What did YOU do today?

[sgtsandman]

Lincoln voted too.

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Hey, it’s Atlanta. He can vote a couple more times, and even after if it’s needed

I did an absentee ballot before I left and sent it in early enough that I got a comfirmation email from the county election office that they had received it. One can't get much better than that if you can't vote in person on election day.

 

[sgtsandman]

 

[racsan]

took the ford tractor & my trailer to a hayride.

 

[Curious Hound]

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Ooh! Look at the pretty fall colors on the desert sand!

 

[Curious Hound]

took the ford tractor & my trailer to a hayride.
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I’ve never been to a “BYOT - Bring Your Own Tractor” hay ride.

 

[Rick W]

Oh yew wise mechanics:

Yesterday I tackled my 88 town car again. While I was doing some general maintenance and it was idling, it died. I finally traced that to the pick up coil in the distributor. I pulled it, and replaced it, and put it back together, and……

1988 Town Car 302/5.0L

When I put the distributor back together, the distributor shaft can slide up and down in the housing about 3/16 of an inch. Is that normal? Did I lose a bushing or something?

Does the distributor in that engine drive the oil pump? I had to tap the shaft on the bottom to get the gear off and then get the gear on. I had to whack it pretty hard, and I got a couple of the little lips you can get when you whack something. I did a careful job of grinding it smooth, but then I got to wondering that if it drives the oil pump, it may not couple correctly or wear funny.

I’m thinking of driving up to Napa and just looking at a new one before I put this one back in. But if I need one, I don’t want to pay that NAPA price!!!

 

[Roert42]

Changed the plugs, coils, and wires in my super duty.

6.2l with two plug per cylinder setup.
So 16 plugs, 8 coil on plugs and 8 plug wires.

I used MSD coils and super conductor wires autolite plugs. Not cheap.

Honestly wasn’t to bad to get at everything, just a lot. 8 plugs straight up (pop off the air intake and everything is right there) and 8 plugs straight out the side (plenty of room in the engine bay)
Probably easier then the 5.4 in my buddies 150.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Oh yew wise mechanics:

Yesterday I tackled my 88 town car again. While I was doing some general maintenance and it was idling, it died. I finally traced that to the pick up coil in the distributor. I pulled it, and replaced it, and put it back together, and……

1988 Town Car 302/5.0L

When I put the distributor back together, the distributor shaft can slide up and down in the housing about 3/16 of an inch. Is that normal? Did I lose a bushing or something?

Does the distributor in that engine drive the oil pump? I had to tap the shaft on the bottom to get the gear off and then get the gear on. I had to whack it pretty hard, and I got a couple of the little lips you can get when you whack something. I did a careful job of grinding it smooth, but then I got to wondering that if it drives the oil pump, it may not couple correctly or wear funny.

I’m thinking of driving up to Napa and just looking at a new one before I put this one back in. But if I need one, I don’t want to pay that NAPA price!!!

Yes... distributor drives the oil pump. The shaft should move up and down a bit... 3/16" seem a bit excessive. Ii seem to remember a thrust washer between the gear and the distributor housing on some. Not positive if it should be there on yours though. Been a long time since I've had a distributor apart.

 

[Rick W]

Yes... distributor drives the oil pump. The shaft should move up and down a bit... 3/16" seem a bit excessive. Ii seem to remember a thrust washer between the gear and the distributor housing on some. Not positive if it should be there on yours though. Been a long time since I've had a distributor apart.

Update, I can get a new distributor for about 65 bucks delivered. The car is pristine, so that’s the way I’m going to go. I fear I may have damaged the housing when I drove the gear back on.

But here’s the number two question. The distributors come with a steel gear or with a cast-iron gear. Mine has a bronze gear. The difference is because of the tappets and roller cam, etc. bla bla. I don’t know any of that. But I would assume I need a cast iron gear to replace my bronze gear Since it’s the softer compared to steel, and apparently the steel are for higher output engines.

So if I have bronze, I go with the cast-iron gear?

 

[97RangerXLT]

cleaned out my rented storage locker. now I gotta get the on site storage shed organized and reclaim the garage again so i can put the Ranger and the Edge in the garage this winter...

AJ

 

[bobbywalter]

Well, at least I hope he’s putting it in his shed of miracles for future use!

that one..... needs to go in the healing pile.

 

[Curious Hound]

Update, I can get a new distributor for about 65 bucks delivered. The car is pristine, so that’s the way I’m going to go. I fear I may have damaged the housing when I drove the gear back on.

But here’s the number two question. The distributors come with a steel gear or with a cast-iron gear. Mine has a bronze gear. The difference is because of the tappets and roller cam, etc. bla bla. I don’t know any of that. But I would assume I need a cast iron gear to replace my bronze gear Since it’s the softer compared to steel, and apparently the steel are for higher output engines.

So if I have bronze, I go with the cast-iron gear?

The steel gear may be manufactured with a softer steel than the cam gear that drives it. Therefore, it would still be a wear item. But would last longer than brass or bronze. If it’s a decent name brand, I would trust it.

 

[Blmpkn]

Dumped & refilled the coolant in the 96, as it's been mostly water since I got it back on the road. We've had 2 or 3 good heavy fronts in the morning so far up here... Figuring I'm pretty lucky to have not popped a freeze plug or unseated one of the end tanks on the rad.

Found a rock in the bottom of the my drain pan too lol.. idk how it managed to work it's way into the cooling system but.. it WAS purchased from someone who lost most of their teeth via drugs so mabey it's crack?

Uncut coolant has gone up in price too compared to 50/50... I remember bottles of 50/50 being 10 bucks and a bottle of the pure stuff being 11.. now a bottle of straight coolant is 16


It's nice having nice fresh martian piss in it though.. when I bought the thing the coolant was pretty much the same color as sewage water lol. I'm gonna try some of that chemical flush stuff in the spring in hopes of really cleaning out the coolant passages to a factory like state.

 

[racsan]

Brought home the trailer & tractor from last nights hayride, put the 3-point blade on it so its ready when needed. serviced the lawn deere & its now got fresh oil, filters & a new spark plug. Started the light bar install on my escape but felt tired so decided to just relax for the rest of the day.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Went to my brothers this morning and walked around for a while looking for deer, when I'd given up and was most of the way to the explorer I panned to the center of the dang field and the stupid deer I was looking for was right there in the middle, was apparently not looking that way for a couple minutes... annoyingly that direction the backdrop is a city so no shooting that particular direction... he wandered further down the field but it's arched so I couldn't see him until he got to the point which I could only see his rump and was still like 200 yards... tried to follow from there but there's no chance of being covert... but hopefully I know his routine now...

After that decided to be productive for a bit and got carried away/distracted and built the roof for the firewood lean to, then started the burn pile, then added the small pieces of metal to the boat lean to... still early enough I'll probably head back over to my brothers and wander around looking for that deer...