And Then There Was One

This happened a bit ago. It was actually a month or so before we got the Matrix, but within the window when I was already planning on buying another car. My thought was to buy a replacement, and non-op Jade, since she would likely not pass smog. Then, at my leisure, drop the oil pan and pull the cylinder head, knock the pistions out, and replace them with new ones & new rings. While I had it that far apart, I'd go ahead and get a valve job on the head, and replace the timing chain and oil pump. That would probably make it into an engine that would go another 200m to 400m miles without much issue. Probably around $750 to $1,000 in parts and machine shop work, and who knows how many of my all too brief weekends, but since it otherwise doesn't have many issues (besides the seat covers coming apart at the seams, the clear coat on the paint flaking off, and the sunroof and rear passenger side window not working) for not that much, I'd have a long lasting reliable car.

Anyway, what happened was this: We were driving home one evening on a road with 3 lanes each direction. This particular kind I don't care for, the right hand lane is available for parking... sometimes. In the evening is one of those times. We are in the middle lane, crusing along, when a Ram pickup comes flying up in the right lane, passing everyone on the right, where there's a semi trailer parked up ahead. They could slow down and drop in behind us, but do you think a passing-on-the-right jerkwad is going to do that? Nope, they just sideswipe us coming into our lane, then drop in behind us. As soon as there's room in the right lane, I do what any rational person would do, pull off to the side to get their information. Do you think a sideswiping bonehead is going to do that? That's what I thought, they just headed on, so I followed them. I had my boy write down their liscense plate number, and my wife call the law. Their attempts at evasion were fairly laughable, at the next light, they got in the left turn lane. I followed them. They got out of the left turn lane, I followed them. Where we were just before the freeway ramp we were heading for, they had gotten all the way into the right lane, and were heading as though they were going to turn into the restaurant, I was right behind them to follow them. Then, they go from the far right lane that would get onto the northbound to the next one that would go to the southbound. I followed them. When the light changed, they cut back into the northbound lanes and entered the freeway. I followed them, but this time I wasn't able to keep from getting a couple of other cars between us, and after we were on the freeway, I mistook another pickup for theirs, and at that point they got away.

Meanwhile, my wife has gotten connected to the CHP. by the time she had, I'd given up and we were headed home. They asked us to return to where it occurred, and they would send a unit out to take a report, so we doubled back. It ended up being about another hour, and based on previous experiences with hit and runs, even having the information of the other vehicle, I didn't expect anything to happen.

Fast forward a few weeks (it's blurry now, it may have been before or after we got the Matrix, but I think it was after) and out of the blue, I get a call from an insurance company about an accident I'd been involved in. I replied, "oh, the hit and run???" Yes, that was the one!!! They asked for my version (pretty much what I've related here) and they tell me they are taking full responsibility. Yeah, that seems right!!! On account of the CCP flu, the auiditor wants me to send pictures, pretty much what you see here, scrapes along the door and wheel arch, along with rubber transfer and scraping on the face of the wheel. Nothing that would be that big of a deal to repair and paint over (did I ever mention that the paint on the hood had gotten so bad that I painted it with some hammer tone paint? I don't think I did. I was considering doing the whole car with the same color since it looked pretty decent, although not a match to the Homecoming color) but they came back with the result of it being totalled!!! If we didn't retain the vehicle, they will pay us...$250 more than we'd bought it for!!! I had to think for a bit, I think it was around $500 less if we retained it, but I decided against it. Before it was towed off, I yanked off the black badges, the radio and phone holder unit, the glasspack muffler, and swapped the battery for one that wouldn't hold a charge. I left the dash cam-back up cam unit in, because it was always rather dim, and would have been a lot of work to remove. If I'd had time and inclination, I would have gotten a plain instrument cluster and held onto the Homecoming gauges. The tires were also almost new looking, I have a couple more tired tires I could have swapped on, but honestly, they are pretty cheap, and right now I don't have anything they could go on (although there's a really janky '95 SL-2 that they are only asking $800 for...)

Kind of sad to see her go. Farewell, my friend.

The Sound of Jade

Finally did this yesterday.

When we bought Jade, I quickly discovered she had the same trash can type of center muffler that Baby and 3 came with, and just like both of those, it was leaking from the crimped on end of the front. It was getting worse, to the point it would billow exhaust up around the front of the car if you were stopped for a while. I still had the first one I'd gotten for Baby, with the front and rear flanges for bolt-on interchangeability. Of course, 3 still has the glass pack, and whenever I get around to yanking the drivetrain out of her, I'll take the whole back end of the exhaust system. Yesterday I took her to the same muffler shop that had made up the original 512 Labs exhaust, and had them put in the middle muffler.

