Today was the day and I'm pleased to say it was indeed the water pump that was the source of my leak.

Had to replace the little plastic "Y" fitting for the hoses. Luckily my FLAPS had a replacement from Dorman.

I had a new thermostat but the old looked pretty good and was stubborn coming out so I just left it and just put a new o-ring gasket on. Why fight city hall?

I also learned a new trick clamping a vice grip on the wp pulley to help get the fan clutch off.

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^^ Good to see that old "Craftsperson" ratchets can still perform. Nice going, Baz.

Nice work Baz. I think I have the same ratchet and vise grips out in my tool box.

Thanks, guys......my local FLAPS saved my bacon today with that "Y" connector! ;)

Yeah, that 'Y' connector really was impressive.

Hey Baz, how about a pic of your Volvo's headliner?
How'd it turn out?

Here's a pic of a similar locomotive like I posted I was working on earlier.
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Nice looking locomotive, Scott.

I don't have any pics of the new headliner inside the car, but here it is just before they installed it...
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So just flip the photo and here's what it'd look like inside the car! :)
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Thanks Baz!

Somebody please 'splain FLAPS to me...an auto parts chain I'm not familiar with? My local NAPA is often my first stop...has been for decades.

Favorite local
auto parts store SmileWavy

Friendly
Local
Auto
Parts
Store

NAPA is good stuff - and so - they are your FLAPS! :)

The name FLAPS always makes me giggle.

Thanks guys....I do like my local NAPA FLAPS. They even have individual nuts/bolts bins. Maybe a bit higher prices than Autozone or O'Reileys...the other two in this small town, but wider selection, better quality, better (more knowledgeable) counter guys. Long time customer...still have new britain (USA made) tools I bought there decades ago...their current Carlyle line (Taiwan made) seems well made.

My local NAPA is a warehouse location, and the training center for new parts counter folks. So when getting parts, they have the warehouse right there and have most parts in stock and the other NAPA stores get their supplies from that warehouse. The bad news is most of the time I seem to get the trainee counter person or the fresh graduate that is a new employee. All the experienced counter employees move on to regular stores.

Their classrooms are in an attached building so the parking lot is always full of cars.

I had a lot of fun last week working on the El Camino. I noticed the AC was not working at all, and started investigating. No compressor compressing anything so no cold air. Rats.

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I was hoping for a simple solution, but no luck. The refrigerant had all leaked out, that is the first time in 31 years and 378,000 miles it all just leaked out. So I pulled the orifice tube, and it was pretty bad and had metal pieces on it. Crap.

I put in a clean orifice tube (they are about 4 bucks) and sealed it up, and pressurized with nitrogen to 120 PSI and looked for leaks.

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This is a single frame from a video I shot of the back of the compressor and this is a port that is only used in the rebuild of the compressor, and it was leaking. Not a good sign. Dead compressor. It was 11 years old and noisy as heck, so not a major surprise, but it failed totally.

OK, now I "get" to just go ahead and have two new hoses made as they were kinda old and tired. Get a new R4 compressor, flush the heck out of the condenser, replace the accumulator, new o-rings, and pull a vacuum. I can get down to 200 microns, but if I turn off the vacuum pump it starts to rapidly climb. Hmmm. Another slow leak hiding from me.

I spend a day squirting the lines and parts of the system with soapy water with the system pressurized with 120 PSI of nitrogen. I even had to go swap my nitrogen bottle with a full one as I used up my nitrogen supply.

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Finally I removed the connection to the high side to eliminate that as a source and it held pressure and a vacuum. So it came down to this little adapter. All I can figure is the designers of the AC system made the high side fitting something that was not a standard AC hose fitting to prevent stupid people from trying to add refrigerant to the high side. To hook up the hose, I have to use the adapter. This one has a swivel, and when I looked real close, soapy water bubbled out at 120 PSI. Ah ha, the leak was found! I will try to find one that does not leak.

So I pulled a vacuum, purged one more time with nitrogen, pulled a vacuum until I was down to 190 microns, and let it sit overnight. In the morning it was at 208 microns. I hooked back up the adapter and pulled a vacuum to 200 microns again, and charged it up. I figure I lost a tiny amount of charge from that adapter, but it was a very small amount.

The new compressor is a ton quieter. I will have to wait until a HOT day to do a final charge, but the AC blows cold again. Not hard to do when it is just 70 degrees.

With a new accumulator, new orifice tube, three purges with nitrogen, and a 200 micron vacuum, I have the moisture out, and all should be good.

After some rains and winds looks like we'll be fixing a fence soon.
Fortunately it was my neighbors 50 foot trees/mess that landed in his yard.
Lucky for once they did not fall on my garage. :)
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Having to lay new power cables to the pump house at the Armadillo Ranch. When my dad put it in 45 years ago he just ran direct burial cable in the same trench as the water pipe. Somehow one of of the 120 lines shorted out to the neutral line. So I put new lines in PVC conduit and buried that. I blame the pocket gophers.
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The trees that fell over were your neighbors? And the fence yours?

And the trees fell on his property?

If so, why are his trees on your side of your fence, Ted?

Started thinking about flares on the front of the 330. Because I used the plastic fender extensions, I cut back a lot of sheet metal. I bought two front fenders to start fresh and this will work out better.

I’m debating between two methods, one is to make a cut behind the fender lip and pull it out. Then fill in with metal.

The other is to cut the fender lip off and extend with the premade flares. This method would help match the rear, but I don’t need as much.

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30 years ago the neighbor planted the trees on our side of fence.
That was a few years before we moved in and built the garage.
I don't mind a 10 foot tall hedge but these giant Cypress trees have been shedding limbs and falling over for years, they are all gone now. :)