Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux

[rickf]

Universal clutch pilot. used for installing clutches.

The green box may suggest S-K Tools

[rickf]

I had one exactly like that at one time and it was before my snap on tool box was stolen so that is entirely possible. I did not have exclusively Snapon but most of them were. That box was stolen in 1979.

[rickf]

I found a National clutch alignment tool in a green box similar to that but not the adjustable one. I am pretty sure mine was not Snap-On so probably it was the National. No idea where I got it. Back then tool supplies were kind of limited to Sears, Snap=On and maybe MAC if you had those tool trucks in town. Other than that the part places had Proto and S-K. I had a wide variety from all the places, to the dismay of my Snap-On guy. but hey, I was not one of those to open a line of credit with Snap-On. Which also meant when all my tools were stolen that I did not have a huge bill to pay for tools I no longer had. And the shops insurance paid me a whopping 200.00 towards what I lost. Whoopie. Craftsman here I came. Back them Craftsman were still good tools. But that clutch pilot was one of the things that went. Sad part is I found out who stole the stuff within a day and also found out he sold it all the day after! He hit five places that night. He was a local heroin addict and nothing was done to him by the cops. he managed to hide from me but a couple of the other people found him and beat him about to death. Burned his truck. He died from an overdose a few years later. Karma caught up with him but Karma did not pay me back!!!!

Can you give me the whole part number off the tool? I am really curious now.

[m3a1]

One of the old tool experts on the 503 was kind enough to give me an immediate reply, identified it and even sent me some info from a 1959 Massey Ferguson catalog showing a very similar tool, manufactured for MF by Owatonna Tool Company (Missouri). They made OEM tools for lots of folks, apparently.

On eBay, we find ALMOST a dead ringer for my tool set, right down to the box it came in -

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313791779327?c ... Y8QAvD_BwE

Very minor differences from mine, rebranded as National, and it's off to the races! Patent law must have been taking a nap.

Rick, the numbers on the big barrels would be 8130-1, 8130-2 or 8130-3. As for a number for the kit, there is nothing on the case that has survived the ages so I don't believe I can help you on that matter.

[Mark]

I had a clutch alignment tool made by SK from the 1970's, came with a clear plastic pouch.I looked for it for a couple of hours.It wasn't in the tool box like it was supposed to be., but my search will continue.I have left tools in cars, then I would find them in the street.Unbelieveable as that might seem! LOL!!

[m3a1]

No, I am NOT dead.

No, I did NOT go on another vacation.

A LOT going on around here but nothing that amounts to much...

So, just to reassure y'all I'm still kickin', here are a couple of Show & Tell items.

I will back-track to Vegas for a moment... Here I am...contemplating what the result of this audacious overindulgence might be. I lopped off the top of this monstrosity and just drank my chocolate shake the way I had imagined I would in the first place (with witnesses, I might add). Restraint. My Dad would have been proud.

IMG_2394.jpg

EPIC SELF CONTROL ACHIEVEMENT BADGE awarded!

Presently, I'm spending an enforced few days at home, playing catch up on the many, MANY projects that I have started (and left unfinished) such as sorting out my $25 rummage store engine stand by adding a cross-bar to the front and transforming it from three wheels... (always tricky and the cause of this stand having been sold on the cheap because they did indeed tip it over with an engine on it) ...to four wheels, and by adding some BOSS gussets to ensure things remained exactly where I intended they be.

IMG_9180.jpg

Why this project and not another? Well, there is the matter of that flathead Ford V8 which is STILL sitting on Peach.... and I need Peach to move a muy masculino hydraulic press a mi casa. So certain steps must be taken to free up the trailer.

And why am I fooling around at home with work still to be done at the Nice Lady's place? Well, Longfellow conked out on me... again. 'Old Truck Woes' are things that must be endured if one wants to have a large truck without paying through the nose for a new one. It's not that I can't afford it. It's that I won't.

This time, it appears some kind of fuel pressure sensor died. Not complaining. While it's laid up, I'm having some extra work done. Heck, I might even have the AC fixed. (No, probably not.)

