Spoiled rotten

That’s what I became working as a wrench many years ago (MANY MANY years ago)

Here I am pulling an engine block under the shade-tree and cussing because I don’t have a lift, or tall-boy jacks, or a hoist (Will be using a backhoe,, LOL) Just hand tools and the portable Impact driver.

Cussing!!! Especially soon, when it comes time to get to those bellhousing bolts,,, Shits tight under there, and working the while on me back,,,,,

Spoiled me those lifts did, spoiled me rotten. Even when I was into my X/1-9 stage, I had lifts available, and that made working on those little Italian nightmares ‘breezy’. Especially when I was custom bending the exhaust work for my last version,,,, No back breaking up, down, crawl on back, wiggle this, waggle that,,, I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about the shade=tree style versus the ‘tricked out’ shop,,,,

‘S’a’ight though,,, Making headway, and down to a long block at this point, just needs separated from the transmission and the engine mounts, then I can pull it easy (or as easy as directing a backhoe while using pry bars can be.) (Note: I will not be fixing the windshield until well after the backhoe is out of the picture. Don’t want to F up another windshield.) (windshield busted when I had my unplanned off-roading adventure.)

Ok, a little PSA for y’all. Dawn Powerwash: Kickass degreaser for grubby paws. burns like the dickens on busted knucks, but gets ALL the grit and grime with only needing a nailbrush for the nooks and crannies. Accidental discovery due to it being the only thing at the sink when I scrubbed up. ( I may wrench, but I like clean front feet.)

Could have gone further tonight, but rain is threatening and I have no desire to rush my tools back into the box. When I start pulling Buffalo’s block, it will be under the carport and the only thing that will stop me from working then is “Can’t” as in ‘can’t flippin SEE’. (we has worklights, so it will be ‘can’t see straight‘) I want that truck down as short a time as possible. No week long surgery in her future if I can help it, dammit.

And why the rush? She started doing this ‘hiccough’ thing recently, and I have felt it before in another truck. The bearings around the camshaft/drive gear for the distributor are going. The distributor wobbles and all sorts of misfires happen and that leads to other things getting stressed and breaking,.. The ‘new’ block has 100k less miles on it,,,May not be perfect, but anyone that has owned an s-10 series truck will tell you that 150k is merely break in for these engines. Buff passed the 300k mark recently and I can feel the wear: she doesn’t have the ‘Oomph’ that a 4.3 is known for these days.

k, enuff ramblin’,,, shower time and foodies for the grumpy ol fart, and then kittehs are lined up waiting for head/ear rubs,,,,I must properly adore my feline masters or bad things forbode,,,,