My wife had always liked how quiet Jade was, after having driven Scruffy around with her voice. I had the thought that if I removed the rear muffler, but kept the extra twists and turns over the rear axle and had it exit at the rear, it should have less volume but still have better flow. I had given them instructions to do so, but there were two customers ahead of me. That gave me time to do a little sifting through their pile of old tips, and I found this nice looking double tip. I'd wanted a double tip, if I had my choice of style, I would have something similar to the Gale Banks F-body power pack system I had on my Camaro, with the last couple feet chrome, a slight bend towards the end, and maybe a 20° slant to the very end. This isn't anything like that, but still looks good, and fills up the bumper clearance nicely. Also, the outside tip is slightly shorter that the inside one, matching the curve.

I asked how much to put it on, and it was an extra $20. I'll take it!!! The whole job ended up being $120, plus $10 tax. The price keeps going up!!! They used the strap that had held the original muffler to hang the pipe. It looked like it was a good fit where they had it positioned.

But when I got a look at it later, I realized it wasn't lined up with the body of the car. It comes out at a slant. They have a 90 day warranty, I wonder if they'll honor it to straighten it out, or if it will cost extra to have that done.

Well, it sounds good, but not significantly quieter for having it exit the back. I'll see how it is after I get the glass pack off 3 swapped in. For the first time, it actually seems like it's added some power!!!

Doing Time

Strange times are upon us, such as I have never seen. The Wuhan virus has put severe restrictions on our day to day lives. The government has all but put the gas-on-a-fire economy into an induced coma. Here's to hoping it will still live once restrictions are eased.

As always, with my work, I had to map out my vacation times off at the end of last year. Of course, not having anything planned out in advance, I was just going for random chunks of time strung together. My wife said, "we never take vacations in the first part of the year, you should take some time and do that!!!" OK, I requested March 16th to 18th off, strung onto a weekend. If you're keeping track, that's right around the time things started getting real with the Wuhan virus. That didn't work out well at all!!!

A couple weeks before my vacation time came up, I'd gotten an Email from the Catalina Island Company, who were doing an off season promotion where if you bought weekday lodging at a couple of their hotels, they would provide boat travel. That sounded like a pretty good deal, and I was considering doing it. However, getting close to time, and the weather prediction was for rain there most of the time. Since it's largely a pedestrian attraction, I scrubbed that from our plans.

I figured we'd stick close to home instead, go see a movie or two, go out and get some food, maybe do some things around the house. Then the lockdown came. Movie theaters were closed, and restaurants were limited to take out. Ah well, the best laid plans and all that...

So, watched a few recent releases on TV. I'd wanted to see the latest Quentin Tarantino feature, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It was pretty enjoyable, but I'd put some of his other works ahead of it. Maybe I just need to see it again and let it grow on me.

My wife has been wanting to see Dr. Sleep again. We'd seen it when we were on our anniversary weekend trip, right around when it came out. I'd read the book, and thought it was quite good. As far as an adaptation of a book goes, it was a pretty good job. An even better job was the melding of the original Stanley Kubrick Jack Nicholson Shining, of which this is a sequel.

Way back in 2007 I'd been bad-mouthing I Am Legend for being a poor man's Omega Man. Well, it happened to be on TV, and I checked it out. It was actually pretty good!!!

Ended up doing a few things on the cars, too. Finally took 3 to get aligned, months after replacing the tie rod ends. I'd been getting a code for a fuel tank pressure sensor on Scruffy. I got a replacement, and spent a couple days dropping the fuel tank and replacing it. It was the first time I'd done such a thing, and it was a bit of an ordeal since I didn't know that I had to completely remove one of the straps. Haven't gotten that code since, so it seems to have been a success. After that, I rotated the tires on 3, and had checked the rear brakes, where I had been getting a bit of a shudder. Figured it was probably getting time for new brake shoes, but they had lots of lining left, and it had a leaking wheel cylinder. Fortunately, I had an extra new one, so I put that in. The sealing washer was worn out, though, so finally got it finished a week later. Did an oil change on her, too. Next, I pulled the back end off Jade. I'd done the back brakes a while ago, and they didn't seem to be self-adjusting properly. Found the problem rather quickly, one of the springs I'd replaced back when I'd done them originally had broken.

We brought home a pizza one night, and another night had a frozen Jeno's East Chicago Deep Dish pizza.

Turns out my job is one of those critical services, as we supply many medical and infrastructure entities. Things are different there, but we're still going. I'm a bit jealous of the people who are having to stay home, I could get so many other things done if I were, but I think I'd rather still have an income in these uncertain times. Bonus, the traffic out there is some of the best I've ever seen!!! Double bonus, they have been having most of the office and sales forces working from home, so parking at work is also much better!!!

