5 Reasons Fixing Your Own Car Will Change Your Life

[Varmint Hunter]

I'm back in business!!
But feel kinda stupid also.
The problem turned out to be only very corroded spades on the FSCM fuse #22.

Many thanks to michael59, TN_Preacher, & Someone_else. I really appreciated all the helpful information.
And, you guys kept me from goin nuts while I was way in over my head.

Anybody need a good working used fuel pump that fits a 2007 Chevy or GMC gas pickup?

 

[newmisty]

 

[TN_Preacher]

I'm back in business!!
But feel kinda stupid also.
The problem turned out to be only very corroded spades on the FSCM fuse #22.

Many thanks to michael59, TN_Preacher, & Someone_else. I really appreciated all the helpful information.
And, you guys kept me from goin nuts while I was way in over my head.

Anybody need a good working used fuel pump that fits a 2007 Chevy or GMC gas pickup?

VH
We tend to think something very unusual and complex has happened to our vehicle when many times it is something very simple. You're not the only one who has been in that position. I've done the same thing, but at least you are able to admit it :) In reality, you probably saved yourself hundreds of dollars. Someone in a car shop would have replaced a bunch of uneccessary parts before they found the issue. You ought to feel good about that!

 

[Lt Dan]

My only experience with Chevy, is a a 1950 pickup that didn't want to start when it was out of gas.
Life was a lot simpler back then!

 

[michael59]

I had a rambler...63? anyways I picked up some fixit tickets for the rear running lights being out. Went on the birdog hunt at the fuse box. Picked up another fixit ticket.....finally I drilled the fuse box loose and looked behind it and a wire was barely making a connection. I let to tickets go and got caught and did 3 days for FTA on three different tickets. 9 days I did, I hate fuse box's so they are the first thing I check now.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

VH
We tend to think something very unusual and complex has happened to our vehicle when many times it is something very simple. You're not the only one who has been in that position. I've done the same thing, but at least you are able to admit it :) In reality, you probably saved yourself hundreds of dollars. Someone in a car shop would have replaced a bunch of uneccessary parts before they found the issue. You ought to feel good about that!

The towing alone would have been well over a hundred.
Actually, I'm glad I went thru the process. In addition to the fuel pump problem I discovered that the rear hanger for the fuel tank was completely rusted thru & when I wacked the bottom of the tank with a 2 X 4 to see if we could persuade the fuel pump to work again, the back of the tank dropped down a few inches. So had to replace that too.
Also, I now have a much better understanding of some of the electrical components of my truck.
Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[Casey Jones]

I had a rambler...63? anyways I picked up some fixit tickets for the rear running lights being out. Went on the birdog hunt at the fuse box. Picked up another fixit ticket.....finally I drilled the fuse box loose and looked behind it and a wire was barely making a connection. I let to tickets go and got caught and did 3 days for FTA on three different tickets. 9 days I did, I hate fuse box's so they are the first thing I check now.

Your problem was in the first sentence.

My parents had a Rambler - a 1962. Rambler was the third-best-selling car that year, behind Chevrolet and Ford.

That was part of the problem - they were thrust into the Big Time with a reasonably-modern design, against the spartan Ford and the uninspired Chevrolet of that year. They didn't have the manufacturing capacity - they were rushing product through.

But that car was nothing but trouble. Everything came apart, including the aluminum engine - which started leaking oil, not at a joint or seam, but THROUGH the aluminum casting. Air pockets in the block metal.

Everything from the (Borg-Warner) automatic transmission, to the aluminum engine, to the vacuum wipers, to horrific RUST...went wrong with that thing.

I only had problems with a fuse panel on one car - a used Yugo, and even that was better than 1960s Ramblers.

Interestingly, by the time AMC finally was sold to Chrysler, they'd figured out the Quality puzzle. Jeeps of those years were absolutely top-notch; better than they are today.

 

[michael59]

including the aluminum engine

wow, I had cast iron.....spose I just had a lot of lead in the pencil.

 

[Casey Jones]

wow, I had cast iron.....spose I just had a lot of lead in the pencil.

AMC's aluminum engine was the company's attempt to be "revolutionary" in its new technology. Remember, GM had just come out with the Corvair, with an aluminum engine; and VW's air-cooled engine had an aluminum crankcase (cylinder jugs were separate and cast iron)

It was a bridge too far. First, they tried to make the jump almost immediately from a flathead six (which they still used in the Rambler American smallest-car) to an aluminum OHV engine. They didn't have the ability to cast aluminum, so they contracted it out, to a Toledo auto-industry supplier. Which, as it turned out, didn't have the ability, either.

