Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Blog #12, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014, "Not Bus Related" Toyota Corolla Update

Hey Everyone, 
I have been off the writing mode for a few days, I have been working by little ole butt off still on my new (Money Pit) my 1982 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon that did not and still does not run that I traded my perfectly good 1995 Saturn SL2 for. 

I have some information I wish to share with you in case you may need it, I come over it by accident and it saved me a lot of money and I hope to do the same for you if you need it one day or are a mechanic and can use this information.  I will get to it shorty, yea right Gary!!

Anyhow I am trying to remember how everything happened as it did for the past few days.  As you remember when I traded even / steven for this car I originally almost bought another Toyota Station wagon that was on the front lot of the car dealer for sale that did run but needed to have a new manifold gasket installed, it had a bad leak.  The driver and passenger seats were badly worn and had seat covers over them to camouflage the terrible shape they were in.  The dash had 3 big cracks the entire length of the dash.  My car I now have has none of that but enough of that, I just wanted to remind you what I almost bought but luckily there was two guys making a deal just ahead of us by 30 minutes that got the car.  The only reason for this was because My precious wife took her time getting dressed to go get this car after I seen it the day before and dreamed of it all night and decided I wanted it all  night.  But someone else wanted it too, a mexican fellow and his brother and they love Toyotas as it seems. 

Well we missed out on that deal but I got these guys business card that just bought this car I wanted originally as they said they know a lot about Toyotas and I know very little, mechanically.  I know they are a very dependable car as I owned one and I never had any problem with ours and we had it over 10 years and still had the same exhaust etc.  We exchanged pleasantries
and they went on their way but not before I got their business cards.  Now a little later that same day I made a deal with the car dealer after they left for a car that was in the back field of the building, non running but better looking as far as body than the one in the front lot that we originally wanted, and nicer interior etc.  It just did not run, (Money Pit to get her going was going through my brides head at this moment for sure, remember the Eagle, 13 years nearly on blocks now)??

Well I started to pimp out our car from the engine first, I wanted to get the car nice and clean in the engine area and think of my options to get her running again.  I was all excited, (as usual and it don't take much on these kind of projects for ole Garylee to get excited).  Well I got to looking at my Vacuum hoses and man on this car there is a bunch of them, about 30 or more, all over the lot.  Well, they are the original hoses, they have the Japanese logo's all over the hoses and they were tight, tight on the fittings from drying out over the years etc. 

I decided I wanted to replace all the vacuum hoses right then and there and went to O'reilly's auto store.  I took one of my original hoses with me to match it up, the girl brought me a piece of what she thought looked close and I bought 8 ft. of it, really cheap I thought, only $4 for 8 ft.  I would see how far this would go and get more after.  Well I started to take off the old stuff, one piece at a time so not to get mixed up as it sure would suck to get the hoses crossed etc.  As I was putting them on I said to myself, (self, this hose seems too loose to me to have a good seal) but I used up about 6 feet of the hose and I accidently hit one of the new hoses already replaced and the new length just fell off!!!  Hell, that ain't gonna hit it, that isn't going to be good at all.  I took the rest of the new stuff and the piece of original Toyota hose back to the store and to research what to do. 

Well what it turned out is, the length I had was the original Toyota OEM brand of coarse, Stevie Wonder could have seen that for Gods sake.  Any how O'reilly's tried to sell me 5/32 and it does not have enough shrink power to hold onto the  shaft of any of the fittings to stay in place as I found out.  The shaft diameters of all the vacuum fittings is .165.  O'reilly's wanted me to try to use 7/64 but that would be too small and too tight and too restrictive for air flow as it would only be .109 inside diameter.  so here is the break down in dimensions of what I really needed. 
Vacuum shaft diameter is-     .165
USA 5/32 tubing diameter is .156 = only .010 holding power and could easily loosen and all off.
USA 7/74 tubing diameter is . 109 = .056 too tight holding power, too tight and could break plastic fitting very easily and you could never remove in later time. 
Metric tubing needed is 3.5mm = .140, =. 025 holding power over shaft is us used on and sufficient to hold and not vibrate off at any time. 

OK, now that is solved, now I go to Autozone, Napa, O'reillys, pep boys, Greenville Toyota.  No one has Metric tubing.  At Greenville Toyota they would sell me a 3 foot piece off a roll at $1.50 per foot, Well ok, but that won't go far so I said I would look around for more as I need about 18 feet.  Well I never found it any place.  I called Toyota of Easley and they said they could order it for me, it comes in 8 ft. lengths special OEM Toyota Brand Vacuum hose like what was on my 1982 still, and some of it was still useable but not much.  So I said Ok, how much, and he said it would be Are you ready for this now??  He said it would cost ($63.68) for a 8 ft. length!!!!  I said Toyota of Greenville said it was $1.50 per foot and he said not OEM stuff, it must be like Napa and must be 5/32 and they repair their cars with that stuff!!!  So be warned what you get in your foreign cars, I just gave you some valuable information that could one day be worth remembering if your care runs crappy.  Japanese cars have to have Metric Vacuum hose and not USA vacuum hose or you will pay in the long run.   See what Toyota of Greenville must do, they cannot sell OEM hose for $1.50 per foot when it cost $63.68 for 8 ft. of it. 

