Feels good... Should have started sooner

It really does feel good to be getting things done on the car again.  Extremely satisfying when my projects turn out to work!

Got my service cart last week.  Works great and is now full of tools and parts.

As for all my routine service on the car, done!

• Power steering fluid change and leak fix, check!
• Removal of the transmission cooler filter, check!
• Flush coolant, check!
• Install stainless steel flex lower radiator hose, check!
• Clean all chassis ground contact and install new grounding straps, check!
• Change engine oil and filter, check!
• Fix power steering pulley alignment, check

The power steering fluid leak appears to be on the fitting for the output side of the rack-and-pinion hose.  It seems that it's leaking because I was not able to tighten the fitting around the hose enough.  Since these are high pressure SS braided Teflon hoses, the fittings do not swivel.  In order to get the fittings aligned properly I had to install the final fitting with the hose installed.  I could probably mark the alignment, take the hose off, and tighten it outside the car but I'd lose all the fluid I just put in (Royal Purple is freaking expensive).  As I tighten the fitting around the hose, it twists and ends up causing the hose bend strangely.  So I just tightened it up and fixed the twist by changing how the hose was routed.

The stainless steel flex radiator hose was kind of a pain to get on, but in the end, a little easier than I'd assumed.  First, I used a flapper wheel to enlarge the opening of the hose end covers.  They wouldn't fit over the lip of the water pump or radiator ports.  Then I trimmed the tubing to the right length.  Finally, I soaked the couplers in boiling water for a while to make them softer.  I ended up having to put a little dish soap around the outside of the ports, but with lots of awkward angle pushing and some cut up hands, I got the couplers, covers, and tubing in place.

You're probably wondering if it was worth removing a perfectly good hose and putting in this expensive stainless steel one that was a pain to put in.  To be honest, I'm not sure.  It gained me extra clearance between the spreader bar and hose as well as between the hose and serpentine belt.  There's also less of a chance of rupturing the hose.  Only the couplers are susceptible to rupture and they are covered with aluminum hose ends.  One top of that this new hose does look cooler than a normal hose.

The cleaning of the chassis grounds and getting new body grounding straps had a great result.  The car now starts immediately with a single pump of the gas pedal.  It freaking scared me the first time I turned the engine over.  I was expecting to hold the key for a while and pump the pedal.  This also appears to have fixed my rough idle.  I was having to double foot it previously to keep my RPMs up, but not any more!

As for the pulley squeal...  gone!  My diagnostic using the water lubricant trick was correct in showing it was the power steering pulley.  A shop used some tools and said it was an idler...  I thought they were wrong, but replaced the idler anyway and the problem did not go away.  I pushed the pulley on the power steering pump just a little more and all the belt squeal was gone.  The car is no longer embarrassing to drive...

The final thing I looked at was the blinkers.  They would not work with the headlights on.  I had posted to some forums about this and the responses thought I had bad grounds, so I tested all of them.  Every ground I tested was good.  So then I examined the wiring schematic some more.  I noticed one of my parking lights wasn't coming on.  Took a look at that and discovered a bent pin in the connector.  Then I decided to give regular bulbs a try to see what would happen.  I couldn't explain the problem from the wiring, but I had swapped in LEDs and an electronic flasher.  Sure enough, the blinkers started working.  After trying different combinations of LEDs and standard lights I'm now running with a standard flasher and normal front and rear bulbs.  All my side markers are LED.  I ordered a couple different flasher modules to see if I could get the LEDs to work right without adding load resistors (last resort).  I also tried a different style LED tail light, and the interesting thing was that it flashed at a different rate than the old LEDs even though it was connected to the same circuits.


My son really want to help daddy "fix blue car".  So I let him get tools off the cart, get paper towels, and handle the empty oils bottles.  He liked it.  This afternoon I took him out to the grocery store in it as a quick test.  It was the first time after all these changes that the car had moved.  We had no problems at all!  No signs of leaking, no overheating, no smoke, nothing...  I should have done this stuff at beginning of summer!