Last Friday I took Scruffy for a 4-wheel alignment to correct the rear tire wear it's been getting. apparently the toe settings were way off. Yesterday I began doing a piston soak on Jade, trying to use Sea Foam as the medium this time to see if it does any better. I've still been getting the P0410 code on Scruffy, so I'm trying some Sea Foam as a soak in the injector ports, too, to see if that helps.

Car Stuff

Some car stuff that's happened. First up, the previously mentioned radiator replacement on Jade. This was back in December, it started losing water pretty regularly. Gave it an inspection, and it had coolant ooze on the driver's side tank of the radiator between the transmission cooler lines, so I figured that was it.

Put a replacement in, and while I was doing that, discovered some damage to the bottom edge and the air conditioning condenser (as well as the radiator, but I took care of that!!!), probably from the time it fell off the jack!!! Fortunately, the extra clearance on both of those components doesn't appear to have affected the functionality of either of them.

So, went through all that, flushed the cooling system, and then noticed the underside of the fill cap didn't look right. That may have been all it needed.

Got myself another set of Ion rims to put on 3, as I've been wanting to do. The rims on 3 were the ones from Baby, and the tires on there were a couple years old when I swapped them on, so I've got my money's worth out of them. There's a whole story on those where they ended up costing too much, suffice it to say don't waste your money on those Goodyear mileage maximizing tires, they have such hard compound to them as to be dangerous, and I ended up getting even worse mileage with them than I'd had with a set of Chinese cheapies.

Anyway, I'd ended up getting two on the Thanksgiving weekend 40% off day, and two on the New Year's sale. Same deal as last time, I was only able to find two machined face ones, and two other painted. As you can see, one was in way worse condition!!! I was telling my dad I'd like to get the painted ones machined to match, and he made the comment, "Well, we know how to polish..." Yeah, that used to be a fair amount of my previous career. Planted the idea in my head, and I bought the discs and wheels and compound to polish, and went to work. It's too much work, but it's getting there. Still need to get an alignment from when I replaced the rod ends. Additionally, it looks like I've got one of the rear wheels on Scruffy that needs work, probably a camber kit, as it's wearing the tire back there prematurely.

And finally, that cool flat exhaust tip I made up??? The dip down to clear the emergency brake cable became the low point, and as with most lowered cars, occasionally you scrape a little. It appears it's done a bit of tweaking it up some, to where it's into the rocker panel, and it's melted it down a little. If I'm able, I'll get some aluminum tubing the same diameter and make up a metal piece with a cutout around it to give it some clearance.

Wrenchin' Weekend+

This was a couple of weekends ago.

Actually started out the Wednesday before, they had one of the hooey red flag days. I fired up the Falcon and drove it to the bottom of the hill and parked it there. Took a lot of cranking, and I flooded it and had to let it sit for a minute on the initial starting. Have I made mention that I bought a deep cycle battery for her a couple years ago??? Some of the best money I've spent on her!!! On my way home on Thursday, I took 3 to the you-scrub car wash, then drove the Falcon over and washed it off, too. Ran flawlessly.

On Friday, I finally did the rear brakes on Jade. As always, the worst part is getting the drums off. Saturday, after I got home from work, went down to drive the Falcon back up, and it wouldn't crank from the key. Huh. Popped the hood, and jumpered the start relay, and it spun with no problem. OK, maybe now it will crank. Got back in, and tried again, and it didn't crank. Had my wife make sure the gearshift didn't pop into reverse, and went back under the hood to fire it up under there, and realized I hadn't put the crank wire back on the relay!!! That fixed it!!! On Sunday I had my mechanic friend pull several bits of metal out of the rear driver's side tire on Scruffy, and plug the hole of the one that made it through. That was one of those things I've been wanting to do for a while, ever since I noticed it. Never seemed to leak any air, anyway.

Sunday afternoon, we were out in Jade, and stopped into AM/PM for some soda. Came back out, and it wouldn't crank!!! Called up my roadside assistance, and told dispatch I need a tow truck. MIGHT be able to put jumpers on it and have enough juice to get it to crank, but the battery is almost new, so I didn't think that would be the case. MIGHT be able to give the starter a few whacks and get it to crank, but probably going to need a tow. Took them an hour and a half and three calls to get someone dispatched, and about that again before they got there. In a pickup truck, with a jump-starter. He knew it probably wouldn't work, and it didn't. Called up again, and the rat bastards told me I've used up all my service calls for the year!!! Still haven't gotten any satisfaction from them yet. Called another tow service, and it was another three hours!!!