Cheers,
TJ

[rickf]

I am pretty sure there is no Fuel pressure sensor on a 7.3 Powerstroke. There is the high pressure oil sensor we talked about the last time it died which does power the injectors. You have to watch those diesel mechanics, you know how crooked they can be.

[rickf]

Yea, you lopped the top off, and shoveled it right on in your maw! That is exactly what I would have done, especially considering what that thing probably cost. Something else your dad would have been proud of. Waste not want not.

[m3a1]

They characterized it as a fuel pressure sensor and I ran with that but yeah, they DID use the wrong terminology (since the oil pressure provides the pressure to power the injectors).

Duh. Anyway, I hope they're killing all my little gremlins for me.

And NO....I did NOT eat all that crap. There's a lot of walking to do in Vegas. Not good with a stomach that's absolutely full.

Cheers,
TJ

[raymond]

I ended up with symptoms of hyperglycemia just looking at that

Raymond

[m3a1]

There's ALWAYS something going on at the Beverly Hillbillies...

And, because written, or printed primal screams lack the ability to bring forth that atavistic, spine-tingling, fight-or-flight adrenaline rush, I will simply say this...

The repairs to Longfellow have become financially burdensome.

THIS TIME we began with a bad ICP sensor. ICP stands for Injector Control Pressure. An ICP sensor going bad has the following symptoms - "When the Ford diesel ICP is not functioning you'll likely get a crank but no-start situation. This is because there isn't enough injection pressure building to deliver fuel and start the 7.3 Power Stroke. Other symptoms of ICP sensor failure include rough running or the engine cutting in and out" (and oil coming out of the top of the sensor).

In my truck's case, basically ALL of the above applied except for the engine cutting in and out. It either ran...or it didn't. I didn't know a lot about this sensor BEFORE trouble found me and I really thought we had nipped everything in the bud after the FIRST visit to the shop.

I'm sharing this story with you now, BEFORE trouble finds you because I would have been far better off if I HAD been familiar with it because I would have replaced it as a matter of course, in my own driveway....so I'm doing you all a solid and familiarizing YOU with the ICP...whether you have a 7.3 or not. Maybe someday, someone will offer you a solid deal on an otherwise decent 7.3 diesel truck that maybe just never seemed to act quite right and the owner might just be wanting to unload it. You might just remember all this and quietly get your wallet out, buy the thing, replace a sensor and you'll have yourself one helluva bargain.

Or not.

I will also add that Longfellow, when started after sitting for some time, would start just fine, then bog slightly, them come out of it and be fine the rest of the day. Another symptom? Well...maybe...maybe not.

MY ICP was misbehaving intermittently, resulting in several tow-ins, this latest visit to the shop....and....

FREQUENT FLYER MILES ACHIEVEMENT BADGE awarded to me by my usual wrecker company who just LOVES repeat customers.

Two more tow-ins and I get a toaster!

My ICP sensor was weeping oil straight up through the sensor and out the electrical connection, chiefly because it was old, like my truck. Mind you, I'm not complaining. Nothing lasts forever and things like this WILL crop up from time to time, especially in older trucks.

After replacing the old sensor with a new sensor, Longfellow fired up and all was well as could be expected. But, while Longfellow was in the shop, I decided to have the fuel sending units in the tanks replaced with new fuel sending units. One tank's sending unit was not working and the OTHER could be counted upon to be a bald-faced liar about half the time.

This made things doubly difficult from the perspective of my running around with a faulty ICP sensor (which, in my defense, I had heretofore been blissfully unaware of) because the reality was, I was under the impression that I had been stupidly running my truck out of fuel owing to not knowing exactly how much fuel was available. And, the moment you take your eyes off the odometer....

I feel better about that now because, clearly, I was not stupidly running my truck out of fuel. It was that danged ICP sensor!

Still, with the ICP sensor issue resolved and, out of an abundance of caution, I concluded that doubling down on the matter of ensuring excellent fuel delivery to the big diesel would be an equally excellent course of action.

