Blog #14, Friday, March 21, 2014, Toyota Related

Hello Everyone, 
I am back for the night to get more material to work with at my busnut friends house tomorrow so I wanted to catch you up on the Toyota we had reworked by someone who knows what in hell they are doing. 

I put the old rebuilt carburetor back on my Toyota engine as the other fellow that was supposed to do it was not dependable but come to find out this carburetor was attempted to be rebuilt by someone else previously and this is possibly why the car was given up on in the first place, Thank God!!  Anyhow they must of also got the vacuum tubes all mixed up and you will see how and why that may have happened and I just followed suit in reassembling the carburetor.  The car did run as I told you but run for crap and it sounded like it was sucking air etc, even after I unplugged the catalytic converter as well the care did not run very well.  

I went to a place recommended by a customer from O'reilly's auto parts, a fellow named George Manteghi convinced me I would have so much less problems with a Webber Carburetor that I went for it.  You will see in the photos included in this post the difference in the one with all the confounded vacuum hoses and the one not needing them any longer.  I have to tell you ole George knows his stuff, this car run like a top, started up on the first turn over I believe and runs like hell.  I have other issues but it was not affordable at this time to fix them, I needed to get to my bus nut friends house and wanted to get my Toyota home before I went to help out a friend.  

Old rebuild carburetor without plug wires connected or breather put on. Lot of hoses there baby!!

Car in completed stage to run with breather and heat riser on and all hosed connected.

Engine with new Webber carburetor mounted on it, all old vacuum lines removed that are no longer needed, the EGR right nest to the thermostat was the real problem in the first place my mechanic that worked on my engine here in the first place.  EGR vlv is no longer in place for use.  

. Here is George Manteghi that did all my Toyota work and got this baby humming properly and will now be my permanent mechanic on my 'Toyota for sure.  This guy is one hell of a character. 

Here is the shop in Greenville that I used to get my Toyota engine running correctly, removed all the legal antipollution equipment Possible and now the car runs so smooth it is not funny

Here is the inside of George's shop, stuff all over as tall as you are.  Stuff no longer made and back rooms just chuck full of stuff.  Like being in a candy store to me, But everything for a Toyota that I could not get on line or any place.  

1) Well I do not have any gages working except the speedometer, there must be a ground problem that has to be found but not this moment.

2) The EGR valve was bad and this is all that was probably wrong with the car in the first place but anyhow, this car is mine now and the EGR valve is no longer needed either.

3) I need a heater control valve that bolts on the bulkhead for my car, mine had a broken fitting for the hose connection and was inoperable, but this could be $100, so I bypassed the heater right now and will take one problem at a time. 

4) I have a vibration in the drive shaft system, I have a dual drive shaft and it could be where they join or one of the ends needing replacing, I will inspect and do what is necessary when I get done helping my friend out.  I also decided to get drive shaft balancing hoops sold by "Balance Master.com", which should eliminate any vibration in the future.  I also plan to use this product that is designed by them for my tires for my bus.  Go their website which is also advertised in the Bus Conversion Magazine all the time.  This could revolutionize controlling any vibration on any shaft, go see their video and information to decide.

I am totally anxious to drive the Toyota, I have so many offers to buy it from me even at the shop where it was being worked on people wanted to buy it but I would not take a brand new Lexis for it to be honest.  It is too simple to repair and keep running and too much fun to drive to me. 

I nearly bought a 2002 Scamp camper over the internet Wednesday, for $2300, the people contacted me and told me a whole bunch of crap that just made me make up my mind I wanted this camper as it was in such pristene condition per the photos and the Scamp camper has the best reputation ever.  I was so damn excited,  but further research probed this was a FRAUD Craigslist post and I nearly fell for it.  After research I found it was bogus since January by asshoes named Rita & Ronald Stanko of Paterson, NJ.  Boy I was freaking pissed, goes to only prove the old adage, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true" and it was not.  So I am still in the market to look for one, not a new one either, a used one maybe up to $3,000.  They are all good I understand the way they are made and it was highly recommended by another good friend from Oregon Now, Dave, Thanks Dave for your mature advise in keeping me grounded.  This was a better idea than the "Littleguy" camper.  I think my little Toyota will only tow the 13' ft. one with very little problem, only problem is this one does not have a indoor toilet.  the 16 ft. does but it weighs so much more too.  Well I have time to get more information, but, if anyone of you know of anyone with a Scamp for sale for the price cap I have mentioned above please give me a call, day or night, 24/7.  I could not be more appreciative.

Well I will now post the photos I mentioned above, go and enjoy my wife, two dogs and two little guinea pigs and then go to bed. 