I had the driver set it down on jack stands, so it was ready to go to work on. Ended up with a middle shift on Tuesday, so I pulled the starter out after work. Exchanged it after work on Wednesday, and put it in on Friday. That went fairly easy, but the fun came afterwards. I was jacking it up to drop it off the stands, and the jack tipped over!!! The jack stand on the passengers' side was completely clear of the car, and the driver's side ended up in the exhaust tunnel. The back tire rolled up onto the wheel block. Used a scissor jack to get enough room to pull the floor jack out, and got it lifted up enough that the jack stand was... hanging from the O2 sensor wire!!!

After that, I got the rod ends I'd bought for 3 installed. I'd gotten a look at the ones on Jade while I had her up on the jack stands, and I think those were in worse shape. Today, after work, I did a bit of sanding on the rear bumper of Scruffy, and did some primer on the areas I'd done a little filling and sanding on a while back. That rear bumper and hatch are my next targets to finish up!!!

Double Mount Duty

Last weekend was a wrenching on the cars weekend. I've posted shot motor mount pictures before, so I had to keep the tradition going!!! This instance differs from previous times in that I did two different cars in one round!!!

First up were the mounts from 3. She's developed a low roar noise at cruising speed. My first thought was wheel bearings, but not long after Jade started making quite a bit of noise when put into gear, and I recalled that Saturn motor mounts are prone to failure. There seemed to be a lot of motion, so they needed doing anyway, and if that fixed the roar, so much the better. The top mount has what has been coined the "sad face" design. The bottom mounts were still in serviceable shape, but by the time I discovered that, it's not much more to replace them.

On to Jade, the top mount was in much worse shape, barely hanging on together, only slightly better than the ones I'd replaced on Baby way back. The lower ones were better, but still up for replacement. Made a nice improvement on her!!!

On back to 3, around a month back I'd done an oil change, and while I was at it I rotated the tires. While I was removing one of the rear wheels, one of the already loose lug nuts stopped spinning freely. I put my breaker bar on it to spin it the rest of the way, and snapped off the stud!!! Since I was already suspecting a bad bearing (another thing I'd done while I was rotating the tires, gave 'em a spin to see if any of them seemed to have a bad bearing) I replaced the whole hub assembly instead of trying to get a new stud pressed in. Anyway, the motor mounts and one rear wheel bearing haven't fixed the roar noise, and I have a feeling it's the front right that's the cause. Thought it might be tire noise I was hearing, and that had prompted me to think about getting another set of Ion rims for 3, if I'm buying new tires, might as well get something a bit bigger and badder. When I went to the junkyard over the long weekend (one of the ones in Wilmington is closing down, and instead of 40% they were up to 70% off!!!) there wasn't a single one of the three that had the alloys still on them. Started looking around, and realized none of the cars have any wheels on them!!!

Oh, and while I had the air filter box out to do a lower mount, I saw that the transmission temperature sensor plug was missing half of the holding tab. checked it out, and the other one broke off, too!!! I've got it held in place with shrink tube and tape right now, but will replace it soon enough.

Scruffy has had occasional check engine lights for a while, one of the codes being temperature related, and sometimes the gauge would go out. Got a new engine coolant temperature sensor with all the other stuff, and went ahead and replaced that, too. Turned out to have a length of bare area!!!

And, for a final touch, I modified the air intake tube as I've done to other Saturns. Cut out a good portion of the top of the tube to facilitate better airflow!!!

More Car Stuff

Here's a couple of the things I've been up to. Finally made some progress on getting a bit more black paint on Scruffy. After I got my gravy (a new record amount!) I went to Home Depot for some interior paint and spray black paint.

I was mostly wanting to get the hood painted, as it was the only panel of a completely different color. There were a few scratches to fill. While I was at it, I did the front bumper and the passenger side fender. I guess the front bumper had some different color, too, where scrapes had been painted over by the previous owner. The first round came out fairly terrible, I got a lot of runs. Lord help me, I'm just not that good at spray painting! The bumper and fender came out pretty good, but the hood didn't get the satin look. Looks like straight flat black. Still better than it was. You can see I had the trim over the window on that side off for painting, but I cracked the plastic on the next one back. I epoxied it back together, and it still needs to be sanded.

Onto Jade, I bought my wife a new stereo for her for Christmas. Tried to get the same one that I'd gotten for Scruffy, but apparently it's no longer available. Had to go up several model numbers, and it seems very similar. A few minor moves of the buttons and a smooth knob are all I can see that's different.

