November 28, 2006

• I managed to sneak in a day off today, last warm day for a  while. Worked on the Diamond T the bulk of the day. Had a heck of a time with the phone, darn thing ringing off the hook, everyone wanting me to come do A/C checks before it turned cold. Frustrating. One I even told her I was out of town working (which I was) and she asked if I could come back into town and get that Inspection done. I told her no, it would not be professional to leave one jobsite for another, in the middle of a job. She was a bit miffed, but accepted that. Sheesh. Anyway, I tackled the Diamond T Exhaust/Intake manifold gasket. I knew it would be a chore, but...

  

  had to take the carb off to gain access, a couple fuel lines and some heater hoses, a few plug wires, then started in trying to loosen six manifold bolts. Incredibly hard to get to, I had to modify a wrench just to get down into the areas the bolts were. The rear one was inaccessible, so I had to remove the floorboard and come in that way...

  

  what a pain in the butt. You had to turn each bolt about three turns, then the next, and move the manifold back from the block evenly. One bolt was so hard to get to, I had to use two wrenches and rotate them, turning the bolt one half of one flat each time. Took me three hours to remove six bolts.

  

  Manifold gasket was definitely bad, mainly the left side lower area, that was the rear cylinder. The two ovals were still holding but fell apart when I removed it. Definitely a poor design, tho.

  

  Here you can see the manifold pulled away from the block. I coated each manifold nut with anti-sieze compound before re-installing them. Went together a little faster than it came apart, (usually does) It was 60 out when I started on it, and 66 at 2:20. Then the front came in, it dropped 12 degrees in about 4 minutes, and continued to drop. When I finished it was 44. 22 degree drop. Went from T-shirt to coat and hat.

  

  Here you can see the manifold pulled away from the block. Not much room to work. I will get some new radiator hoses and heater hoses while I am at it. And there is a freeze plug leaking and corroded, so I will pull that, and put a block heater in it's place. That should work. It is behind the generator, but I want to pull that and take it in for rebuild anyway. So that should be easy compared to this afternoon's project. I left the carb off, will get a kit for that and dismantle, clean, and rebuild it. Might as well. Then it should be good to go. Well, off to Peru to turn the stove on at Aunt Babe's, then swing past NC on the way home. Laters....

  • 6:12 pm
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