Work nightmare behind me now so I can take a minute and explain what happened.
I spent some time with a brass brush and scotch brite pad cleaning up the oxidized aluminum. Also hit the power steering pump with wire wheel and wire brush.
I painted the P/S pump and water pump pulley with some POR15. P/S pump painted all the way around even the back and bottom. Made sure I got it cleaned and coated really well.
Then I removed the valve cover on drivers side and noticed my other cover is different. This one doesn’t have a PCV valve, just a nipple that connects to vacuum line.
I didn’t have a nipple or barbed fitting on hand that would work. Also my stash of grommets weren’t the right size so I spent some time and modified a grommet by slicing a little out of it so it would fit the thickness of the valve cover. Easy enough.
Then I took a PCV valve I had and cut the bottom off of it to gut it. Now it’s just a hollow valve and will allow cover to breath just like the original.
So I got the drivers side valve cover on with new FelPro gaskets. I bolted the nice coil bracket on the valve cover and then removed coils from factory bracket. Wrong bracket. The ICT brackets I have are for the small early style coils. Damn it! I should have paid more attention before doing all that first. I would have just ordered the correct valve cover and brackets to do it once. Now I’ll have to go back and change coil bracket when I get the new ones. Whatever, at least that side valve cover is done. The passenger side is the same as what I have cleaned and painted. But I’m not gonna pull coils and cover right now just to change valve cover.
At this point, it’s getting later, probably around 6:30-7 and I have to get up at 3am so I said screw cleaning the water pump, timing cover and passenger head. I just need to get the new bracket installed and the P/S pulley back on.
So, I apologize, I didn’t get any pics along the rest of the way because I was tired, pissed, sick, sore and getting progressively more aggravated by the minute. You’ll see why.
Went to put P/S pulley on and the threads inside the shaft were cruddy and rusty so I sprayed it with some brake cleaner and blew it out. Then I chased it with a 3/8-16 tap. Put my installer on and it went about an 1/8” and pulled the threads out of the shaft. I used a mirror and could see some threads still there that I didn’t hit with the tap or the installer bolt. For some reason my bottom tap was missing and my 3/8-16 thread chaser is broken so I had to cut my regular tap so it would bottom out and clean the threads. That was a *****!! You don’t want to put a lot of heat in it or it will get brittle so I used a hack saw.
I get the hole tapped and it looks good. Get installer back on and start cranking to push pulley on and it pulls all the threads out of it. At this point is when I’m ready to just pour gas on this thing and set it on fire and go to bed. I had to take the pump off again and I drilled out the shaft out which was another PITA cuz I have to hold the shaft with a pair of hog jaw pliers while trying to drill straight. Then I started tapping it for a heli-coil and the tap broke off in the shaft. It’s too late to go get another pump (9-9:30) so I spent a good hour chipping at the tap and trying to back it out with needle nose, snap ring pliers, screw driver, a big f-ing hammer, I’m beyond aggravated now.
I get it out and use another tap but went really slow, in 1/4 turn, back it out, spray it with lube, in 1/4 turn, back out and repeat until I get it threaded. Install heli-coils and try again. Install pump back onto bracket and tighten bracket.
This time it went but it wasn’t going on without a fight. By the time I got it on, put on the alternator and tensioner it was 11:15. I threw my tools on the bench and went in to eat something, shower and get in bed. Got about 2.5 hrs of sleep then off to work I went.
Came home and finished off the passenger side plugs and wires, cleaned the throttle body and MAF sensor and put the air intake back on. Bout that time I had another vehicle come in. ‘13 Ford Flex with a complaint of no heat. It was low on coolant and water pump was sleeping out weep hole. No way I’m getting into this one. It’s a 3.5 with dual overhead cam and the water pump is behind the front cover and driven off the timing chain. Book time is 14 hrs. Filled it up, bled it out and sent it on its way. No thank you.
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