For the first time, I got a plug in wiring harness adapter. I was able to do all my soldering and shrink tubing at the kitchen table, a real plus this time of year with it getting dark so early. Worked flawlessly! All in all, the installation went fairly smoothly.

She loves being able to play music from her phone through it, and the customizable lighting! Purple, of course!

And finally, something my wife got for me for Christmas, new floor mats for Scruffy! They're cut to size, and I think they may be the best I've ever gotten! A few cuts, and they fit right in and lay nice and flat, and stay put!

Hits & Misses

So if you recall my last post about Scruffy, I ended it up with the tale of the dash lights having issue. I ordered a pack of LED light bulbs that were supposed to fit my panel. Come to find out, GM in their infinite wisdom made the light sockets hard wired to the lights. I was able to change them out, but it is a rather time consuming task, and for some reason, the outside gauge lights would not work. Got the odometer light working, and the top lights and center gauge lights, and they all look really good, but those outer ones... grrr....

Somewhere in there, I came across this bit of information: some of the later model L series and Vues use the same arrangement of gauges, but with white faces!!! I had been looking at white gauge face overlays and considering doing that, but this sounded even better!!! I considered, and decided that I didn't think that aesthetic would go as well as what I'm heading towards with Scruffy, but with the silver shade of 3, I think it will go quite well. I went to the junkyard last Saturday after work for another of their 40% off days in search of some 16" Ion factory alloys (more on that later), and picked up this cluster out of a Vue, with the nice chrome look bezels to the gauges. Figure I'll swap the one from 3 into scruffy, and hopefully all the lights in that one will work in there. Also picked up another set of visors for Scruffy (ever since we bought her, she came with what looked like pillow case material stitched over the visors; rendered the mirror on the passenger visor unusable, and more recently the clip on part of the drivers' side broke off) as well as the window switch panel to work in the new style console. I'm thinking of buying myself a pair of headlights for 3. Found out there's a place that sells them with blacked out area between the reflector areas, and they look pretty good, but I think the factory style will go better with the silver body.

Way back before the transmission incident, I had taken Scruffy down to my parents' house with a glasspack muffler and a set of flanges. I've been running the original replacement from baby since she found her voice, but it's a bit loud with that deal. Besides, Jade has that same canister style, and it leaks like crazy!!! I'm actually surprised she passed smog with that big of a leak, and I want to put the old one from baby in her next. ANyway, I managed to get one end welded up, and realized it was coming out too short. Ah well, I've got more pipe from the other taken off systems around, I'll finish that off later. Transmission intervened, and it had been a while. A couple weeks back I got back over there and finished off the task. Once again, I'm happy with the results and new, slightly quieter note.

Way back when I got that system made up, I'd made mention of the crappy hanger they'd put on the end. Well, last Thursday it came apart!!! Going out of a driveway it scraped a little, then the rest of the drive you'd hear it scrape when you'd hit a dip. Finally got it detached from the suspension!!! I was glad to have it loose from there, but I'd mothballed her until I could come up with something.

That something was this!!! Bought a rubber insulator mount clamp and some bracketry from my work, and with much modding I managed to come up with this hanger for now. Already better than what was there, but I want to weld on longer bars to the pipe and have a better mounting. A few days before, also made up some bracketery to mount the rear facing camera in both Jade and Scruffy. Also picked up a new battery to replace the slow cranking one, saving $15 getting a Die Hard from K-Mart instead of Sears!!!

Also found a real nice looking pair of headlights for Scruffy at the junkyard. Really improves the look from the front!!!

So about those wheels... Saturday last week after work I go to a pick your part searching for them, and found they only have one with 2 of what I'm looking for. Front left and rear right, both with only one lug nut holding them on. Tried jamming stuff under that front wheel to keep it from turning, and finally see a slot the right size on the brake caliper, jam a screwdriver in there, and succeed in loosening the lug nut!!! Sweet, the back should be easy, just set the parking brake and go to work!!! I go back there, and it's happening just like I planned, got my breaker bar on the nut, and it feels like it's loosening. Nice!!! Until I realize it's rounded off the nut. Forget it, I'll go to another one on Monday and get 'em. Took the younger with me again so he could stand on the brakes while I loosen. Find two there, with four on one and two on the other. For some reason, the one with two, they'd put 65 series tires on them instead of 55's, so it looked strange and I'd be searching for tires real soon if I got those, so I head to the other one. I have the boy stand on the brakes (which wasn't too effective, it was low on fluid) and go to loosen the front one. It spins a bit, but I already know it's secret and still it with a screwdriver again. Start leaning on my breaker bar, and it feels like it's loosening, then I hear a cracking noise... I had a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter on my bar, and the small end was twisting off!!! Grrrr.... I'm done. Found a window regulator for Jade and called it on that one, too.

