Am I the only one???

Topic: Am I the only one??? (Read 3290 times) previous topic - next topic

Am I the only one???

Reply #15 – February 19, 2011, 02:24:38 AM

Quote from: sarjxxx;353254

I think you answered your own question... Good to see you finally got that thing in there though. Kinda wish I'da gone through with it now... Let me know how it works for you.

Anyway, I'm about to go out and take a sacrificial bath in ATF and hopefully things will go smoother as I try to finish up.....

Heheh, I did find that bolt this evening when I went out to button it up! I think it was hiding under the old flywheel on the floor, and the clunk was probably loose gears in the rearend because I fired it up on jackstands.

Of course, to even out the good luck, I snapped the front driveshaft yoke off my F-350 today...I guess ~350 Ft Lbs of torque through a bad u-joint can cause some damage?!? So that's what I'll be fixing tomorrow..:rolleyes:

And yes, you'll definitely hear about how well it does(Or doesn't) work! I'm glad to hear you're almost done!

Am I the only one???

Reply #16 – February 19, 2011, 07:16:23 PM

There are lots of reasons why things take alot longer then there supposed to.
I remember pulling my tranny out of my Z28 on the ground the frist time. No big snags but it still took me nice bit longer.
I still had knowledge from working in a tranny shop to pull it and rebuild it at home. Note GF was not to happy with me using kitchen table as a rebuild bench and tub as a parts washer.
I still have days when 30 min fix turns into hours.

As for your tranny swap you started out fine. You had the bolts loose and already drained the tranny.
The hardest parts are cracking things loose and lifting in place.
Next number of probs comes from not doing trannys and other work all the time not backwoods engineering.

The dowel pins gets every one at least once if not twice. I remember frist time the evil dowel pin god kicked my ass.
I was still green doing re & re's lined up tranny didn't see one pin was still in the tranny case and since i was using a tranny jack i had it lined up and started to put in the bolts.
Zip zip here a zip zip there with the gun and then a Snap what was that? cracked bell. My boss was not to mad with me but i learned to check things alot better.
I bet you will check more too.

As for jackstands the frist time i did a tranny on the ground i almost ran my self over LOL.
I used jackstands on the front of the car but since i didn't have 4 stands i had back wheels on ramps.
I kinda had tranny out and will pushing it from under the car moved forward with back wheels rolling down the ramps and front jackstands flopping forward. I got my @ss out from under then some fast.
Learn some more that day.
I also got tired of putting the tranny on my tummy then pushing up into place. I took the bottom of a chair and welded a bottle jack to it with top plate to rest tranny on. worked well to my surprise.

As for the wife yelling. My X's would yell when i work on peoples cars at home or out. Rant i didn't spend time and so on. She never bitched about money made doing so.
New wife falls asleep in car will working on it in the shop when a 30 min fix turns into 5 hours.
She hates my car but loves it too. But i'm lucky she is a car nut to the bone.

So now big question.
Is tranny in?
Was dinner still there?
And did you make it to work on time?

Am I the only one???

Reply #17 – February 19, 2011, 07:47:36 PM

I had a 74 f350 and it gave me electrical probs so bad i replaced everything. then got rid of it imediatly. Don't do that with your bird but use more passience than I did. Hope everything else goes smoothly for you. keep your chin up thuogh. it happens to everyone.

Am I the only one???

Reply #18 – February 19, 2011, 09:28:42 PM

Quote from: SirChirpAlot;353359

So now big question.
Is tranny in?
Was dinner still there?
And did you make it to work on time?

Hah, yes, well kinda, and um pretty much. now two days later, and everything is buttoned up. It shifts great! Excitement abounds!:D

Am I the only one???

Reply #19 – February 19, 2011, 11:19:03 PM

Thats good.

Am I the only one???

Reply #20 – February 20, 2011, 12:27:00 AM

Quote from: sarjxxx;353216

Seriously. Why is it that every time I set out to complete a project on the car, it ends up taking 2-5x longer than its supposed to? Is it just me? Is it a fault of cars and their backwoods engineering?

I tried to do the tranny swap today. I already had the bolts loose, had all the harnesses disconnected, had it drained, all I had to do was take 3 block-bellhousing bolts out, take the torque converter/flexplate bolts out, and then swap everything over to the new trans. Oh, and finish putting the shifter in the floor.

So I get the old one loose, ready to go. Find out my trans jack won't go high enough. So I get some blockage, then find out with that on there, it won't go low enough. So I finally design a rigged up support system so that I can hold it and take the blocking out. Then I find out it still won't go low enough to get it out. So I just pull it off and drag it out from under the car. And that was barely enough. With my jackstands maxed out.

