There are just some days I wish I didn't turn wrenches

OR VietVet said:

As I have said in a couple other threads, I will be 72 in 9 days but still like to do as much of my own work as I can and I do work on neighborhood vehicles and for my American Legion and VFW.

Worked on a friend of an American Legion member's 2014 Silverado K2500HD with a Duramax. It was a simple oil change, so I thought. Has 143k miles on it.

Plenty of room to put my filter strap on and loosen it. It was on so tight, that as I am laying on my yoga mat style roll out pad, I pulled hard enough that I actually lifted the upper half of my body off the mat. I finally used my left hand on the filter wrench and my right hand grabbed the bottom of the R/F rotor and I pulled for all I was worth and it budged. I got a second grip and it budged again. 4 budges later I loosened it and drained and swapped with my preferred WIX filter, after lubing the new filter seal.

Then on to the easier drain plug, or so I thought. I had a long reach 13mm combination wrench on it and it would not budge either. Tried 2 more times with no luck. Thankfully the 6 point drain plug head was still looking good. I got a long reach Mac swivel head 3/8 ratchet with a USA Craftsman 3/8" drive short 6 point chrome socket. Pulled and felt it give. I was saying, "Finally" along with a few other choice words. Then I looked. The wall of the socket busted out. I had had enough at this point and called the owner and told her I was not responsible for however farther I went with this, She said, "Go for it". I got out my very powerful 3/8" drive Milwaukee Tool impact and Put a 13mm 3/8" drive impact socket, SK this time, and burped it a couple time and I put the wrench back on and it broke loose.

Done a few oil changes in my day but that was the tightest that I have ever seen where both were ridiculously tight. I expected stretched drain plug threads but they were ok and after draining, I installed a new Genuine GM drain plug, after checking seal surface of the pan and wiping clean. The rest of it went fine. I reset the oil life reminder and shipped it.

See pics. I told her it looks like a RMS is leaking.

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OR VietVet said:

After pouring the 10 quarts of oil in my 5 gallon container, I had to take to AZ for dumping. While in there, the female manager, that runs the whole place, asked if I would come to her place, about 4 miles from where I live, and see if I could figure out what is causing the 94 Jeep Cherokee, to crank and no start. I am going there on her day off, Tuesday, and see what I can figure out. I hope to be able to get commercial business parts costs out of this.

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89Suburban said:

You old salty dog. When you got it, use it...

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OR VietVet said:

#1-She is butt ugly and outweighs me by 40-50 lbs. #2-I love my girl unconditionally. #3-I knew someone would go there and you were 50/50 as one of them.

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OR VietVet said:

When it rains it pours though:

Over the weekend I put plugs in a rough running 98k miles 2018 Equinox and smoothed it out and cleaned the MAF and throttle bore. Then found a clogged PCV pipe and leaking vacuum pump. Parts here today and gonna fix on Thursday.

Her son in law has a 2015 Town & Country mini van with a 3.6. Surprised is not leaking oil at the oil cooler/filter housing. I did an oil change and found low on transmission fluid and set a code. Cooling lines and pan leaking. Parts on the way for replacement and refill. One of those that requires a special transmission dipstick to check the level. I got one though.

Then a 2007 Nissan Murano, that I looked at 3 weeks ago and found a severely loose rf hub bearing. His son hit a curb at slow speed. Worked up an $1800 estimate today for hub bearing, abs sensor, lower control arm, cv axle shaft and seal, rotors and pads/hdwre.

Dental appointment this morning and the dental assistant 2009 K2500 HD Silverado needs front end checked and do a transmission service as well. Gonna do all that after my last dental appt on Jan 25.

Working up pricing and availability and setting up work days took some time, after the dental appt at 8 this morning.

Then I will probably have a dead month after all that.

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