What I did NOT count on was -
(1) Fuel sending units for the front and rear tanks of OBS (old body style) Fords are considered to be obsolete. Thus, Ford no longer makes them.
(2) Supplies of fuel sending units are diminishing at an alarming rate because these old Ford diesel trucks are proving to be darned hard to kill off and their owners (like me) continue to repair them at an equally alarming rate.
(3) The fuel sending units that are out there are being delivered without the very necessary screen assembly at the end of the pickup tube and they are EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to source and also, apparently made of Unobtanium and thus, these parts have an astronomical price.
(d) My truck needed them badly because mine had degraded to the point where they may have been obstructing fuel flow and there was some kind of odd plastic particulate junk in my tanks (probably coming from the degraded screen assembly) that was making that happen.

Today, the auto shop manager gave me the new tally for all this new mechanical hocus pocus which, according to him, had the new total creeping up on darned near TWICE what it had been the day before and I said,

WHAAAAT THEEEEEE EFFBOMB!! ARE YOU EFFBOMBING KIDDING ME?!!

He started spinning me some yarn about additional costs concerning varnish in my fuel tank that would have to be removed, yadda yadda yadda and I said,

STOP
RIGHT
THERE,
fella.

I've seen dirty diesel tanks, diesel tanks with algae, diesel tanks with rust....heck I've even seen 10 or maybe even 12 traveling circuses; I've been to one or two state fairs, IN Afghanistan I've seen a Gurkha cut the head clean off a goat with one swing of a khukuri....but I've NEVER seen varnish in a diesel tank.

EVER.

So I said, "I'm comin' over there."

And I did.

The shop manager wisely got the hell outta dodge and took a late lunch before I arrived.

SELF PRESERVATION SKILLS ACHIEVEMENT BADGE awarded!

That left me doing business with Underling Numero Uno. He ushered me back into the shop. Both tanks looked brand spankin' new on the inside (not bad for a truck made in 1998!) but there were little pieces of black plastic from the deteriorated fuel screen assemblies laying on the bottom of both tanks and in the front tank, the screen itself was laying in the bottom, it having separated itself from the rest of the assembly.

Jason the mechanic eyed me warily. I was nice about what came next.

Me - What's your plan of action, Jason?
He - Well, I'm going to have to dump out the tanks.
Me - Save the fuel. Strain out the particulates and return the fuel to the tanks. After you empty the tanks, get a terrycloth towel and a dowel rod and wipe them both out thoroughly, all the way to the corners. Do a good job and I reckon that'll get 99% of it. Haven't seen a single bit of that stuff in the primary filter so I'm guessing the screens were catching it all, even as they degraded. With the new screens I don't think we'll have anything to worry about.
He grinned. I had not bitten his head off. - Okay, Boss!

Underling Numero Uno apparently did not subscribe to the shop manager's gold-digging habits, and he knew he couldn't justify the total that guy had come up with, so he didn't even try. Quite the contrary. He asked me to follow him up front so he could get my bill back to a manageable number....

And he did.

I don't know if we're all going to live happily ever after but, I have high hopes that Longfellow's current gremlins have been exorcised. I also think the shop manager will probably be a bit more 'square' with me in future dealings.

Cheers,
TJ

[rickf]

Ahem, you know it is coming, wait for it. it will be here soon. ............................... yep, you guessed it. I TOLD YOU SO!. Both on the crooked diesel mechanics and also on the ICP sensor. Seems I mentioned that sensor a long time ago when you were describing a starting problem. And how much fun they can be to replace.
But, and not in defense of the service writer because he is just trying to rip people off, modern diesel fuel will varnish up. But certainly not in a truck that is driven around on a regular basis. and not usually in a closed system tank. But if it has access to a lot of air and moisture it will turn into a sticky nasty mess. Takes several years though. I have some, want me to send it to you so you can present it to the service manager?

These old trucks are well worth saving, have you seen the resale prices of these things recently? Holy crap!!!!