Take care, drive safe, tell those that you love that you do and be sure to Mean It!!
Garylee

Blog #13, Sunday March 16, 2014, Toyota & Bus Related

Hello Everyone, 

Well it has been nearly a month since I last posted, I have been busier than a one arm paper hanger as they say, the time is just flying by on us all and with the new time change it seems the time is flying by faster, to me anyhow.   I hope to find everyone doing alright, getting ready for SPRING we all hope, getting our couches ready for rallies, traveling etc. and just getting out of the house finally.  Even in the South Carolina area we have had one hell of a winter, but it is getting better now.  The Daffodils are in bloom right this moment, they are always in a hurry to say hello were here!!

A quite a lot has happened since I last wrote.  I am back on the bus as of day before yesterday, I finally finished torquing my bell housing on my bus engine, I assembled the new flywheel on to the engine and torqued that as well.  For those newbies doing this here is a tip I found out on your fly wheel assembly.   The flywheel will only go on one way, it may look like it goes on two ways but it does not.  I assembled mine at first, All alone as usual, a sort of bastard to do but I got it on, but the flywheel would not go on the two line up pins correctly.  It looked like the pins were lower than the holes, what the hell I thought!!!  I studied and studied and thought, no way would they make it so the flywheel has to be rotated 180 deg. to fit correctly would they?  Well after much debate in my mind why the manufacturer would do such an asinine thing I figured out how to rotate the damn flywheel 180 deg. alone.   Walla the darn ole flywheel slipped right on the pins and the spacer that goes on before the bolts also has to go on just one way as well for the bolts to be assembled correctly.   So if you assemble your flywheel and it does not go on easily or look correctly it isn't!!  Take it from me. 

After rotating the spacer correctly and assembling the bolts with the proper DD thread lube designed for these new flywheel bolts I was able to torque them to the spec and this part of the operation is now done.  I cannot do much more to the engine now until my friend Mike Cezmat comes over to put in the new N65 injectors and adjusts them for me.  So I spent the rest of the day planning how I am going to mount my radiator to test my engine out of the bus with gages etc.  This is just something I wanted to do to test my engine before putting it in the bus after all the things found to be safe and be sure I did all the things I did right especially the blower part etc.  I am all excited to do this test run, it will take a week or more to make up the test stand but it will be fun to design etc.  I love doing that stuff and who cares how long it will take, I am the only one involved here.  

Now to what I have been doing the previous  couple of weeks was still working on my 1982 Toyota Corolla Station wagon project.  Well I got in another can of worms there too but she is coming great, I am so proud of this car, I will post photos also after I get her back from the final shop about Wednesday of next week.  Here is a sort of quick break down of what happened but now I also have a plan that I am so damn excited about I almost need to wear a depends to tell you about.  First the car situation then information on my NEW PLAN. 

As I told you on my last post on the Toyota, I sent out my old carburetor to be rebuilt by a group I found on the internet, Guaranteed Carburetors of Largo Fl. They did a fine job, the carburetor was all shiny, everything worked smoothly and they took only 2 days to do it and it cost only $215 with shipping included!!!  Lifetime Warranty!!.  I put the carburetor back on, the fellow I asked to do it never showed back up after giving him a deposit.  I always get screwed, good thing I am not female, I would have a flock of kids by now!!  Anyhow, how hard could this be, only thing is there was about 30 vacuum hoses that I replaced with new blue silicone hoses I also bought on line.  I took my time on this, took all day so I would not get confused, what a freaking mess but I did it.  I put on the carburetor and finished connecting everything as it was originally to the carburetor as I received it.

Here is some photos after all of how she looked with carburetor installed which I had rebuilt, now all that will change with new Weber carburetor, will post photos of that installation when I get the car next week. 

Look at this freaking mess of vacuum hoses, good god!!

This is all connected up with original equipment, this will all change now with Weber carburetor

I did a lot of things previous to hooking up the carburetor I will list in a moment or two here but to continue here is what else happened.  I put in 5 gals of gas in the gas tank mixed with 2 oz. of Marvel MIracle Oil in the fuel tank, put one oz. directly in the carburetor of raw fuel after hooking up the recharged battery. I took a very heavy bath towel and soaked it in water and placed it on the car fender where I could grab it in a hurry if needed to put out a fire if needed.  I then  had Linda get into our new beautiful little Toyota, turn the key on and walla the little turd started right up and run, sort of fast because of the idle I guess but she run and sounded great, to me, what in hell do I know?  But then I started to hear like a burping noise and I listen for unusual noises all the time, this can be bad but I found out very good most times to be on the alert to do.   Anyhow I also noticed the Catalytic Converter getting super hot, it was glowing red so I had Linda shut down the engine immediately.  Actually, I almost puked!! 

