It’s the small things, they say. And I think the rest of that expression is either “that never happen” or “that ruin your life,” as that’s been my experience with cars. I’ve never not had “small things” to do to at least one of my cars, and even now there’s a laundry list of not-critical-but-still-bothersome issues I need to mend. I’m sure you all understand, so feel free to use the comments section to vent; again, you should look at Wrenching Wednesday as an automotive therapy session. We’re here for you, and we’re not judging.
My move into my office here at Galpin has begun, as you can see here:
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More on the move soon, but for now, just know that I took my brother’s 1966 Ford Mustang to work. Behold:
There were a few issues getting here, the main one being that I had to hammer the starter to get it to crank the engine. Then the battery died and I needed a jump start. Then the engine flooded with gas, and I had to let it sit for a bit.
Eventually, I did get to work, though I’m realizing I might need a more reliable car now that I have a commute. Maybe. We’ll see. Either way, the experience reminded me that I have a lot of “little things” to do to my cars. This Mustang alone needs: new rear springs (they sag a bit), new shocks, front control arms, new tires (they’re warn flat up front due to poor alignment), and an alignment, just to name a few. The thing still drives fine, and I’m comfortable driving it for a little bit (not long, due to those tires) until I can get these things taken care of, but the issues do weigh on me.
I’ve got a number of other “small things” to do to my J10 pickup. I need to patch up a bit of the cab that has rusted, I need to fix the hazard light switch, I need to replace the leaf spring bushings, and on and on. The truck drives fine now, but it makes some noises here and there.
Some of this may never get done, as “little things” often don’t, but all of it is actively bothering me. Such is the problem with the “little things.” Please commiserate about them in the comments below.
Well, it’s Friday so naturally I should post to “Wrenching Wednesday”. Actually it was fixing one of those small things, along with a blizzard, work and other minor events which kept me from checking Autopian for a few days.
Yesterday I replaced the front output seal on my 98 Ram’s transfer case, hopefully curing a minor leak which has eluded me for some time. Of course once I got the driveshaft and yoke out of the way the old seal didn’t want to budge and removing it turned out to be the longest part of that project by far!
For years my Charger has needed a few small weatherstrip pieces and body seals which only take minutes to install. I just ordered them this past weekend so I may be scratching that off the list soon. I also need to complete attaching the evap system on it, that might be a quick job or might require an entirely different set of valve covers. It runs just fine without it but my wife would appreciate the decrease in gasoline smell in the garage, all my arguments that a proper garage should have a background odor of gasoline and oil seem to fall on deaf ears.
I’m going to curl up into a little ball and hope I get hit by a bus. Maybe the train along MoPac will derail while hauling something hella explosive. Maybe I’ll get hit by a meteor the size of a corgi. I don’t know. I just kind of want to disappear because the list is overwhelming and I’m not getting anywhere on the job front in terms of being able to fund it.
944: Install the fuel rail, install a new clutch (yeah, I’m lumping this into “little things,” what of it?), install a new fuel filler neck and hope to parsh this one doesn’t leak, source a second seat and harnesses, install seats and harnesses, replace windshield, get inspection, figure out why the clutch pedal now goes to the floor, ???, send it. I have until mid-March if I want to make the Lemons Rally. I might just slap on paper temp plates and hope for the best, but I’ll be sad if I can’t renew my “PARSH” plates in time.
Lancer: Gah, it’s all little stuff with this one. Get the steering wheel leather fixed, swap out the front brake caliper that sticks, do wheel bearings, figure out what’s causing the CEL/occasional rough idle, replace the cracked fog lamp, replace the cracked/yellowing headlamp, fix the scraped-up side skirt, get a new rear-view mirror that holds in place, replace the broken window regulator, replace the interior trim we messed up while trying to get to the O2 sensor, see if there’s a way to get out that spot in the back seat, figure out if doing wheel bearings and that brake caliper fixed that annoying squeak. It still runs reliably, but my gosh, is it ever a physical manifestation of how much my life is in shambles right now.
411: Make new bushings, install new bushings, rework carbs so they work at elevation. It still mostly runs, so I kinda don’t wanna mess with that last one until I can definitely have my solid #2 car out for a bit.
I’m sure there’s stuff I’m forgetting. The 944 is the priority right now, so hopefully I can get that to happen.
Sounds like you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the little things, I know when I get into that situation I’ll get indecisive and wind up getting nothing done because I don’t know where to start. What almost always works to get me out of that is to make myself just pick a task each day and spend just a little time on it, no matter how insignificant it seems to the overall project. Those few minutes can sometimes turn into several productive hours and after a few days or weeks those short wrenching sessions make some real progress, and often clarify which tasks are more important to focus on.
That’s solid advice! I’ve been gnawing away at the 944 list since it’s the priority, but yeah.
Still need to mount the auto-dimming rear view mirror in my Alltrack. It’s been sitting in my garage since November. I’ve been waiting for the temps to go up before messing around with plastic interior trim clips.
Well, my front wheel bearing arrived yesterday. The MAF sensor & a couple irritating little hoses came today. So I’ll be getting greasy this weekend. Then the big bill comes up: I’ve got an exhaust leak-and the CEL came on the other day: P0420(catalytic converter efficiency low). I want to keep my exhaust quiet, and I absolutely want converters on it still as I can’t stand the smell of straight exhaust. I figure at 180k+, both cats are about shot-especially as the early WRXs are known to overfuel to avoid pistons melting
I’m triggered. My small things add up to a big list. But here’s a sample:
2002 Civic: P1298 Electric Load Detector Circuit High Voltage
1993 Clubwagon: Slow rainwater leak into the driver’s footwell. My best guess is water is infiltrating one or two big wiring harnesses just under the cowl, then following those harnesses to leak in through their firewall passthroughs.