Then I find out I gotta swap way to much over to the next transmission. Anyway, I get all that done and then I gotta push the trans under the car, get it back up on the jack somehow, then rig up my supports again, then get the blocking under it, then I gotta fight to get the flexplate bolts back together. Fight with that for probably 20 mins, realize my gd starter is in my way so I cant get it close enough. Get the starter out of the way get everything else bolted up after taking way to long to get them lined up. Anyway, try to mate the engine and trans up with the pegs, can't get it to work. After paying closer attention, find out that both my engine AND trans have pins in them, well you cant get a round peg to fit in a round peg now can you?

So I try to get those out, fail, try some more, fail, decide there's no choice but to drop the tranny AGAIN. Then I try to beat the pins out of the bellhousing but its 10 30 at night and I can hear every smack echoing off all the neighbors houses all at once. Well now I've got tranny fluid ALL OVER EVERYTHING, tools EVERYWHERE, garbage and parts EVERYWHERE, and its all in my driveway for my landlord to call me up in the morning and explain to me that its not allowed in out lease to work on cars in the driveway. So I now have to clean up EVERYTHING. I've got a car that has to be lowered, tools to be put away, parts to be thrown away, parts to be organized, fluid to clean up, and junk trans to get rid of, and nowhere to put ANY OF IT.

So anyway, its now 11 56 and I've gotta be at work at 7 00 tomorrow, I've basically wasted an ENTIRE EVENING getting what is at this point the equivalent of nothing more than DROPPING 1 TRANSMISSION accomplished. I still haven't taken a shower or eaten dinner.

All ranting aside, why is it that everytime I try to do something that should easily be able to be accomplished in a hour, or a couple hours, or just a night, it ALWAYS ends up taking longer than it should? Is it just me? Does everyone find themselves getting yelled at by their wives that it is TIME TO COME EAT...IT IS TIME TO COME TO BED...I HATE YOUR CAR....WHY DON'T YOU EVER SPEND TIME WITH MEEEEEEEEEEEE....... All because you can't seem to get anything done in a reasonable amount of time????? I qm SO PISSED OFF because I've gotten nothing done, and I should have been able to drive this thing by now.

//end rant. Please forgive me. I am very angry.

This rant is sticky worthy,,, and honestly you will look back on this thread and read it sometime in the future. The first word to come to mind is "Classic".

thanks for the laugh.

vise grips on the dowl pins next time! then rotate or beat on the vise grip.
remove starter first next time,, it should have been the first thing to come off the car
dont plan a short afternoon next time to do a transmission swap. plan a weekend.

sounds like you ran into every possible learning curve experince so next time it will be easier,, or should i say, more regretful of an experience. I personally would rather pull my finger nails out than to swap an AOD.

Am I the only one???

Reply #21 – February 20, 2011, 09:30:38 AM

I named Anthony's car the "TwiceBird" because we seem to do everything at least 2x if not more. Yes we run into the same problems with things not going smoothly. I have been doing this stuff for over 30 yrs and it has always been that way!!! and I still do it!!! LOL

Am I the only one???

Reply #22 – February 20, 2011, 10:31:37 AM

Quote from: jcassity;353394

dont plan a short afternoon next time to do a transmission swap. plan a weekend.
sounds like you ran into every possible learning curve experince so next time it will be easier,, or should i say, more regretful of an experience. I personally would rather pull my finger nails out than to swap an AOD.

I dunno. I've swapped out transmissions, both AOD and A4LD's both in an afternoon. It's not fun, and I did have help to lift it, but it can be done. Swapping transmissions was actually something I feel I'm good at. lol

Am I the only one???

Reply #23 – February 20, 2011, 12:51:37 PM

I don't know if Classic would be the word that might come to mind when looking back.
I tend to look back on things and go Why was I so dumb or Duh I should known that.
I still get stumped the odd time by the Great Auto Gods but thats just the way it is.
Wait till you have a bolt break off and have to yank a head off to get it out.

Now we should do a car nickname and explane the nick name thread.
I do like the idea of you naming Anthony's car the "TwiceBird" because he seem to do everything at least 2x if not more. But would that be a name for him or the car?

My Nick ChirpAlot comes from my Shop Teacher in HS after we finshed my tranny for my Z28. He took it for a spin and chirp every gear. One of my friends said wow that car ChirpsAlot and the car had nick name from that day. In honor of that car my Nickname came to be.
As for my T Bird my wife has renamed her The Mistress. She is very demanding Time wise and Money wise. LOL

Am I the only one???

Reply #24 – February 24, 2011, 01:50:11 AM

Well ---- I can say this about houses and their renovations.

It'll take twice as long and cost twice as much.