It was an horrific mess for the company - and the low quality of the 1961-62 Ramblers, probably, more than anything, was what doomed the company. People, including my old man, bought once, and never again. Later, as a twentysomething, I had a couple of AMC cars, well-used, and while they were crude and no driver's cars (a Gremlin and a Postal Jeep) they were reliable as winter beaters.

Aluminum was used in the engine because the AMC six, as designed, was SO...MASSIVE. When they went back to cast-iron, keeping the OHC design, the weight of that thing was over 600 pounds - one of the heaviest non-truck six-cylinder engines ever made.

FWIW, that engine, redone in iron, later became known as the Jeep 4.0 six. Lasted until 2006, made under Chrysler. That is impressive - used in cars, then adapted to Jeep vehicles (as an afterthought) then updated with fuel injection (to meet emissions) and proving so durable that even Daimler-Benz didn't want to discontinue it for Jeeps, until the latest emissions standards forced it.

 

[newmisty]

AMC's aluminum engine was the company's attempt to be "revolutionary" in its new technology. Remember, GM had just come out with the Corvair, with an aluminum engine; and VW's air-cooled engine had an aluminum crankcase (cylinder jugs were separate and cast iron)

It was a bridge too far. First, they tried to make the jump almost immediately from a flathead six (which they still used in the Rambler American smallest-car) to an aluminum OHV engine. They didn't have the ability to cast aluminum, so they contracted it out, to a Toledo auto-industry supplier. Which, as it turned out, didn't have the ability, either.

It was an horrific mess for the company - and the low quality of the 1961-62 Ramblers, probably, more than anything, was what doomed the company. People, including my old man, bought once, and never again. Later, as a twentysomething, I had a couple of AMC cars, well-used, and while they were crude and no driver's cars (a Gremlin and a Postal Jeep) they were reliable as winter beaters.

Aluminum was used in the engine because the AMC six, as designed, was SO...MASSIVE. When they went back to cast-iron, keeping the OHC design, the weight of that thing was over 600 pounds - one of the heaviest non-truck six-cylinder engines ever made.

FWIW, that engine, redone in iron, later became known as the Jeep 4.0 six. Lasted until 2006, made under Chrysler. That is impressive - used in cars, then adapted to Jeep vehicles (as an afterthought) then updated with fuel injection (to meet emissions) and proving so durable that even Daimler-Benz didn't want to discontinue it for Jeeps, until the latest emissions standards forced it.

Speaking of old 6 cylinders, Scotty just told us that Mazda is bringing back the inline 6 with rear wheel drive in 2023 iirc ...
Yep, here it is: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32109038/mazda-6-rwd-confirmed-2022/


Next-Gen Mazda 6 Switching to RWD Layout, Inline-Six Power
Slated to arrive in 2022, the new mid-size sedan will kick Mazda's upmarket ambitions into high gear

 

[Silver]

...VW's air-cooled engine had an aluminum crankcase (cylinder jugs were separate and cast iron)

VW Beetles had magnesium crankcases (with aluminum):

 

[newmisty]

I'm telling ya, Scotty's a National Treasure.

 

[Irons]

Driving the old girl last weekend I noticed a slight hum, vibration between 30 and 45 MPH. Of course it got louder the more I drove and kept trying to tell myself I wasn't hearing anything. Jacked the back end up and put it in neutral and I got just a little play in the rear U-joint. That's all it takes, any play and you'll get noise like that. I have been driving this truck for so long when anything changes I'm in tune to it pretty quickly.

S10 ZR2's are notoriously hard on U-joints. GM compensated for the factory lift kit on the front end CV Joints pretty well but not so much with the drive shaft. I got it out and I'll drop it off at Tim's on the way to work today and pick it up later this week.


.

 

[michael59]

'85 to '86 rangers have that problem. What I found out is when I pulled the drive shaft the caps of the U-joint fit very loosely so I went on a driveline hunt. Of all the junk yards I pulled drivelines and they all were wobbled out. So, your guy might need to find a new one/yolk than fits nicely and weld it to your currant driveline. In rangers this wear always seems to be at the pinion, IDK why but it is.

 

[specsaregood]

This weekend in "Daddy homeschool" my 9yr old learned how to change the oil, replace a headlamp, and refill the washer fluid in his moms car.
Got a quiz worked up to give him tomorrow to see how much he remembers.