Home » ‘The French Riviera Sounds Like Milwaukee,’ An SWG Wrenching Update And More: Only Fanbelts

‘The French Riviera Sounds Like Milwaukee,’ An SWG Wrenching Update And More: Only Fanbelts

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Shop-Teacher
Shop-Teacher
1 month ago

(someone wants to give me 15 big ones for my CJ-3B! But I kinda want it and my gold i3 as my only two cars… hmm. Tempting).”

Dude, take the money. You know you’re going to find something else and fall in love with that. Do you still not understand the sickness?????

Freelivin2713
Freelivin2713
1 month ago
Reply to  Shop-Teacher

Yeah, I’m actually “down with the sickness” (I don’t mind his hoarding…I don’t have it but aspire to have my own field of rusty classics!)
but that much $ for that thing in that shape? TAKE IT!

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
1 month ago

Schweinehaxe is maaaaaagic: fact.

Totally not a robot
Totally not a robot
1 month ago

Mercedes, I hope you have a chance to glimpse all the fun little RVs that are so popular over there. Such a wide variety of totally functional RVs, built to actually fit on the smaller B and C roads!

Parsko
Parsko
1 month ago

Matt, please invite me to the Rock if you ever go. PLEEEEEASE. I will only be a little annoying.

A. Barth
A. Barth
1 month ago

There’s so much else going on. I’m interviewing Jay Leno tomorrow

Be sure to wash your hands first, David. 🙂

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
1 month ago

So what color is Nissan coolant anyway? Is it red (seemingly, to combine with oil to make strawberry milkshake)?

I’d learned about everyone using different colors when I first dealt with VW/Audi G13, and thought I knew them all at this point…

Stephen Walter Gossin
Stephen Walter Gossin
1 month ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

Thanks for reading, Jack! The red transmission fluid mixes with the yellow-green antifreeze when the trans cooler in the radiator (that is made of cheap metal) corrodes away into The Strawberry Milkshake Of Death.

Here’s my most educated guess on the cause of death:

The water pump started failing (the truck had almost 200K on it and had the Nissan OEM pump) and weeping fluid. This caused a continuously low coolant level, which had the electric fan running overtime and caused it to burn out after enough time.

Low coolant level plus a burned out fan and a weak/failing water pump caused it to overheat badly enough to pop the head gaskets.

I didn’t see any coolant in the oil until I replaced the H2O pump with one strong enough to actually pump coolant into the cylinders (the dipstick was clear when I bought it and after each repair and subsequent overheat).

Not the best outcome, but we’ll live to fight on another day.

Last edited 1 month ago by Stephen Walter Gossin
Jack Trade
Jack Trade
1 month ago

I didn’t realize transmission coolers were located in radiators – love the things I learn here!

Nobody here would hold this one against you for sure. The fact that it had an interlock that needed to be removed before sale would seem to at least corelate with a possibly, er, less than stellar maintenance record by that point.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
1 month ago

Heck. 🙁 So what do you think remains to be fixed?

Stephen Walter Gossin
Stephen Walter Gossin
1 month ago

The front cover, the top of the engine, both exhaust manifolds and both heads have to be removed to have the head gaskets replaced at this point.

It’s a big, big job. One for somebody that has more love for that truck than I do. Hope all is great, Harv!

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
1 month ago

Yikes. RIP big truck.

When can we expect a Jag story? 😛

Chris Johnson
Chris Johnson
1 month ago

Congrats on the engagement, David!

Camp Fire
Camp Fire
1 month ago

Speaking of Aztek…is there an update yet on David’s living & commuting situation?

There has been a suspicious lack of articles on how spacious and comfortable the whole arrangement is…

Freelivin2713
Freelivin2713
1 month ago
Reply to  Camp Fire

Yeah, it’s hard to imagine him doing it w/ all that is going on…but he better since we’re all gonna keep him on the hook for it…ha ha

Tarragon
Tarragon
1 month ago

A buddy of mine says the “for sure cure” for jet lag is one good hangover. Good luck.