After calming down I had Linda restart the car with the air filter in place and everything connected like it should be, I was assuming that the car would start without a shot of raw fuel in the carburetor as the fuel pump was pumping fuel to the carburetor now.  Linda restarted the car for me and the car took right off, I did two back flips, almost hurt myself of course, I was having medical problems with kidney stones at this time as well and it was getting real bad for me to concentrate with the damn pain in the groin and my kidney.  JC it is horrible to get old!!

Well the car still run fast, I turned the idle down a little but the car still garbled air and I knew something was still not right.  The Catalytic Converter again got real hot so we shut down again. I sort of knew the converter was clogged as went through something like that with our RV  a couple of years earlier on a trip to get the spare engine, thats another story though.  so I went to O'reilly's store next to us where I get my parts and told them of what happened and they told me the converter really sounded plugged or the spark plugs were hooked up wrong, there is only 4 and they are numbered.  So that was not the problem.  So I made a decision, the Catalytic Converter is no longer plugged!!!   Linda Started up the car after unplugging the catalytic converter and the car run a little better for sure but there was still a burping or sucking sound of air.  

Now remember or maybe I did not tell you before but the Previous Owner himself or had someone else rebuild the carburetor or tried to and the guy I hired in the first place said the carburetor was really messed up inside and he could not repair it with the parts he had.  So that is how I ended up having to have it rebuilt by guys online after I found them.  Thank God for that too.  Well I believe also that whoever did that may have gotten the  vacuum lines messed up and I just followed suit and without a schematic I had no idea what to hell I had to work with.  I tried for hours to go on the internet to get a schematic for the vacuum lines but everyone wants $40-70 damn dollars and I just got pissed off, they all want to make a huge buck to me and so I decided to go on line to get a repair book just for my 1982 Toyota Corolla and not one that was Generic for several years like I had already bought for $26.  Well I found one for sale on ebay, of coarse I did, $50 so I ordered it to start all over doing the vacuum lines again from scratch.   Well the book is still not here at this moment, should of been here on Saturday but it is not.  

I went to O'reillys on Friday to get other items and a black fellow was there and overheard me complaining about the book I bought  that covers vacuum lines for 1984 and up but the book cover said from 1980 up.  So I got screwed AGAIN!!  No chance to get my money back on the book.  Well this fellow heard me and told me of a guy here in Greenville that deals only in Toyotas and is about my age, and can sure help me out, not cheap but can fix anything once and for all.  Sometimes you have to just say, what kind of nut want to save money all the time and get screwed all the time trying to do just that.  So Linda and I went looking for his shop.  He was in a hidden area almost but I found him, and man it was like walking into a candy store at the age of 6 years old to me.  There was stuff all over the place, stacked up 7 ft. high, old stuff, valuable stuff you cannot find anyplace else.  I bet he had parts for Jesus's chariot there to be honest.  I hit it right off with this guy, he was a retired airplane captain and this is his retirement hobby and I have no idea where he gets it stuff but he has a bunch.   Again, I almost needed a depends, I got all excited to meet this guy.  We talked over a hour and 1/2 and he gained my confidence within 5 minutes.   Everything he said from that moment on was golden concerning our Toyota to me. 

I told him everything I had done up to that moment we spoke and then he said he could fix my vacuum leaks etc, but he suggested something that threw me a curve that took me about 10 more minutes after leaving his shop to decide to do.  He convinced me to take off my newly rebuilt carburetor, put on a (Weber) carburetor which because of its design does not require all those vacuum lines and vacuum pumps etc.   so to make a long story short, yea right Gary, I decided to bite the bullet and brought him our Toyota to have the new Weber Carburetor installed, take off all the pollution stuff no longer needed here in SC and get some power back to this great car.  He was going to do all this work and with the cost of the carburetor for $530, INSTALLED correctly by him.  So we went for it and now I wait for this work to be completed. 

Who ever the previous owner was also installed a new fuel pump and I learned a new thing here as well.  There is a 1/4" fiber spacer that goes between the engine and the fuel pump that is supposed to be installed to make the fuel pump work correctly but it was not on my car.  I bought a new fuel pump and installed it exactly like the previous owner did, and that also was causing problems with the camshaft and proper working of the fuel pump.  so now with all thing being adjusted and installed correctly this care ought to run like a bear or like she did right off the factory floor when made. So I am learning lessons all around but it pays to listen to those with more experience that really do know what they are doing and I hope we will be without mechanical problems on our Toyota down the road for many years. 