[m3a1]

Ahem, you know it is coming, wait for it. it will be here soon. ............................... yep, you guessed it. I TOLD YOU SO!. Both on the crooked diesel mechanics and also on the ICP sensor. Seems I mentioned that sensor a long time ago when you were describing a starting problem. And how much fun they can be to replace.
But, and not in defense of the service writer because he is just trying to rip people off, modern diesel fuel will varnish up. But certainly not in a truck that is driven around on a regular basis. and not usually in a closed system tank. But if it has access to a lot of air and moisture it will turn into a sticky nasty mess. Takes several years though. I have some, want me to send it to you so you can present it to the service manager?

These old trucks are well worth saving, have you seen the resale prices of these things recently? Holy crap!!!!

Well, if you did mention it, I'm a slow learner.. I'm not calling the manager a liar and I believe the mechanic is a straight arrow. The mechanic was doing exactly what I wanted him to do and by all appearances, he was doing it well.

I choose to believe that the shop manager (service writer, if you will) wasn't necessarily engaging in trying to pick my pocket but rather, probably wasn't actually going back to the shop and looking at the work to be done to be sure he got it right. I've been there when the mechanics come up to the office to mention a few things and from that observance I'd bet the service writer is just filling in the gaps on the thumbnail sketch the mechanics gave him with what he THINKS he knows....such as a varnished tank.

My NUMBER ONE PROBLEM with him in this instance was that his 'creative writing' was nearly doubling my bill from what he quoted and apparently he thought nothing of it. Yes, these people are there to make money and yes, the bill is ALWAYS more than you want it to be but when the numbers are going into orbit a good service writer will contact the customer either with options (if they exist) or inform the customer as to where the costs are heading, rather than where they ended up.

I will say this... I'm happy that I went in and upended the claim of varnished tanks. Underling Numero Uno looked really embarrassed when I lit up my tank's interior with my phone's light. Ahhh, such nice pretty fuel tanks! That opened the door to his reducing my bill because clearly, varnished tanks were not the case. Most of my salvation came from his reducing their markup on the parts.

Unfortunately, my shop has a disconnect between what's actually going on in the back where the work is being done and what the guy up front thinks is going on. The fellas in the back do very good work. I'll just have to try to be a bit more involved in the future. Seems that is what it takes.

The bottom line here is this - be firm, be informed and if you have a difference of opinion, be nice when you have a face-to-face with the people to whom you have entrusted your vehicle. You want them happy to see you come in (for all the right reasons). Or, as we used to say in the police department -

Be nice to the lady behind the counter. Sometimes you get more meat in your taco.

Cheers,
TJ

[rickf]

The actual mechanics that do the work are not usually involved in the billing at bigger shops. When I had my shop I did it all and I answered to all the questions. When I was doing fleet work at the college I worked at I had taken a Dodge van in to the dealer for a transmission problem. They told me the transmission needed to be rebuilt and they would do it at a certain price. I told the bosses I could do it for a third of that price but I was pretty backed up and they needed the van so they went for the job. Got a call a week later the van was done and had one of the guys run me up there and picked it up. I didn't get two blocks and I called my partner on the radio and told him to turn around. The transmission was acting the same. The service manager was a classic. First off you have to picture this guy, he is a retired pro football player and he is huge. So basically he depends on his size to intimidate people so they don't argue. Yea, right. I do not intimidate so that did not work right off the bat. He comes out with a bag of parts and tells me these are the parts from your transmission. I looked at them and said are you sure? Absolutely he says. I open the bag and take a gander and then I tell him I want to see the van on a lift. I want to see the transmission they put in. NOW, the general manager is involved and my partner has gone into hiding, LOL. So up it goes and the whole time this service manager will not shut up. He is telling the mechanic to explain to me what he did and I can see right off that this poor guy is on the spot. I look up in there and I ask the mechanic flat out, "did you remove this transmission?" The service manager did not even let him answer, he said of coarse he did, I told him to. I said you told him to or you told him to say he did? Crickets!!! The best part of all of this is that the general manager had said nothing at all, he was very intently listening to what was being said. Then I went into full send. First I dumped the bag of parts out on the table and said you told me these came from that transmission correct? "yes, they did" These are parts from a 727 Torqueflite, That transmission in the van is a 904 TorqueFlite. Big crickets!! Then I pointed to the transmission to bell housing bolts that had rust on the exposed threads and asked how he got those bolts out without disturbing the rust? That was the last nail for the GM, he walked under and looked at the bolts, he told the mechanic to take lunch and after the mechanic left he told the service manager to answer my question. How did he get the transmission out without disturbing the rust. And where are the actual parts from the transmission you miraculously removed in such a way? And especially WHY did you put one of MY mechanics through this by ordering him to lie?
So, in reality most actual mechanics are good people and do not try to rip off customers. That mechanic was scared to death he was going to be fired. In fact he ended up getting a raise and the service manager was gone shortly after I left. And we got a brand new transmission on the house.
That mechanic showed up at my shop a couple weeks later, his girlfriend was going to school there, and he could not thank me enough for finally ending that guys reign there. He said everyone was afraid of him.

