Right Light
From the right distance and a good angle and the right light the car doesn't look all that bad. |
Need More Tape
Get up close though and you can see we need new duct tape on the mirror. The tape holding the window up is still ok. |
Lunar Unit
Zoom in on this and you can see that the car has almost covered the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Where's the dashboard though? |
Where the Dash Is
There's the dashboard, in the back seat. The car has a chronic ignition problem. The engine will just suddenly start cutting out. Oftentimes it makes for a jerky top speed of 40 mph or so on the freeway. This annoys and confuses other drivers. It just annoys me. Sometimes the engine will even die. So far it has always started again. I know it's an electrical problem because the tachometer will drop to zero while the engine is still turning. Now I know the problem is not in the wiring behind the dash. |
The Part Won't Come Out But the Oil Will
That axle has to come out. It's got a bad CV joint. That axle won't come out. The Haynes manual outlines a horrendous procedure for taking it out - involving supporting the engine with a jack and removing engine mounting stuff. There's also a little puddle of oil forming exactly under the front center of the engine. I plan to pretend I didn't see that. |
New Tools
There's three little bolts that are just out of reach. They are behind a big steel beam that supports the weight of the engine. I have a plan to avoid the horrendous Haynes procedure, and the best part of my plan is that I get to buy new tools to try to get at the three little hidden bolts. My favorite is the cute little ratchet. (Kind of the upper left of the picture. It's got a short little handle that flexes to different angles). |
Void the Warranty
This voided the cute little ratchet's warranty. |
Hold the Engine Up
Here you can see the horrendous situation I tried to avoid by buying more tools. That big steel beam being held out of the way is normally used to hold up the engine. The bottle jack is supporting the weight of the engine. Underneath, just behind the voided warranty cute little ratchet, you can see a good sized hammer. It's scary crawling underneath an engine supported by a bottle jack, and then beating on that engine with a good sized hammer. |
Fire Wrench
Even scarier than crawling underneath an engine and beating on it with a hammer is crawling underneath and engine and heating it up with a torch. That's the OIL pan right next to the TORCH. (The idea is the heat expands the steel collar and makes it so the part can come out of the collar. The part wouldn't come out from just beating on it with a hammer). |
Cute Wrench
This is just to show how the cute little ratchet can come in real handy. You can see the new axle part being attached to the collar. The duct tape here was to protect the rubber boot of the new axle while I slid the new axle in place. |
Things Are Getting Better
This is just the other end of the new axle. There's a great deal of satisfaction when you reach this point. |
Open ECM
Back to the ignition problem. The device in the center of the picture is the "Engine Control Module" (computer). I have the cover removed, and you can see two oscilloscope probes connected to the inside of the engine control module. This is an example of going to far. |
Ready the Blinking Lights
Using the oscilloscope I couldn't tell for sure whether or not the engine control module was any good. If the problem was showing up it was to subtle when the engine was just idling in the garage. The effect is much more pronounced when driving in heavy traffic on a freeway. I didn't want to take the oscilloscope with me while driving, so I wired some blinky lights into the engine control module. |
Schau die Blinkende Lichte Zu
This is what the blinky lights look like when driving. The success story here is that I have now shown the problem is not in the engine control module. |
External Fuel Pressure Gauge
This is a classic example of the "Duct Tape Extra Gauges To The Windshield" diagnostic methodology. |
External Fuel Pressure Gauge From the Inside
This is what the gauge looks like from the inside. Now I know fuel pressure is not the problem. |