Here is a list of the newly installed items I did on our Toyota that should make here refreshed, and ready to run tip top shape. 

1) New fuel pump

2) New Distributor cap and rotor

3) New NGK plugs

4) New but now rearranged or not needed silicone vacuum lines

5) New Weber Carburetor

6) New Thermostat installed after complete engine flushing, coolant was nearly black, install new coolant.

8) New V belts installed

9) New oil filter and new oil with 1qt. Marvel Mystery Oil mixed in

10)New PVC valve

11) New valve cover gasket

12)New heat riser tubing replaced, will not be needed with new carburetor installation

13)New battery tray installed

14)New Front wheel bearings

15)New front wheel rotors

16) New front wheel pads

17)New rear wheel brake pads, rebuilt kits for springs and plungers

18)New self brake bleeding kit, bled all brakes

That is all I have to report on the car up to date so now I just have to wait till about wednesday to get it back. 

Friday I had surgery in my GROIN area, no picnic there, still having a lot of pain and sex is the last thing on my mind, well maybe I still think about it anyhow.  But I had 3 kidney stones piled up on top of each other, about 10 mm in size how ever big that is.  But I am still having a lot of pain from the instruments they shoved up my penis, so here is another lesson for you to listen to you guys.  Do not dehydrate yourself at our age, late 60's etc.  It is easy to get kidney stones, caused by too much Calcium, eating too much sodium, and sweet tea.  Drink lots of water every day, every damn day.  This surgery will be expensive, painful as it still is and I have another one forming on the right side but hope to flush it down the toilet with water soon, do not dehydrate, period!!!

Now for my new plan I am overly excited about.  I know I will never get our bus done as soon as I should have in the past.  I also know now thanks to Obama and all the other cronies that have ruined any dreams of lots of us making cross country trips camping etc. we will have to change those plans.  I will not tap into my 401K to do this so I have made up my mind and approached Linda just today with this thought.  After our Toyota is proven to be reliable on a few long distance trips I want to purchase a (TEARDROP CAMPER) LIGHT WEIGHT, the "Littleguy" kind that has cupboards in it etc. and is very well built but very light weight.  I want to make a cross country trip with my wife, two chihuahuas and two guinea pigs and go to Alaska as that part of my bucket list I am becoming obsessed with.   This is becoming of more importance especially with the loss of another great busnut, Arthur Griffin and a few more people of my age that we know real well.  I just have to do this trip and have the time of our lives doing it even in a miniature camper like the tear drop camper.  The cost of traveling will be way, way affordable and sounds like fun as well.  I have time to make a plan, purchase a camper of that size and weight to minimize any drag on the toyota as we travel and just do something out of the box.  The bus would of been great but I am not giving BP or those who get the cuts from us getting screwed with the high cost of fuel any more profit than I have to and this is my plan.  I know you will think me nuts, but just think about the fun we can still have, we will not have all the amenities our bus will but we will have the 6 of us and the rest of our lives to look at all our photos and the blog I will  write of our travel to Alaska to remember when we no longer can do anything like this again.  Life it too short not to go out of the box if you are still able to.  

Well now I have to find out the requirements for our animals to go through Canada, all the paper work involved and shots etc. a route to take, I have to find a teardrop camper, I will not build one.  I need to continue working on the bus until our trip materializes, in the time of year recommended by those having done this before too.  I need to gather much information and am excited as hell about it.  I will not let any, I mean any negativity comments deter me from this plan, I hope to get support from those knowing us and knowing my attitude that if I am not dead there is nothing I can't do except brain surgery and circumcisions, period!!  LOL. 

I am open to anyone with ideas and constructive suggestions of places and routes to take and places to see.  I hope we will get to meet many of you on our trip and when this materializes for sure and we do leave I hope you will tune in to our journey and maybe encourage you too to say to hell with it and lets just do it as part of your personal (bucket list accomplishment).  

Well, I think I have burned out my brain this afternoon and this evening, this took quite a while to construct, thank God I can type.  I hope I did not bore you absolutely to death. 

Don't forget to tell those you love that you do, and MEAN IT!!

Garylee 

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.

