Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Bret
Yoda
Offline
Minor cuts, abrasions and a few skinned knuckles… I can finally claim victory! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif
Well this was an eventful weekend. For those of you that may recall – I had plans to swap-out the old toasted Transmission on the wife’s old Explorer for a newly rebuilt unit. All of course in preparation for re-sale. The difference between a vehicle with a blown tranny and the same vehicle with a good one is about $4000.
Admittedly I was a bit nervous beings how I hadn’t done something like this in over 25 years. But I was fairly confident that I could handle it considering my line of work has me working with things a heck of a lot more complicated than a mere transmission installation. Besides I’d spent several hours the week before preparing myself, by reading over all the steps in the Haynes manual and adding to my comfort level – I’d wrangled several commitments from two neighbors and friends for the extra hand or two & help for the procedure.
So Saturday morning I rented a transmission jack for $35. Seemed a bit high after seeing the jack, as it was missing the safety chains and looked to be about 40 years old. When I asked the guy at the rental counter if this was the only one he had and even inquired about the safety chains? In what seemed like a line out of the movie Deliverance – the guy replied scratching his head “Chains? I don’t know noting bout no sa-safety chains? But that is our only tranny jack” Gritting my teeth took the jack and headed home. Unloading the jack I poured a cup of joe and jumped into the project with both feet.
Two hours after I started I knew it wasn’t going to be as “easy” an operation as I’d envisioned. Without going into all the horrid details let me just say that I have a renewed respect for those that do this for a living.
But to highlight some of the more aggravating and annoying problems encountered. One of the major snafu’s was that the manual was almost as much of a hindrance as it helped at times. During whatever operations the Haynes is helping you do, it makes you skip around a lot from one section to another – but as much as I hate that, I’m kind of use it. But what really bugs me was that on several occasions I discovered vast amounts of “vital” information and/or important steps that where totally overlooked or otherwise ignored. The biggest and most obvious comes to light once you start tearing things apart. Turns out that the Explorer’s exhaust system is in the way and has to be loosened and partially removed to perform a transmission swap. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif
The next big thing was that all of the commitments for help bailed out on me at the last minute leaving me on my own. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
The truly funny thing is after all was said & done – that tired old junky tranny jack that I was concerned about actually turned out to be a life safer and one of the most useful tools I ever used in recent memory.
All I can say after two days working on my own – the sense of accomplishment is pretty overwhelming.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thirsty.gif
Well this was an eventful weekend. For those of you that may recall – I had plans to swap-out the old toasted Transmission on the wife’s old Explorer for a newly rebuilt unit. All of course in preparation for re-sale. The difference between a vehicle with a blown tranny and the same vehicle with a good one is about $4000.
Admittedly I was a bit nervous beings how I hadn’t done something like this in over 25 years. But I was fairly confident that I could handle it considering my line of work has me working with things a heck of a lot more complicated than a mere transmission installation. Besides I’d spent several hours the week before preparing myself, by reading over all the steps in the Haynes manual and adding to my comfort level – I’d wrangled several commitments from two neighbors and friends for the extra hand or two & help for the procedure.
So Saturday morning I rented a transmission jack for $35. Seemed a bit high after seeing the jack, as it was missing the safety chains and looked to be about 40 years old. When I asked the guy at the rental counter if this was the only one he had and even inquired about the safety chains? In what seemed like a line out of the movie Deliverance – the guy replied scratching his head “Chains? I don’t know noting bout no sa-safety chains? But that is our only tranny jack” Gritting my teeth took the jack and headed home. Unloading the jack I poured a cup of joe and jumped into the project with both feet.
Two hours after I started I knew it wasn’t going to be as “easy” an operation as I’d envisioned. Without going into all the horrid details let me just say that I have a renewed respect for those that do this for a living.
But to highlight some of the more aggravating and annoying problems encountered. One of the major snafu’s was that the manual was almost as much of a hindrance as it helped at times. During whatever operations the Haynes is helping you do, it makes you skip around a lot from one section to another – but as much as I hate that, I’m kind of use it. But what really bugs me was that on several occasions I discovered vast amounts of “vital” information and/or important steps that where totally overlooked or otherwise ignored. The biggest and most obvious comes to light once you start tearing things apart. Turns out that the Explorer’s exhaust system is in the way and has to be loosened and partially removed to perform a transmission swap. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif
The next big thing was that all of the commitments for help bailed out on me at the last minute leaving me on my own. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
The truly funny thing is after all was said & done – that tired old junky tranny jack that I was concerned about actually turned out to be a life safer and one of the most useful tools I ever used in recent memory.
All I can say after two days working on my own – the sense of accomplishment is pretty overwhelming.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thirsty.gif
