The Captain’s (B)log

Well, my weekend is gone, but at least I have something to show for it. I finally fixed my Blue Mustang, which had been sitting around for about two months.

What was wrong with it, you ask? Well, look for yourself:

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/171/389741729_9e9a158e17_m.jpg!:http://farm1.static.flickr.com/171/389741729_9e9a158e17.jpg
The thing on the left is a fucked up harmonic balancer. The thing on the right is a brand new, shiny (figuratively speaking) harmonic balancer from “Ford Racing”:http://fordracing.com. (Try to ignore the NASCAR stuff — I couldn’t care less.)

*What happens to your car when this part goes wrong?*

Well, when your engine is running, your entire car is shaking around like it’s about to fly apart. It’s kinda scary.

*How do you fix it?*

Well, wait for a weekend where you don’t have to do anything important. You’re going to need it. Then you have to take this thing off of your engine’s crankshaft.

*How is it on there?*

It’s bolted on there.

*Is it hard to remove the bolt?*

It’s hard to remove the lugnuts from your tires if you have to take them off.

This bolt — the one holding the harmonic balancer to the crankshaft — is _impossible_ to remove. (I still can’t remember how I got mine off.) I swear to G-d, whoever designed this thing was the most evil sadist to ever live.

Did I mention that when you try and turn the bolt to loosen it, the entire engine tries to crank? Yeah. Try and figure that one out.

*Why don’t you get someone else to do it?*

Because I’d rather not pay hundreds of dollars to someone for a job that I can probably do myself.

And to tell you the truth… I _like_ doing this stuff. It’s dirty, it’s hot, your hands get banged up and bruised, you get frustrated as hell after spending hours trying to remove _one_ freakin’ bolt… but I like it.

*What’s the end result?*

You get to drive a cool car!

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/343618568_40f357ad31_m.jpg!:http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/343618568_40f357ad31.jpg
Oh, well — you can’t drive that, now can you.

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/132/343618570_58a4f885c0_m.jpg!:http://farm1.static.flickr.com/132/343618570_58a4f885c0.jpg
There, that’s better. Vroom vroom!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 20:31 and is filed under Automotive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.