Blog #11, "Not Bus Related", Rambling Thought Day, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014

Hello Everyone,

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth, I have been real busy since my last post as I have traded my 1995 Saturn SL2  for a 1982 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon that to me is in Pristine condition but when purchased the Toyota did not run!!!  I know, I know, what in hell is wrong with this picture Gary??   Well I just wanted to have this car to simplify the answer and it should be running real good by Monday, I hope.  I am having the Carburetor rebuilt this weekend, and I am putting in a new fuel pump because of the age of my new toy car and that way for the rest of my life I should not have to worry about it any more.  The car was sitting for quite a long time and this is not good for buses or cars.  I posted a few photos of this deal on my FB but will re-post them here as well to show you what I started with and when I am done by the middle of next week you will see the end result and see what I have stored in vision in my head all this time.  Here is photos of this anyhow: 

My Saturn the day it was to be traded, even steven for my Toyota.

Only thing wrong with inside, the upholstery on driver seat was dirty, my work car but a goody, 30 MPG

Mileage when I traded her in, run good right up untill I pulled the key out of the steering wheel for the last time

The engine compartment, not all dirty etc.  clean enough to work on if you needed to, I hardly needed to

Now the 1982 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon the day I traded for her, Even / Steven

No dents, NO RUST< NO RUST< NO RUST any place

Front view, just wanting a wash job after sitting for who know how long in the back field

Even the back end was in great condition, I am a happy camper to find such a good condition car just for Garylee

Now a few photos of how she looked after her first bath, now she will look better after awhile but just getting off the field where she sat many months if not longer

one wash job and she looks better, notice the wire spokes on wheel covers, never seen them before, the spokes are removeable for cleaning, very easy to do too. 

Front seats, only tear on driver seat, need to see what can be done to fix, I hope to salvage the original seats as they are, put covers over them to keep in original condition, I just love this car.  Almost has a new smell to it when it is in the sun. I know, it is all in my head!!

Back seat, looks as if never been sat in, all in great condition

Front dash, I will keep stock, install maybe a CD player under dash but not do anything to original dash, all in excellent condition, the dash itself is not faded from the sun, no cracks in it or nothing!!

5 speed transmission, hot dam, ought to get some good mileage on that baby, all rugs in great condition, all foot pedals are in pristine condition.

I want to believe this is the original mileage, the car is in too good a shape not to be to me but what do I know.  I bought a bus I been working on for 13 years now thinking I was going to travel cross country the previous owner  said she could do it, yea, on a railroad car!!!

Well I have been working on this car all week as well as going for two days to help my sister in Augusta, Ga to recover from the horrible ice storm they had that knocked down many, many trees on her property that she needed help in removing.   I love her so I just had no choice but to go with Linda and work for two days till my back could not work anymore to help her out.  We did real good getting the wood stacked near the road for the city to come and remove this week some time for FREE.  But man what a lot of work when you are 68/69 in a few weeks. 

Well today I spent the best part of the day trying to find a place to buy new Vacuum hose for my new Toyota and I went to every auto place in Greenville, Auto zone, Napa, pet boys, every place I could think of and all they had was 5/32" which is a hair too big or 7/64" which is more than a hair to small!!  I need metric tubing, I think 3mm.  None here in Greenville, SC.  I even went to a Toyota Dealer and told him I wanted about 18 feet of it, I already used 8 feet of 5/32" I got from O'reilly's, they thought this would work but I was not satisfied with it.  It went on too freely which meant to me that it would come off too freely or leak.  So I went looking for the stuff I need.  The Toyota Dealer had it, but would only sell me 3 feet of it!!  What to hell??  He did not want to short change the mechanics supply if needed,  The new cars don't use it for gods sake, only old ones, like MINE!!  So I knew 3 ft. would not do crap for me and traveled on and went on the internet to try to find it, good grief, it was and still is difficult to find even here,  What to hell??  I gave up a while and went to work back on the Toyota.  I will look later tonight on the net.  I am mellowing out right now anyhow.  I hate when you want to do a search and you get millions of pieces of crap for only one little item you are looking for even with quotation marks around it.  Oh well. 

Anyhow I was thinking as I worked all by myself, AGAIN, about the past, how fast time is flying by and how glad I am of doing this blog really.  I am saying things not just for me but at times I hope I am speaking for some of those going through the same circumstances as we have and I am just venting in public.  Some people probably think, why tell all this stuff in public.  WHY NOT??  This is my Blog, you do not have to read it for sure, I write what I feel at the moment or my thoughts for the day, sort of like a diary you might say but something everyone can relate to if they want and delete or omit if they don't.  That is what is good about this stuff, you do not have to read it, it is not required to be read.  Some enjoy it as I get a few emails saying so and it only takes one to encourage me to continue. 

