS info, etc. from a zip drive thing and resets everything back to where it was. Kinda cool, huh? Does anyone else know about this feature? Perhaps it was sold to him as an option, but he is pretty sharp and custom-orders his vehicles.

The tractor is another thing. Wife won't address it and she also won't mess with any small engines, especially any with a pull start, so if I die, most of those may be sold or given away.

 

My handiman is an interesting critter who can fix anything unless he wants an engine or other part of my equipment. Then he says he can't fix it. I don't think he wants my Matrix.
I had a VW rabbit with a battery drain I took to a dealer almost every other day. They could not find anything wrong with it. I lost so much work! My boss took it to an old farmer friend. I told him I got mad at the car and jumped on it and hit it and it started right up that day.
The old guy kept the car two days, gave it back to me and said, there was a loose nut that turned microscopically and shorted the car out then jiggled back. It was under warrantee but the car could not be fixed by trained technicians. Just this old guy in a garage full of old parts.

 

One of my favorite tools is a bung hammer. You can hit things but not hurt them too badly.

 

I was up early yesterday to go get gas and a quart of oil and trans oil for the old Truck. It cranked fine during one of the 19 degree mornings and yesterday altho warmer it cranked normal. So I got my gas and drove about a half a block to my PO and went inside to get some nfo for mailing a return of that dead motherboard I have been housing for 81 days. I came back out and turned the key on my Truck and it made that old clicking noise of walk you sucker ! I still had to shop because I was out of everything at home and the cats were getting nervous. I got a jump at the PO and drove another two blocks to the store and went in and loaded up on stuff and I wasn't worried about getting another jump due to so many people at the store. I came on home and parked and this morning I felt so bad I got up but by the time 7:30 rolled around I had to go back to bed. My knees just can't take it any more and I rested until 11 and saw it was pretty outside so I went out and did some diagnosing on the cranking problem.

I had bought a new 9volt battery for my meter so I checked my voltage at the battery and it was at 12.6, not good but enough to crank. I didn't mention that I went to the PO a second time to get that package off and just left the Truck running while I did that. So I took my ground cable loose at the alternator bracket where I have it attached and used a bondo file to file it down really clean on both sides of the connector. I also gave the alternator bracket a really good filing because originally from the factory all those brackets were powder coated when new and that does not give a good ground at all. Originally all chevy motors used a bolt stud on the cylinder head until much later. It was a good galvanized bolt stud that always made good contact and never rust. So yeah that was 42 years ago and was probably tossed at 2 years old. I rechecked my voltage after getting the belt tight and cable cleaned up. I was at 14.6 idling and that must have been because the battery was down over a volt so it was working fine and the only way to find out if it is fixed is to drive somewhere a few miles away and turn it off and see how it acts. You would think when getting 14.6 volts the battery would come up very quickly. The starter and alternator are both one year old so I feel pretty sure just the poor grounding and the cold weather slowly brought the charge down, especially considering I don't drive far enough to get my charge up after cranking. My store and post office is like two blocks from home. I had a hard time keeping my battery up several years ago while I was working due to not driving much. I had 3 batteries replaced under warranty and all 3 slowly died at a year old, probably just a sorry brand.

 

My Brother was telling me about one of his road trips coming back to San Diego from Ohio, he and another friend were driving an old 50s car with the 6 volt generator and it went bad somewhere in Arizona. They just happened to find an old car abandoned in a junk yard that had an identical generator and they bolted it on and it still worked. I have seen some 80s vehicles sold by chevy that would produce some very strange things happening when there was a blown fuse, it would cause a problem on an opposite circuit driving the repairman crazy. My old truck is looking bad today but it is still in exceptional shape to be old as it is. It still drives like a new one and I replaced shocks last year. I had checked the ball joints just a couple years ago but the 3/4 ton heavy duty chassis just don't lay over when you have a bad ball joint, they just keep on going. That truck and all like it were capable of towing a 3 axle trailer hauling a Case 520 backhoe. It was the choice of most contractors until the Dodge Cummings came along. The first year it could tow 16 thousand pounds. When Dodge first tried to purchase it from Cummings they turned Dodge down on the offer and told them they did not think their chassis could holdup to the torque produced. Dodge insisted and told Cummings to worry about the engine and they would worry about the chassis. It worked out for Dodge and Cummings. I have less love for the Ford flyby wire Diesels they were selling 20 years ago. You could be driving down the highway and the throttle would just disappear. Everyone had to have them towed, there was a gimme in the design that when you applied the cruise control the truck would give you enough throttle to limp in but nobody knew about it. There is zero physical connection for the throttle, it is truly flyby wire.

 

I forgot to mention, if you have a test light and are having issues with the battery going dead, you can disconnect either post pos or neg and put one end of the meter to the battery and the other between the meter and open cable end. If that test light comes on you have a draw on the system. It takes about 3 volts to light the test light so it makes it easier to test when you pull fuses to check circuits. All you have to do is take a look at the light or even use some longer wire to do the same connection nearer to you.

 

I hated when GM started hiding all the relays behind the center of the dash and the key wouldn't crank unless all were charged. The fuel pump was locked down if there was an issue with any wiring, it was built like that to make the insurance companies happy. Ford had some serious issues with their Thunder birds in early 80s, they failed to design a fail safe in their ignition systems and if you lost ignition you would still have pressurized fuel flooding the crankcase. They also had mechanical vacuum pressure regulators that would have a diaphragm fail while engine idling and the driver away from their vehicle, it too would fill the crankcase full of gas. They weren't satisfied with that and got into burning your house down with inferior ignition wiring that would start the fire in your garage while you were asleep. ;0) I was once a true Ford lover but things just got worse by the year and I was able to see first hand what was happening. I even worked on a Ford that had an axle tube separate from the 3rd member because the factory didn't weld it to the 3rd member. I have seen some era changes over the decades up until I stopped working for dealers.

 

Had to laugh at your translation of the clicking noise. I know I have verbal exchanges with my vehicles but didn't realize the actual conversations they might be having with me.
Being a mere woman, I would not have driven 'somewhere' to turn the engine off to test it, as I have had electrical problems before. I might have just driven around the block or two and home to turn it off. I have two chargers, one at the farm and one at the house. I am a little paranoid about car trouble.

 

Similar to the GM cruise control mechanism. They are hard to find today and were made by AC. Inside it looked like a watch with gears and cogs etc.