[m3a1]

Now I'm wondering what, exactly, did they do to that transmission? Replace the filter, put in new fluid and hope for the best?

Of course this ball rolls both ways. I had a guy come in to the shop with an AMC Pacer that was running badly. Not poorly. BADLY...or barely. Take your pick.

Diagnosis - carburetor.
Recommendation - Rebuild carburetor.

Not a big job, right? Gave him the estimate (which was by the book) and the guy goes bonkers. He claims that he only just bought the car for $200 and he is NOT going to pay to have the carb rebuilt. I had the tech throw the air filter back on it and we pushed it out of the bay, down the parking lot and onto the side of the frontage road. Bye bye!

Another guy came in with his young son. This one was a doozy. His car was a late 30's Chevy coupe. At that time, I owned a 37 Plymouth coupe (basically the same car with some minor styling differences) and the shop owner owned a 38 Chevy coupe so this was going to be one everyone would be comfortable with. Except that didn't happen.

The shop offered a Lifetime Alignment. The fine print read that your lifetime alignment was based upon having a healthy suspension and healthy steering to begin with. Lifetime Alignment meant that as long as you owned the car, we would do any suspension work for you (which you paid for) and any successive alignments were on the house. Simple.

So, we did an inspection on this old coupe and found just every part of the suspension and steering was shot...bushings, springs, U-bolts, centering pins, king pins, tie rod ends, pitman arm, steering box (which was not only worn out but loose on the frame) a bent wheel...the whole shebang....all junk. Provided him with an estimate which was not an all-or none proposition but a very reasonable estimate including doing the work in stages, because we knew folks aren't made outta money.

Well, the guy came unglued. Oh BOY, he wanted that Lifetime Alignment! I told him plainly that we couldn't even begin to align it under the circumstances. His car was going twenty different directions all at once. So, the guy tells his kid (who was about 13 or 14) that we're just a bunch of rip off artists. The kid doesn't know what to do because I'm standing right there while Dad badmouths me.

So I gave the tech the high sign and while the guy is on his rant, down comes the car and after he steps outside he finds it out by the frontage road. Now he's REALLY steamed and he comes back in with all the usual mouth and more.

Sir, the policy is, if your car is unsafe and you decline our service, you don't drive it off our lot. THAT is why your car is where it is. So off he goes in a cloud of blue smoke with the kid in the right seat and his car going twenty different directions all at once.

A week goes by and a car pulls up. The kid gets out (his mom was driving and she looks like Church Lady) and he comes inside by himself.

Me - Hey there! How is your Dad's car project coming along?
He - Dad sent me over to apologize for the things he said.
Me - Well, thanks. Tell him we'd still like to do the work on his car.
He - Dad lost control of the car and hit a tree. It's kinda bent in half. (I imagined MY coupe bent in half. What a horrible image.)
Me - OH NO! (Then I'm wondering why Dad didn't come in to apologize himself.)
He - Yeah, he's in the hospital and he asked me to come tell you he's sorry.
Me - Well, you tell him to get better and maybe we can help him with his next car project.
He - Mom told Dad no more old cars...

Annnd that's how it goes sometimes.

Cheers,
TJ