Sometimes it's not the little things
It's the big things .. like a 8500 lb 3/4 ton F250 pickup.
My 944 is finally done done at Behe's. New motor broken in and tuned on the dyno. Friday night I fueled up the F250 to get ready for an early start. It's about an hour and half run down to John's shop just north of DC. I attached the hitch and started backing up to connect to the trailer when ... WTF? my brake pedal goes to the floor. I don't remember asking anybody to bled my brakes. And what's that smell? That's brake fluid! I should know, I've coated my garage floor with it often enough.
A peek under the cab reveals a dripping mess, brake fluid covering everything. Being that it was 1. dark, 2. cold (about 35 degrees with a wind) and 3. it was in a safe location (my driveway) I decided the most prudent course of action was to head to the garage, open the cooler and remove a nice St. Ambrose Oatmeal stout from Montreal and drink a toast to Canada. Just because.
I also drank a toast - a Saranac Lakes Caramel Porter, don't want to get into a rut - to this happening in my driveway and not on I-95 pulling the trailer at 70 mph. Now that would really suck.
Once things warmed up by Sunday I crawled under for a peek. Looks like a brake line fitting or connection rusted out and let go. Since the truck is too big to get into my garage there's no way to put it up on the lift. And with something like brakes I want to have a good view of what the problem is and what my solution should be.
And the solution turned out to be using my AAA RV Plus membership (thanks honey!) and having it towed to my local truck shop while I went for a bike ride in the woods. Working on race cars, vintage cars and drinking beer is fun. Working on trucks, not so much. I know how to prioritize.
A couple more updates. The 2002 motor is ready for installation. The distributor was installed and should be close to the correct location. The rocker cover received some attention, and the webers had their linkage attached. Now all I need is the car .... but not until I get the truck back please.
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| No, I didn't buy a rollback ... |
My 944 is finally done done at Behe's. New motor broken in and tuned on the dyno. Friday night I fueled up the F250 to get ready for an early start. It's about an hour and half run down to John's shop just north of DC. I attached the hitch and started backing up to connect to the trailer when ... WTF? my brake pedal goes to the floor. I don't remember asking anybody to bled my brakes. And what's that smell? That's brake fluid! I should know, I've coated my garage floor with it often enough.
A peek under the cab reveals a dripping mess, brake fluid covering everything. Being that it was 1. dark, 2. cold (about 35 degrees with a wind) and 3. it was in a safe location (my driveway) I decided the most prudent course of action was to head to the garage, open the cooler and remove a nice St. Ambrose Oatmeal stout from Montreal and drink a toast to Canada. Just because.
I also drank a toast - a Saranac Lakes Caramel Porter, don't want to get into a rut - to this happening in my driveway and not on I-95 pulling the trailer at 70 mph. Now that would really suck.
Once things warmed up by Sunday I crawled under for a peek. Looks like a brake line fitting or connection rusted out and let go. Since the truck is too big to get into my garage there's no way to put it up on the lift. And with something like brakes I want to have a good view of what the problem is and what my solution should be.
And the solution turned out to be using my AAA RV Plus membership (thanks honey!) and having it towed to my local truck shop while I went for a bike ride in the woods. Working on race cars, vintage cars and drinking beer is fun. Working on trucks, not so much. I know how to prioritize.
A couple more updates. The 2002 motor is ready for installation. The distributor was installed and should be close to the correct location. The rocker cover received some attention, and the webers had their linkage attached. Now all I need is the car .... but not until I get the truck back please.
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| Rocker cover in progress |
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| And the final result |
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| Shot of the carb linkage setup. The bridge is a BMW part from somewhere. |
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