A Sign From God

You may have noticed I haven't posted in quite a while about any sort of progress with Scruffy. Back a couple months ago, my shadetree mechanic had charged the air conditioning in her, and when I got home from there, I'd attempted to back up whilst parking, and lo and behold, reverse wouldn't go!!! Grrrr.... I've had more transmission problems with her than any other of the Saturns I've owned!!! I've had the idea for a while of buying up a running parts car to get the engine out of to do a build on, as well as to have a transmission, just in case. That was something of the impetus for this post. It was a very terse ad for it, and the outside picture looked real good. Very low miles, 67,000 I think, and it looked well optioned, and was a year newer than 3. I had the thought of, if it was as good in the flesh and had the ABS option, swapping it to my daily and sacrificing 3. Getting in touch, turns out it had no current smog check or title, so the $1,300 asking price started sounding less good. In the meantime, I used one day off to check the resistance on the valve body solenoids in Scruffy (an issue I've seen before), as I could buy a rebuilt valve body for under $300. No dice, but I had also found that the main bore in the valve body can become worn and cause this symptom. Finally got the cash together and made it over to take a look, and found it to be a single cam model, and nowhere near as good as the pictures appeared. Sad trombone. Also came across an ad for another low mileage one that had a similar fate to Scruffy's nose (first shot was of the engine, kind of rare to have ANY shot of the engine, and then I noticed it appeared to not have a hood!!!) but it was gone before I was able to make it out there.

Come to the following weekend, Memorial day, and the junkyard is doing their 40% off days. I'll try my luck there!!! There are two in the age range to have the late model head with the roller valve train and undersized exhaust ports. Both are a year newer than either of mine. My first pick was a sedan with front end damage, I reasoned was running fine right until said front end damage occurred. Found it, and started looking into it, only to discover several mounting points on the engine block had also been damaged in the collision. Located the second choice, a dead ringer for 3, and it looked kind of better... someone had attempted to mount a early exhaust manifold to the late head, and that did not go well. By the way, there's my shadetree mechanic friend, Chad. He was also in search of a transmission.

I had wanted to try and determine the mileage by powering up the instruments, and had a couple things to try that with. Powering up the circuit for them with a power tool battery, or using the key switch with that battery to the terminals under the hood. The key was there, albeit in two segments, but still was able to turn. Did not work, though.

In the process of trying to get the engine ready to yank, we had the idea to take off the drive belt. The crank pulley was easily accessible, so we tried loosening that. It did not want to turn, then we had the thought to try rotating the crank, and it didn't move either way at all!!! Also not a good sign for an engine, so gave up on that idea. Went ahead and took the transmission out of it.

And there it is!!! It wasn't real easy to get out, but we got it!!! Ended up dropping to engine cradle to get it out. Ended up doing the same thing to get the transmission out of the other one that Chad wanted, too. Left it in the back of my dad's truck until the next weekend. Figured I'd drive Scruffy down for one last run with that transmission then do the deed. Got about a mile, and it stopped upshifting out of first gear. Another possible symptom of that worn cylinder in the valve body. Took her back, then drove to my parents' house and pulled the valve body out of the junkyard transmission, just to see if that's all it needed. Put it into Scruffy's transmission the next day, but I kind of knew it wasn't going to work. Took the pan off (by the way, if I haven't mentioned previously, the pan is on the top of the transmission in S series Saturns, and the filter is an external spin on) and right away could smell that the clutches had been burning. Did it anyway, and at first reverse actually worked, but in short order it was as it had been before.

So I have yet to get it put in. Spent a while yesterday cleaning it off, and while it's not 100% spotless, it'll still probably be the cleanest thing under the hood once I do get it put in.

Meanwhile, I picked up a few other things while I was there. The visors in Jade were looking pretty bad, so I found a pair in the front end wrecked one, and my wife had caught the passenger side mirror and cracked a piece out of the outer shell, so I got that off the same one. The center console in Jade has a cover on it that the plastic is cracked out under the top pad, and the early body style console has a design flaw. It has two cup holders at the front, one directly behind the cigarette lighter socket, so if you're charging your phone, one is unusable. The later style has one in front, and one towards the back, and it's offset from the lighter. Also, the covered box at the back on the early style is somewhat rare, so I took the console from the same one I got the transmission from. It looks like the back end mounts a little differently, but I should be able to adapt it.

Clipped to one of the visors was this cross with Proverbs 3:5-6 on it. Up on the cowl of the coupe was this reflector with a blinky red LED from Mount Moriah 62nd anniversary.