I have a good friend in the state of Washington, Dave Brawdy who encouraged me to write a Internet blog as he seen me write long post in Busnut Bulletin boards and sometimes I would get negative attitudes or negative comments from others that do not approve of me or my thoughts.  He knows this bothers me and knows sometimes I enjoy passing on information I have learned on my own and enjoy paying it forward to others so they will not make the same mistakes I have made or could have made but no matter what it is I still love doing it.   But now I can eliminate negativity, and those that do not want to read my blabbing etc. can just go on and do not have to see my name daily in a bulletin board that probably pisses them off.  That happens you know, even to me. 

Anyhow enough of that.  Today I was having mixed thought of things good and things bad of relationships I have had in the past and I like thinking of the good things that come out of them.  I made a post a few days ago to a relative that was complaining about walking 6 miles to work because of the bad weather.  I told him I used to walk more than that when I was younger to go see my first girlfriend and would of walked further if needed and think I did.  She was a real nice girl back when we went out and I am sure is still today.  I have made contact with her on the internet which I am grateful we have for a tool to make contact with those in our past like we do.  Anyhow you never really forget your first girl or boy friend you fell in love with, I have no idea why that is but you just don't.  She was always good to me but I was just too immature and things after awhile did not work out and we broke it off but it was mutual, even today we have the highest respect for each other.  Linda, my wife knows all about her, I have told her Just about everything about her and even when we go up North again I wish for us all to get together just so Linda knows everything nice I have said about my first girlfriend is true.  

I know right off what you are thinking and correct me if wrong, you think, Oh, Oh, Gary your gonna rekindle the fire and crap will happen, right??  That is not my intention, anyone that knows me and Linda knows that I am just so nuts in love with her it is not funny.  Why would I jeopardize my happiness I have had all these years with someone so loyal and loving as she has been, someone who understands all my mood swings, up or down, someone who ask for nothing for herself, someone who has been my best friend for 32 years now, someone who still makes my heart skip a beat at times when I look at her unbeknownst by her and makes that feeling inside just make me want to do a back flip if I could knowing I sleep with her.  Why would I jeopardize that with what few years I have left,  Meeting my first girlfriend with my wife is going to be wonderful as I have made Linda know just how wonderful my first girlfriend was way back then.

I went to my high school senior prom with a girl I cannot even remember her name even, but we double dated with a fellow and he was with the prettiest girl I saw and knew at Beekmantown Central School to me.  All during the prom I could not keep my eyes off her and her boyfriend suggested we just swap partners as he was attracted I believe in my date.  We did not do that as I thought he was kidding, but if swapping was the thing in those days I would of done it, she was hot.  Well as things turned out, I turned on the charm and we dated, fell in love and got married.  Man I was crazy in love, AGAIN, but this was the real deal as we got married.  

We ended up having two beautiful sons, Gary ll, and Darren.  If we ever did anything right together we sure made two beautiful boys.  Well things happened as they do and I promised myself not to ever be hurtful in why our marriage failed.  I know a lot of it had to do with my attitude, I never really got over having to get out of the Navy as I did as I loved the Navy but it is not a life for a Married person when I would be as sea a lot.  Well, maybe not to a lot of women I would say and I had that chip on my shoulder for many, many years and then I become a very jealous person and that's all it took as you can suspect.  So I know of some of my mistakes and I have tried not to repeat them with my beautiful bride Linda.  

My oldest Son Gary, and I had an argument the day before Linda and I moved with our family down to Greenville, SC in 1987,  I went to Gary's place of employment to say my last good-bye as we were all packed up and leaving that moment but I just wanted to try to patch up things with him but it did not work.  We talked a few moments and I got in the big ole U-Haul truck I was driving with all our belongings in it and started to drive out of Gary's employments drive way.  I looked in my driver mirror and saw him in my mirror wave to me as I drove off, with tears in my eyes like right now running down my face.  That was the last time I saw my son alive.  

You can't imagine, not for a moment the pain of remembering that last view of my son in that mirror as I drove off.  Well we were not in Greenville, SC 8 months and I got a call at work from Linda saying to come home ASAP.  I know something happened, What???  She would not say.   Well when she did after I got home I just went blank, fell to my knees and what happened after that I can't remember even today.  That was on February 12, his 21st. birthday was January 11th, he was 21 years old only 31 days.  Boy he was a good looking boy, just like a model, tall about 6'2'', blue eyes that could see right through you.  

