Blood Sacrifice

 I gave up my right index finger to the deity of car restoration. Turns out there are 7 bolts holding the exhaust manifold in place. I didn't bother to look at the manual or feel around - and so one was hiding in the middle of the header. Unfortunately, I foung it after I assumed it was just stuck - and so with that assumption in hand - I took a rubber mallet and whacked on the top of the header pretty good. What caused me to look for the extra bolt was that during the spirited beating, I flattened out my stroke a little and brought my index finger straight down on the electrical sender connections on the brake master cylinder.


I was wearing gloves, but that finger & nail got a good Mortal Kombat punch right on those 2 spikey pins. Since I took a moment to think of all the latin phrases I knew, I went looking for another bolt. Sure enough - 1 more under the center where I could not see it. When I loosened that, the header fell right off. #1 seem to need a ring job - it was certainly burning oil (i.e. the black exhaust port vs. the other 7 tan ones).


I also took some time to try my hand at grease & rust removal. YUCKITY YUCK YUCK YUCK. I think I have figured out disposal, but I needed a better scraper - so I printed some. I did find out that the valve covers are embossed with the letters "M E R C U R Y" and originally painted a lovely ivory color. I could not see that until i removed 1/4 of caked on oil.


Lastly, I crawled under and started to hacksaw off the ubolts holding my drive shaft in place. About halfway through one half of 1 bolt I decided that job was lousy ... so jammed a screw driver in the yoke and got a 1/2 inch box wrench on the nut plus a cheater bar. "!!! wwwrrreeennnccchhh !!!" (until yesterday I did not realize that word was onomatopoeia). Anyway, the nuts came off - and with the help of a floor jack I managed not to drop the 100lb drive shaft on my hand. I was pleased to see that this caused the transmission to wee red transmission oil onto the floor. It had enough oil to leak out the tail & it didn't smell or taste like burned bacon - I was happy to clean up after its incontinence. Sorry for the picture clarity - apparently I was still moving when I took the snap. The leopard pattern of surface is clear enough ... there is a bucket of rust converter in my future.


Comments

  1. dougboSeptember 20, 2021 at 7:54 PM

    (brief complaint about google - my lovely comment was swallowed because it did not have me logged in)... So - two comments: more blood will be spilt. second, I was under the impression the mercury was known as Ricardo. Bonus comment: This is much more convenient than driving over and leaning on the fender to make male bonding grunt noises while you regail me with the struggle.

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