grrrraaaah! (vent post)

So, I just spend from 2:00pm to 11:30pm working on my rear axle swap, and I'm still not done. Here's the background:

I’m swapping the 5 lug axles off my 1977 Maverick onto my 1971 4 lug Maverick. I also swapped the 3.00 rear off the ’71 into the ’77 casing. We cleaned, rust bullet’d, and painted the casing. New gaskets, wheel cylinder, brakes, spring kit, lines, etc. We did all the prep work on the ’77 rear ahead of time and this should have been a 1 day job.

Problem #1
Whoops, take those springs off, you forgot to install your new bushings in place of the already brand-new rubber ones.

Problem #2
While installing the new ESPO shackles on the leaf springs, one of the studs turned right off. Some kind of imperfection in the steel made this thing REALLY weak, not even 20 ft/lbs of pressure on it and it snapped. I’ll call ESPO on Monday and I’m sure they’ll replace my shackles, glad it didn’t happen on the road. We went ahead and reinstalled the factory stuff for now.

Problem #3
While taking the pumpkin out of the ’71 case, I smashed my finger with a ½” drive 2 foot long ratchet. I hit it so hard that I pushed a bolt INTO my finger. I now have a wonderful puncture wound and a possibly cracked knuckle to deal with.

Problem #4
I had planned on using the d-block and axletube vent off the ’77 before realizing the diameters for the vent bolts are entirely different. Spend 30 minutes digging through the trash before finding the right vent in the bottom of the box I had set aside just for this scenario.

Problem #5
The drums would not go on all the way and we couldn’t figure out why. When we finally tried putting the rims on, the bound up. Turns out the local auto parts place gave me shoes that are far to wide and rub on the insides of the drums. Tomorrow I’m going to dig the old shoes out of the trash so I can have a car for the week.

Problem #5.5
Now one of the drum is stuck on the shoes, however, I think a slide hammer can fix that.

Always an adventure working on this car, always.

Thanks for listening to me rant a bit.

 

all this sounds "normal" to me...anytime i go to get a new part...i try to take the old one with me...sometimes i go as far as to go to the junk yard and get the part first...this way i know how it comes apart...you can find the hidden ...clips...screws and bolts...
chris and i took a "busted" dash pad off once just to see what all had to come off to get it out... . what i found out is "if it goes on easy the first time...it must be on backwards"...frank...

 

I feel for ya man. Almost nothing ever goes "easy" when working on my Mav...

 

Sometimes there are days like that....just another thing that makes the cruising time so great.

 

Sounds like my luck. You just never know on these cars because the guy before you went through it too, and made something work.

 

aint it fun?

I planned on having my car done by March at the latest... March 2004... hehe...

Making progress tho... slowly but surely.

 

I feel your pain ... Always double the cost and triple the time of any estimate you do for a project ...

 

The only thing that I've ever put on or in my car that went on the way it was supposed to, was the rear side panels next to the rear seat (changed from blue to black), and rear shocks. Everything else took "creative assistance" to work the way it's supposed to. That's part of the joy of it though. I'm 26 years old, and I've NEVER worked on a car before this one. I've never had the desire. I've never wanted to do it. I've always been a computer jock. The extent of my knowledge with cars before, was when my first car 11 years ago (a pretty sweet 1987 Cougar) would have problems, my dad would ask "Well, what's wrong with it?" and the best thing that I could come up with was "It just won't go."

I've learned more by reading this board than anywhere else. I swear there are some of the most knowledgable people I've ever seen (or uh, read) on this board. I thank each and every one who has ever answered a stupid question that I've ever had. I've enjoyed learning, and I know that learning never stops.

I've had some hard times with my Maverick. It has made me want to sell it for scrap (after breaking all the windows first) before. It was sometimes very hard to get motivated to work on it. Geez, it took me 2 weeks to get my 351W in it!!! Remember, I had never done it before! I'd cut some of the shock towers, then try to stab it in.... realize it ain't going to go, and start over. The worst part is that when I bought it, I was working on it at my buddies dad's house. It was about 15 miles outside of town, and we were using a tree as a engine hoist, and since trees can't be moved very easily, were using a F150 to push the Maverick forward, and that same F150 with a chain to pull it back while trying to cram the 351 in. Now, I realize that many of you have used trees as an engine hoist before..... but most of you that USED to use a tree as an engine hoist, probably now use a cherry picker. If trees were such good engine hoists, why aren't you still using one? My point exactly. It's what you had. So that's what you used.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. Would I do some things differently? Absolutely. That's why you do things. To learn how it is done, and to do it better next time.

1976 Rust free Ford Maverick: $400. 351W and transmission out of a Gran Torino: $250. Knowledge gained from putting the two together, and the thrill you get every time it's fired up: Priceless.

On a side note, it's funny when you "revisit" something that you've worked on before on your car. You can almost hear the western "gunfight" music playing in the background.

Hope that this encourages you.

-Eric

 

Another thing I have learned is to spend the time and money and do it right the first time. The first time you tackle a particular project on your Maverick it will be fun ... the second time you have to redo what was already done is not fun anymore ... it's work.

 

Actually I disagree with that for most things. If I'm doing something for the first time, I'd rather screw it up and learn how with cheap stuff, then when I redo it the right way, I already know how and haven't wasted much money. I don't consider it wasting time if I'm learning something from it.

 

Putting my engine and tranny was fun the first time .. took lots of motivation the second time ...

 

I think what Dan is saying, is that he doesn't plan on doing everything twice. He does it once, and does it right.

I intend to only do things once, but how many times have you done something, thinking it was right, then hear a squeak, or a rattle, or a click that annoys you?

 

Fun? That's one word for it....

 

Problem #3
While taking the pumpkin out of the ’71 case, I smashed my finger with a ½” drive 2 foot long ratchet. I hit it so hard that I pushed a bolt INTO my finger. I now have a wonderful puncture wound and a possibly cracked knuckle to deal with.




Always give a blood sacrifice to the car gods!

 

Hmmm, nothing ever goes wrong for me. No wait, I gues its just that I dont remember much these days.