I can't write much more about it now but will tell you that it was 10 years that I was grieving so bad I can't imagine how Linda stayed with me but she did and now I remember all I put her though and you think I would ever jeopardize that, not a chance in hell.  For 10 years I could not stand Christmas music, I hated Christmas, my attitude just sucked,  Sometimes for the first 2-3 years after Gary died from his automobile Accident I would be on my way to work or someplace and just have to pull over and have a hell of a cry, I was so freaking depressed.  I prayed to God to let me trade places with Little Gary but that never happened as you can see.  But anyone losing their child grieves differently and deeply, it is so hard to express and others to understand if it has not happened to them.  At times I would go to town and forget where I was going and why and forget how to get there.  I was a real mess, I got lost so many times, your whole world just seems to die with your child.  You become a zombie just walking through life barely knowing what in hell you are doing.  I had a real difficult time doing my job at GE for many months and man what a attitude I had with guys on the floor and management.  It was a wonder I did not lose my job but I think my son calmed me down when things got real bad, sometimes I can't remember the stupid things I said or did.  I pray you never go through any of this.  Now maybe you can see why I am writing this stuff down, it is like therapy for me to talk about and sadden up about as well but feel better seeing it in words to share with others.  

Now my Son Darren, That is a horse of a different color, he is so full of life, so much like his dad, (Bet his Mom loves that) and I am so proud of all his accomplishments.  He has such a beautiful family, good job and does things with his family I only wish I had to opportunity to have done with both him and little Gary when they were small.  I worked and worked and worked all the time at GE all the hours I could, What did it get me.  Better not go there Gary!!

Linda and I together have no children together, but she brought into my life 3 children from her previous marriage and I brought them into my heart and life like they were my own.  We went through a lot together, for me to be accepted as part of their family took awhile but worked out quite well.  Dominick was my right hand when we lived in Mariaville, NY, we were inseparable and even to this day he calls me Dad and he is not hard to love back.  Linda's Two daughters, Nancy and her great family live in Ga, where they all have great jobs and take lots of family trips together which I again did not do for quite some time because of trying to make a living etc.  Dominic's twin sister Lisa has two great kids that we used to see very often, and now because of SC no grandparents rights we no longer get to see, visit or talk to these grandchildren anymore again.  This is like a grieving time again we are going through, but now we are older and it hurts even more but there is millions like us in this country, and many thousands here in SC that legally this is allowed to happen.  Nobody prays harder than we do, in the meantime our grand-kids get older, so do we and we have no idea what to expect when we finally get to see them LEGALLY again when no longer can this be prevented from happening, EVER!!

Again, you are wondering, why is he airing this in public?  When you hurt, your heart is broken like ours is and you fall asleep nearly nightly with tears in your eyes till they seal shut you realize you are not alone in these feeling and to bring awareness of this cruelty to grandparents and the grand children has to be exposed and not hushed like it is.  This is ludicrous, for this to be kept quiet because the for-fathers of SC felt grand-parents caused more problems in families than good.  That was because Incest was the thing to do in the south in them days and if grandparents caused family problems trying to prevent this type of abuse from happening it broke up families etc.  What a bunch of freaking crap, what marbles in their minds they had.  Now days if it was not for grandparents in many, many instances some kids that run away etc. because of abuses such as molestation and who knows what other deviate crap by law is allowed to happen the kids would have to place to go.  We were told (by police) that no matter what, if a child runs away, they will be brought back to the parent who has the custody unless it is proven that abuses have been committed.  GOOD LUCK WITH THAT TOO!!.  Everyone turns their backs on grandparents, they believe that Grandparents are trying to get monies for support and who knows what is in their sick deviate minds.  Pisses you off to see kids in the middle all this time over a freaking legal age limit, the kids are a Carrot on a string just dangling there if this situation is in your life I feel for you and that is why I am airing our frustration.  Something just has to happen about this, Don't give me any of that (Guardian ad-leitem crap) either.  Been there and done that, That position is just job security for some relative of a politician that makes it sound like they are there to represent the kids but that is a LOT OF CRAP!!

OK, Starting to say things that I should not, I think I will call it a night, thanks for reading and remember one thing out of this if anything, tell those that you love that you do and MEAN IT!!

Garylee

  

Blog #10, Bus Related, Cleaning the new 8V71 from Ed's, inspecting to find out what is needed to assemble before testing engine.

Well This week in Greenville, SC and most of the South East Seaboard it has been a real bummer weather wise.  Records are being broken for cold, snow, sleet and loss of wages for people not having vacation time to cover this time off,  Kids out of school, yippee, yea right, and just a damn mess because lots of us have been and probably are still without power.  We are spoiled and I am sure will all be glad to have our normal life back, our I pods, and all those toys working normal again. 