I'm taking it as a sign from God.

Jade Gets Shanked

Haven't done a lot about Jade here, because there hasn't been a whole lot to post about, but now I've got a couple things. A couple weeks back we were driving home one evening, and there was a loud noise from under the hood and the alternator light came on. Pretty instantly I correctly analysed the problem to be the serpentine belt to have let go. We're around 7 miles or so from home still, but on the freeway and moving pretty good, and it's been California-cold these nights, so I kept her moving with an eye on the gauges. Coming off the ramp by our home, and it made a pretty bad sound going around, so I pulled into a parking lot for a quick visual inspection. Sure enough, there's tattered belt, but nothing else seems out of sorts. I proceed home, going around the back way, which is not as steep so as not to get the engine any hotter than it already is. About halfway, it starts not going, like the engine has lost power or the transmission is slipping a lot. Parked and walked home for the other car to fetch my wife.

On my way home the next evening I pick up a new belt, then head over with my tools and a scissor jack. The belt is a little tight, but is a lot easier if you pull the top engine mount off and jack up the engine a bit. Only five nuts to pull the mount, but I'd forgotten to grab my 15mm deep socket, so it didn't come off so easy. Tried with my combo wrench, and could only get one. Oh well, I'll try just snaking it in and working the tensioner to see if I have any luck. I start trying to get the belt in position, and notice it's short an idler pulley. Hmmm... I start looking closer, and there it is, down by the crank pulley!!! I fish it out, and even find the bolt that is supposed to hold it on resting on the frame rail!!! Looks like the bearing on it has seized up, and I theorize that having done so, it unscrewed the bolt. Looks like I'm not finishing tonight (and it's just starting to rain) so I try starting her up and driving her, and she works just fine for the little bit over the hill and down to our home. The next night I picked up a pulley and finished that job off with no further issue, and she's been running fine since.

THEN, this last Friday, We're out on our way to pick the younger up from school and head out for some dinner, and as we're getting near I start hearing a tick-tick rotational noise coming from the rear right. Huh. When we arrive, I go to investigate, and as I near the offending corner, I can hear the air hissing out!!!

I check it out, and discover it feels like a spike sticking an inch or more out of the inner sidewall!!! I ask my awesome shadetree mechanic friend if he's got a local place that'll sell me a tire, and he says he's got one guy who'll set me up with a used one for $35, or another place that will sell me a new one for around $55. Of course, for $20 difference, I'm going new!!!

We head over, and since he knows the guy he goes in and asks the guy if he's got a tire for $50, and the guy right off says yeah. Should have said less!!! I say at that price I'll take two!!! That's all mounted and balanced, for just a bit more than some shops charge just for the labor!!! A bit more background, Jade had two nice Goodyears on the back when we bought her, and a couple cheapies worn off on the edges in the front, and a pretty good pull to the right. Early on, we took her for an alignment where the guy noted the disparity in tires and suggested rotating the good ones to the front, which I'd already been planning. He did so at a bargain rate.

Anyway, that's the good news, it got the bad tire. When he got it off, it turned out to be a hex driver bit that had nicely speared the sidewall. In the shot of the strut, you can see it has an area where the paint is chipped away to metal!!!

Turned out, it was a lot longer than it originally appeared!!!

Erosion

Over the weekend I changed the air filter and spark plugs on Jade. The previous weekend I'd performed a "piston soak" on it. Most S series Saturns usually end up burning oil at higher mileage, and short of taking the engine apart and drilling drain holes in the stock pistons or getting new ones, this is about the only fix. I have performed this operation many times, but had recently come across a detailed procedure. I had been using maybe a quarter ounce of Marvel Mystery Oil on previous rounds, but the procedure actually calls for about two ounces in each bore!!! That, and letting it sit for a good 24 hours or more, rotating it, and repeating it if you are able. I did so on Scruffy, but since I haven't lowered the back end, I've been holding off on the alignment, so I haven't been driving her, so I have no idea how well that's worked. Anyway, at the low miles Jade has I wouldn't have expected her to be going through much, if any, oil, but I was mistaken. Don't know how much good that's done yet, either, but while I was doing it, I noticed this!!!

I've never seen a spark plug with this much wear!!! Look at that!!! It actually burned a circle opposite the electrode!!!

The side view shows that it's considerably thinner, too.

I'm not sure if they were the originals or dealer installed replacements, but I'd bet they've been in there at least 50,000 miles. They were AC Delcos, and I think the factory ones were NGK's.