2004 Golf: I’m sick of losing $50 wheel covers. Maybe I’ll paint my steelies silver to match the body color. Maybe while the front-right wheel’s off I’ll try to pop out that dent on that fender from when I dropped a cooler on it.
2004 V70: The intermittent loss of the front-left speaker’s driving me batty! But the wiring seems okay. And I just replaced the cap in the tweeter module. And my spare tweeter module doesn’t lead to a different result. Gah!
2008 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor: Siren and PA seem completely inoperable. Spotlight’s completely inoperable.
2010 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor: P061B Internal Control Module Torque Calculation Performance
Actually, that P061B’s not so little and I’d like some help thinking of what I could test to suss that out. So far I’ve checked the air cleaner and MAF. Both were sparklingly clean. The mechanic I worked with replaced the ECM, but it looks like that code’s showing up again since the brain transplant. I vaguely understand that this code means the ECM thinks powertrain output’s not matching what it thinks powertrain output should be given what it can see of the inputs. What else should I consider?
Whilst the whole suspension in the Mustang needs a rebuild, spec some slightly stiffer rear springs and you’ll see a great improvement to turn-in.
I did that on the Charger and that is one of the best upgrades I’ve done to the car.
There’s a list of small things I’ve been putting off on the Charger, and they will stay there until after the trip down to the Victorian border for the big Chrysler show.
Got a smallish thing done on the WRX last week. I had time before a work conference to visit my Subaru tuner on the coast and so had a cold-air intake I bought (Process West) installed and a retune done so the MAF doesn’t freak out and try to melt the engine.
I got this done because the factory lower airbox has a terrible plastic tab design which always seem to break on WRXs and Sti models from people misaligning the airbox top and lower. I couldn’t find a non-broken or near-broken airbox for sale, so CAI it is as it’s better than trying to seal it up with duct tape. Hearing the turbo and BOV is a fun bonus!
David, one thing I’ve wanted to note on several of your vehicles is that you’ll go spend money on tires but with Project Cactus and the Mustang you’ve pretty much torn those tires up immediately because they aren’t aligned. Seriously, you need to start making alignments part of your priority as you fix your cars. I promise it will save you money in the end, and, to boot it will make the cars a million less times fatiguing to drive for long distances.
Cactus had an alignment done when the tyres were purchased.
A combination of the new suspension settling and adding the bullbar after alignment seems to be the cause of the extreme tyre wear.
After we got it re-aligned at Deni and new front tyres put on the problem is gone. I plan on getting another alignment in a week or two as I’m about to do a 2,000km trip in Cactus and want it just that bit more stable on the highway.
What old (or older) car doesn’t have a list of small things??
My SE-R is puking PS fluid and needs a new PS pump (fortunately I have a spare) and maybe another line replaced (hello, hydraulic shop), the second trunk torsion bar reinstalled (this has been on the to-do list for 15 years), make sure the sunroof drains are still hooked up and draining, figure out why there’s a hesitation at ca. 4000rpm, install the rear STB I’ve had for a decade.
Saab needs an oil and filter change, find small current drain that kills the battery after 2-3 weeks of sitting, wiper blades, install the seatbelt bolt covers that I picked up to replace the ones that were missing when I bought it, ditto weld cover caps by the liftgate, replace VC gasket and distributor seal, exhaust manifold gasket and one broken stud, put the original Clarion radio back in, take the cluster out and grease the odometer gears, install and wire NOS fog lights to replace the ones that got taken out by a tire carcass years ago, replate the headlamp bowls, add protective film to unobtanium glass headlamp lenses, replace weeping oil cooler lines, maybe a PS line too.
911 needs has a #4 injector that’s stuck open and needs to be replaced (easy), another shift coupler adjustment, replace one hinky fan belt shim with correct shim, change trans oil, replace ugly aftermarket radio with Continental, replace oil tank vent hose, find vacuum leak causing high idle if it isn’t that, wire in LED CHMSL I’ve had sitting around for years, add wheel well liners I’ve also had sitting around for years, more work improving Targa top/window/door fit and sealing.
Once I get it back from the body shop, Fiat needs timing belt and water pump service, new soft brake lines, front calipers because I happen to have new ones, new front suspension bushings (new LCAs and UCAs because it’s easy), install Konis I happen to have, replace steering box because I happen to have a rebuilt one, other front suspension rebuild items, replace any 40-year–old soft fuel lines that remain, install H4s with relay, install oil pan guard, replace virtually unworn but 15-year-old tires, add new Turbo decals.
911
Late to the party again.
I camp out on the site at 5pm three Wednesdays in a row, just to get “David’s busy”, no WW this week. Then I have one Wednesday evening where I have to run errands and it’s back. Sigh.
I have ONE tiny little repair pending on the LJ – the blower motor resistor. It’s a 10 minute job probably, but it’s a low-clearance job and it’s going to mess up my hands and fingers, which are just now regrowing skin from all the electrical work I did this winter.
The little thing that I have to do today is put my grill badge on. It’s supposed to arrive today. I suspect it will the best performance upgrade I’ve done in a long time.