Ok, what in hell do I do now, I ain't paying that price, I need two pieces of it, that would be $128 freaking dollars for vacuum hoses, good grief.  So I went on line, and searched and searched and found where I could order Silicone vacuum hose, 3.5 mm, in 3.3 ft. lengths for ($3.60 plus $2.00 Shipping Direct from CHINA) and I did, I ordered 6 lengths of it.  $33.60 and I get it about March 4-10, 2014 if I am lucky when coming through customs. I am getting the color blue to pimp out my engine compartment a little as you will see when I get it all done, no sneak peaks till it is done though.  I am all excited about this project, but I got to get back on the bus, there has been a lot of nice days here but I don't care, the bus can wait, I need a second car now, so my wife says!!!  Only kidding me, but she will be nice pimp car.  

Now I go and see the guys that I wanted to approach about rebuilding my carburetor, and they said their father rebuilds the carburetors, and at his house.  I ain't moving this car to get my carburetor rebuilt.  Another nice guy they work with asked me what I wanted them for and I told him and asked him if he rebuilds toyota carburetors and he also said he does but would take the carburetor off and rebuild it at home. I don't mind that, he come over with his wife, a pretty little girl, they just had their first baby, only two weeks ago, and he he took off the carburetor.  Luckily I loosened up every hose for him before he came and it only took 5 minutes to get off the carburetor after marking the hoses the way he wanted.  Off he went.  I was tickled, he gave me a good price, I got a price of a guy down the road to  rebuild it for $250.!!!  JC.  That seemed high.  And my newest best friend -Domingo said he would rebuild it for me and get the car all tuned up and running good for $100!!!  I did 3 back flips again, damn arthritis kicking my ass. 

Well Domingo called me later last night and said he took the carburetor apart and someone already had taken it apart and screwed up a lot of parts inside and it was not fixable without buying a lot of new part and I needed a new carburetor in place of it.  JC.  Here we go, the new money pit.  

I called O'reilly's to see what new carburetors would cost, $369, + tax and 90 day warranty.
I called Advance Auto to see what a new one would cost, $437, +tax and 90 day warranty. 
I went online and went on ebay etc. and all over and finally by accident I found a place you will not believe and am passing on to you guys in case you ever need it.  Make it a favorite for you or a friend as it is important to find a place like this.  I will give you the link in a moment.  But here is the skinny, go and check for yourself.  In my case, they do not have my carburetor in stock so they have sent me a shipping notice to sent my carburetor to them and they will rebuild it in two days and then send it to me.  I will pay them for it when they send it back to me.  This carburetor rebuild is GUARANTEED FOR LIFETIME!!  Where in hell you gonna get one like that.  Anyhow here is more information on this.  They will charge me $178.00 for the rebuild plus the $36.00 shipping round trip.  That is all!!!!!  The carburetor will be set up to install immediately, they will do a flow check and all set up to run so you do not have to set anything when it comes, supposedly, I am ecstatic and hope to help someone else out after telling you of the prices way above for only a 90 day warranty. 

Go to their website I am going to post in a moment, check on your carburetor if you want and see what the price is for yours.  I still can't believe it and am so tickled for the internet or you would not know of anything like this.  Look at the price difference and the Warranty for gods sake.  Here is the link I hope you can use one day:
http://importcarburetors.com/contents/en-us/d2_toyota_cars.html

Another good thing that happened today, remember me telling you that I got pissed off at the dealer that I used to get my cutting wheels and acetlyene and oxygen from and they jacked their prices way up??  I wrote on that in one of my first blogs I believe, well yesterday the manager of the local dealer I used to deal with called me and asked if the corporate office had called me as yet.  I told him one corporate division had because I sent a long 7 page letter to them and told them they were greedy etc. and way out of line with their prices and I was ordering stuff on line from now on.  Well One corporate manager did call me but his division is not in charge of the stuff I was complaining about and he forwarded that 7 page letter to the correct corporate manager that was in charge of that complaint I made.  But I shrugged it off, like yea, yea, yea.  Bla, bla, bal, smoke up my ass.  

Anyhow, the manager of the store here in Greenville called me yesterday and said, Gary Corporate has called me and said I am to give you a new bottle of acetylene full of gas at no charge to you and would you like it delivered or come pick it up?  I wanted to gloat a little so I  said I would come pick it up tomorrow meaning today.  And I did, well, everyone in the shop was milling around listening, the manager recognized me right off, addressed me as Mr. Gary, damn, I had to turn around and be sure he meant little ole me and he did, I was all alone.  He shook my hand, told me that was brave of me to write that letter and that corporate was re examining all their pricing policies of all their products because of me and many prices had already been reduced more than I could imagine and he thanked me to making their shop becoming more competitive as they notice lots of business leaving them.  So I guess I did good.  Anyhow they carried a new bottle of Acetylene to my car, and it was the next bigger bottle at that, and placed it in my car for me, no charge, another hand shake and off I went.  So it only shows that sometimes a complaint made to higher levels can sometimes make a big difference, all you have to do is believe it is important enough to you to fight for and I did. 

I am gong to show you only one photo today, it is of my 4 spark plugs I took out of my toyota, they were black, black with carbon, and had a .050 gap in them.  I bet this baby will run like a bear with new carburetor, new fuel pump, new plugs, new wires, new vacuum lines, new paint inside the engine room, and a happy new owner.  That is all for tonight. 

Don't forget to tell those that you love that you do and mean it. 

Garylee

Here is photo of the 4 spark plugs I pulled out today and installed new ones.  .050 gap in them.


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