Interestingly, 3 is the only Saturn I've owned that hasn't had oil useage issues, but it's just past 90,000 miles thus far. I don't believe either of the others began with much oil use, either, but the mileage was also lower when we got them. 3 is up for an oil change, and I'm thinking I'll give her a piston soak before I do it, too, just as a preemptive measure. Also, it's nearing it's 2 year anniversary, and thus is up for it's first smog check since I've owned it. I don't predict any issues with that, but also this year Scruffy will be due. That may prove more problematic.

And So It Begins

That tenuous transitional step between concept and reality, to actually stop just thinking about something and start doing something. I suppose the real first step was finding Jade (thus far the name my wife has decided on for her new ride, as good a name as any, I suppose. She is SO happy with her, you'd think I bought her a new Cadillac!!!) so I can get to modding on Scruffy. The next, and and finally getting some actual skin in the game, step occurred on this last Friday. New tires are a very soon necessity for her (Scruffy), and prior to doing that, I'd wanted to locate the next set of rims, to keep from having to pay to get the tires moved around. Currently she's rolling on the alloys that came on 3, which are also the exact same style as jade has. All that works out, because one of them on Scruffy was said to have been bent, and feels like it at certain speeds. A couple on each also have some curb damage, so between them there's likely a good set.

SO, I had the idea to find some steelies I could moon-cap and maybe do in the contrast color, whatever that turns out to be. I slightly rued having sent the originals of Scruffy's west with Baby, but in the interest of saving alloys, it was necessary. Also, it looks like the profile of Saturn steelies isn't well suited to having a center cap hub cap. Lots of cars have the same bolt pattern, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find a junkyard set that would work, and over Thanksgiving weekend, my dad and I were thinking of heading over for their sale day. That never happened, I worked Black Friday for the double time and a half, as well as my normal Saturday shift, and it was far too busy to get that in.

Another thing I'd been looking at was some manufacturers are now making larger rims of steel. First noticed this on the lady friends' Scion, which has hub caps on 16" wheels. I was going to jam her up and see if she'd be interested in trading for some factory Saturn alloys that would have a lower cost to put tires on, but alas, it's the newer model with 5 lugs. As is my custom, I kept looking around to see what people might be selling, and came upon these!!! Not what I had in mind, but a good looking style that will go fairly well with the primer black aesthetic I have in mind, and are also larger diameter. Currently they have 205-40R-17's on them, which are shorter but wider than what I've got, but by just a tad each way. Nets about 3/8" of drop. There's probably a year's worth of tread left on them, but I'm planning on going with 35's eventually, which will be even smaller than what I've got, as well as surprisingly affordable!!! That will get a total drop of about 3/4", plus the around 1 1/2" that dropped springs get. Of course, that's a ways out still, and will give me plenty of time to decide if I like it fine with what I've already got. Speaking of affordable, the guy only wanted $200 for the whole set, which of course is almost less than just getting 4 tires mounted!!! No curb rash whatsoever. Ironically, they were off the earlier model Scion with the same bolt pattern as Saturns.

So now it's time to start getting other things in order. The wear patterns on the current tires suggest that things aren't right with the alignment, and I know the tie rod ends are shot. At 190,000, likely that's not all!!! If I'm going to be putting in dropped springs, she'll be needing an alignment anyway, and may as well refresh everything before that happens. Of course, while I'd be putting on new springs, new struts are only logical. I have ordered both the springs and struts thus far, and will soon be ordering tie rod ends and ball joints. May also get some polyurethane bushings to tighten everything up even more!!! I'd already planned on going with rebuilds on all the brake cylinders while I'm in the course of refitting and new hoses, as well as probably new rotors and pads up front, since I'll have to give everything that will show through the new rims a coat of paint. Oh yeah, also I ordered the necessary lug nuts to fit on such a rim.

This morning I took the original picture from when we'd first got her where I'd tinted the rear windows and put it back in Paint Shop Pro. First I removed the rear doors, then made the panels continuous from front to back. Came out better than the first attempt!!!

Hmmm, while I have Paint Shop Pro going, how about seeing how she'd look with a bit of a drop??? With them old hub caps, no less!!! Got that done, and did the scroll back and forth between the files, and was amused by the jumping effect of the drop I'd performed... a GIF is in order!!!

After that, I messed with the shadow to make it look proper, then black and whited it to simulate primer, as well as mirroring it to make it look different than the other shots.

Hey, you may ask, what about your idea to gull wing her??? Still knocking around in me melon, it is, but thought I'd share the sketch lady friend did before I did mine, back on the reunion lunch day. There you have it, folks, the first rendering of a Saturn Gull Wing Wagon!!! Upon completion, it was noted that it looked a bit like a space alien!!!