Well I did not get much work done on my engine this week except for going last week to Gene Russel's and getting two used aluminum valve covers for my new engine to replace the 2 steel one's I had on it when I purchased the engine from Ed.  The Steel valve covers don't seal down very good and allow the engine pressure to push fuel out the valve cover gaskets and down the engine making a mess.  so I cleaned them up, I had to remove a vent cover from one of them and a oil fill opening from the other and blank off the valve covers with aluminum, then I painted them with Chrome Paint to make them nice and clean to at least look nice when I put the engine back in anyhow. I would hope the chrome paint will stick for a while anyhow but it has to be better than the old raw aluminum look that they had before I cleaned them up.

Ed's steel valve covers on his/my 8V71 engine, these gotta go, they leak and look like heck

one aluminum valve cover with turbo vent in center from Gene Russell's

Vent cover removed, hole plugged with aluminum cover

 Aluminum valve cover plugged in center and painted with Chrome paint with Detroit Diesel letters darkened for effect, I like it!!

After bringing back Ed's engine, Now Mine, I had to repeat what I did to my old one, I had to pressure wash it and inspect it for anything missing or needed.  What I had to replace even though this engine was rebuilt 49,000 miles ago etc. I had to find out now.  So I again capped off every opening possible in preparation to pressure wash.  I had to rig up a gasket under the covers that Ed made out of wood to take the place of the exhaust manifold that was removed to give to Kentucky Steve as he needed some.  I did not want water from my pressure washer to get into the engine as I washed it down.  I got out my pressure washer and for over an hour I washed and washed all the grease etc, off that I could to get a good look at what I had to do. After the engine dried in the sun I started the duty, again of looking deeper at what I had to work with.

I removed all the air box covers on both sides of the engine under where the exhaust manifold is supposed to be.  Since I did not have any Manifold Exhaust on it  had very little problem removing the air box inspection covers.  There was absolutely nothing in the air box covers which was a relief to me for starters.  I temporarily put the air box inspection covers back on knowing I was going to put them back on with new gaskets and new bolts.  All external bolts were going to be replaced and all those internal that I would be working with also would be replaced, that is just me, and each one would be tightened to a Detroit Diesel Bible torque spec.

I knew I had to change out my old oil pan on my old motor to the the motor as we damaged the new engine oil pan trying to turn up straight the new engine while at Eds.  That was no big deal changing out the oil pans.   I made my cradle just big enough, to slide out the old oil pan and after cleaning off the gasket surface real good, put the new oil pan and new gasket on the new engine.  I did not tighten down the new oil pan as I knew the oil pan had to be lowered to assemble the bell-housing to the engine and attach the oil pan to the bell-housing.

I started to remove all the gears on the drive end of the engine, using  2 harmonic balance pullers I bought from from Harbor Freight.  You need to use 2 pullers at once to pull the 2 interlocking camshaft gears at the same time as the gears inter- twist together when they come off. Package of 2 that I bought of pullers to pull of engine gears.

The engine camshaft drive gears have to be removed to remove the 3/16" thick safety protection plate behind the gears to install a new sealing gasket from the engine to the plate. You have to remove the gears and protection plate to install the new engine to protection plate gasket other wise you will have a mess all over the bell-housing with engine lubricant on the outside edge of your entire bell housing and have another oily mess.

Engine with gears I need to dis-assemble to remove protection plate behind the gears

All gears removed from engine, next thing to remove is the 3/16" protection plate

Protection plate removed, gasket surface now needs cleaning for re-installation of protection plate and new gasket

3/16 drive gear protection plate ready for cleaning of gasket surface and installation of new gasket and re-assembly to engine

When you remove these gears they have to be kept separate so you reassemble them on the same side as they were removed for proper timing and engine gear alignment.  Time has to be taken to remove everything, bolts are of various lengths and have to be either replaced using the same grade and lengths like I did or if you personally choose to reuse the old bolts in the same locations as removed.  You will need to clean all parts as removed, bag the small bolts and small parts, gears etc. after cleaning and identify them with magic marker.  Do the cleaning of each removed part as you remove it, do not place in a pile and then clean at one time.  You will screw up here, but this is your engine and not the way I do things. 

This is an investment well worth the money for a engine rebuild, repair or anything for cleaning of parts.  Purchased from Harbor Freight 10 years ago, just now using it!!!

This will be enough for tonight, I do not have my photos posted to photobucket as yet, there is too much to do, will post them tomorrow and update here on this blog where you can go directly to more photos to view of my engine clean up and the findings I found.  Actually I will make a full post as I have more to say and just include those pictures to these for you to view.  

Have a good night, Hope the weather does not cause you or anyone any harm in your Family.  Tell those you love that you love them and mean it. 

Garylee