The lady and the grease

Since I got my truck running I was finally able to go empty my used oil at the part store. The collection pan has been FULL since I drained the engine and the transmission on the Mercury - and I needed to get rid of some more in my oil pan & parts cleaning bin. The truck runs fine, but I can hear & feel the power steering pump breathing its last. It vibrates through the steering wheel and sounds like it is humming a tune as I drive. It seems to work ok for now, but there is clearly something not happy about it. More on that adventure later.

Lady E came out to help. She climbed into the engine bay with a plastic pan (like you use for collecting coolant) and several scrapers and set about cleaning up the front cross member, suspension, steering box, and clutch linkages. She squatted in the hole for 2 hours and scraped and scraped and pushed grease and dirt off the car until some parts turned a new color. She discovered suspension pieces that had not seen daylight in 60 years. Her leg and foot fell asleep more than once. I think she managed to collect about 2 lbs of disgustingness. I thanked her dearly, since that is 2lbs of junk that won't fall in my face later. Somehow she climbed out of the car as clean as when she went in. When I get done I look like I have been rolling on the floor of a Jiffy Lube.

While she did that, I cleaned up the oil pan, fuel pump, starter, generator, and valley cover. I think I will replace the pump and generator, but in case I don't I wanted to have as much disgustingness waiting for me. I was not as earnest about my efforts there as I was with the things that I will clearly reuse.

I wish I knew how to clean grease out of metal brushes. I wonder if I can boil it out? I would have to do it on my BBQ grill - my wife would be apoplectic if she found me making engine grease soup in the kitchen. The grease gums up the metal fibers and makes the brushes useless.

Tomorrow I think I will try to disassemble the breaks so I can begin to redo them. I ordered a set of snap gauges for measuring the bores - so I can confirm that this thing needs to be rebored before I go any further. They should be here middle of this coming week.

Comments

  1. Tractor BoyDecember 12, 2021 at 11:15 AM

    There are a couple ways to clean the grease out of the metal brush. Neatest is to get a can of carburetor cleaner into which parts are dunked. Very nasty and caustic liquid, but it will definitely get the grease off the metal brush. The other is to buy a can of cheap brake cleaner spray and while wearing a face mask to keep it out of your face, spray the grease off the brush. Of course, that is a Texas solution. Regarding the power steering pump, is the reservoir full of fluid and could there be air in the line?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robert AdamsDecember 13, 2021 at 6:21 AM

      I will try the carb cleaner - but I guess I could just dunk it in Zep first (since I already have that)

      Delete

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