Parsko
Parsko
1 month ago
Reply to  Tarragon

Day 1: you’re fine due to the adreniline.
Day 2: Things catch up to you, and the lag hits, and you’re in pain.
Day 3: You’re in pain, similar to day to, but the other side of the pain, coming down.
Day 4: You’re more-or-less fine.

My issues were always with pooping. We get on schedules, and when you suddenly need to poop in the middle of the night (normally fine cause hotel) or in the middle of the day (in Merc’s case, on some awesome test drive), not much fun.

Just my experiences. When the time change is 12-14 hours, it can stretch out to a week before you are close to sleeping normally.

No Kids, Just Bikes
No Kids, Just Bikes
1 month ago

Boy. Michigan right in time for winter! I get it though – the cost of living out there eventually gets hard to justify.

Checkyourbeesfordrinks
Checkyourbeesfordrinks
1 month ago

Thank you Mercedes for confirming I don’t need to travel to the French Riviera; I can just drive 20 minutes into Milwaukee to get the same experience. Better yet, I’ll go during Bastille Days when they put up the mini Eiffel Tower and I’ll experience Paris as well!

Peter d
Peter d
1 month ago

HVAC repair is more difficult than it needs to be – I don’t understand why things don’t come apart easier – and, at least around here, the supply houses are really snotty – “oh, I can’t sell you a flame detector because you are not in the trade” – on the Friday before Christmas at 3:30 pm = zero chance of getting any tradesperson out to the house for at least a few days.

Luckily the first supply house has really nice guys who, although they didn’t have the type I needed, showed me how to recondition the one I had, and it also turns out that the flame detector was only one of the problems. I had the furnace pumping heat by dinnertime :-). Thank you Youtube, and countless hours of engineering school instruction from my mis-spent youth.

I have a noisy blower in my upstairs HVAC unit, but I have avoided replacing/fixing it because I just hate dealing with HVAC. The good news is that the burners looked pristine after 15 years – we must have clean natural gas here.

Around here, HVAC is the quickest trade to get a license where you can hang your own shingle. I am debating if I should do the 2-year associate’s HVAC program to have a trade I can do at my own pace when I “retire” – it seems like most (non-oil) HVAC guys show up when they feel like it – although for some reason the heating oil company guy is usually just a few hours away (although impossible to schedule for routine maintenance – which now is more important due to the more corrosive bio-fuel.)

IanGTCS
IanGTCS
1 month ago
Reply to  Peter d

Your HVAC adventure sound like my area. The ignitor on my old furnace went out and the “protection plan” people couldn’t make it for a few days. Drove around to a few places before I found a fireplace shop that would sell to someone without a licence. Although that could have just been ignorance on the part of the young lady behind the counter who was more used to talking up gas inserts. 10 minutes later we had heat.

Also screw reliance. My wife had the contract with them before we met and it may have just come with her house at the time (she doesn’t remember anymore). Mostly they exist as a way to sell overpriced furnaces, not do service calls. At our old place we were debating replacing and they were over twice the cost of anyone else. Avoid them at all costs. One of our neighbours at our new house is licenced so we ditched that pretty quick.

Bob
Bob
1 month ago

OnlyFanBelts – all one word. Or so I’ve heard.

Last edited 1 month ago by Bob
Totally not a robot
Totally not a robot
1 month ago
Reply to  Bob

“I only read it for the articles, I swear!”

Arrest-me Red
Arrest-me Red
1 month ago

I agree cute cats are easy to take pictures off. I have 3 rescues that adopted me. Glad to see a glimpse into non-wrenching life.

You can see one of them here, guess which one is me 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAl2tTlXWpc&t=236s

If you are in the NC or Virginia Beach area, you can be adopted as well. She has a amazon wish list if you want to help out.

Mechjaz
Mechjaz
1 month ago
Reply to  Arrest-me Red

Oh man god noooo the kittehs :sob:

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