Wing Nut OOA
01-04-2011, 15:46
so i get up this morning and pop the hood on the truck (95 GMC K2500, 6.5TD) to investigate some rattling going on in there somewhere.
i finally spot a pully wobbling around a little. much to my chagrin its underneath the A/C compressor. its the vacuum pump.
so i get that thing pulled out and dis assembled as far as possible and look up a new one...cheapest was 75$ from rockauto.
next was to take Jana to work since her ride was decommissioned. so we get out to cool springs mall and i hear a "honking" type of sqwak coming from the engine bay. crikey.
so now i am going to have to get an idler for the jeep too... my day keeps getting better and better...(a bit of foreshadowing there...)
well i have to beat feet back home to meet the landlord, and as soon as i get off the freeway i can tell its turned from a honkysquawk to a full on rattleknock.
pull in the driveway and narrow it down to the alternator.
damn...
price one of those out and its more money than the vacuum pump.
so i try a couple different parts houses and after being on hold for a collective 10 minutes i said screw it and i jumped in the jeep and headed over to VatoZone.
95+core for an alternator. not as bad as i had anticipated so i ask for him to look up the vacuum pump. aint got it.
well i figured one of the other two parts places close by may have a vacuum pump and or a cheaper alternator.
jump in the jeep fire it up and voila! no more rattleknock! full on screechyhowl. Time of Death: 4:10PM 1/3/10, definitely not driving home like this...
at this point spending my money on a vacuum pump for the truck is completely out of the question.
call o'reilly and they tell me they've got an alternator for 63$....or 75$...or 79$.... OR 89!!!
so there's different amperages...never heard of that before but oh well. pull off the alternator in the parking lot of the strip mall i was in and walk it over to o'reilly 3 blocks away.
lady looks it up, only ONE option and its out of stock... WTF? so then she says the guy i talked to, pulled up alternators for a grand cherokee with a V8.
so i get a quote for the 84.99 xj alternator and walk my ass back to vatozone.
wait in there for 20 minutes while the last bit of sun goes down and they match the quote from o'reilly. first good news.
pull out the trusty MAGLITE and get to work reinstalling. went pretty smoothly i must say.
almost done... lady walks up and asks if i work on cars. "yeah sort of..."
her car wont start across the street at the citgo and it won't jump start either.
okay so i tell her i've got a couple minutes worth of work left to do and i'd drive over (needed gas anyways)
first thing is first obviously and i check the cables.
loose side post. pull it off, wire brush, tighten it back up, and i am the alpha and omega, incarnate.
she says she has no money so i just tell her to pay it forward and go on my way.
The end.
epilogue. i deserved some whiskey so i stopped for it on the way home.
Day 2 of tales for the vacuum pump.
i have enough gas to take my girlfriend to work, but not enough to get home.
i only have 30 bucks...
10 in the tank and home i go. head to the parts house and see if they've got a pulley removal/installation tool.
sweet. they've got it.
but it's 32.99 to rent.
parts guy is pretty cool so he decides to give it to me under his name and it brings the price down to 26...not enough cashish.
he says wait here. goes back and grabs a couple wrenches and lets me pull the pulley off right there on the counter. sweet.
so i get home and start taking the rest of the pump apart trying to get down to the bearings. after much pain and anguish i get it disassembled and wiped down enough you can read all of the numbers on the bearings.
lucky for me (...HAH!...) the center bearing is still good. so i'm only looking at the cam bearing and the bearing and seal on the pulley side of the equation.
so i head on over to the bearing store and get a little happier when he pulls out a catalog with the name torrington on it...or some variation of that...same name thats on my bearing! may catch a break here.
he looks and looks and looks. they've discontinued that style of needle bearing. or more in depth, Timkin buys Torrington and a bunch of other companies, sells off torrington to Koyo, but Koyo doesn't bring everything with them. namely the needle bearings i need.
says he can sell me the other bearing and the seal but the seal won't be high temp...and after further inspection of the cam shaft, the time it had been running with only the center needle bearing carrying any load, had worn a lumpy groove in the center of it.
so even if i got both bearings and the seal it would be like a bandaide on a broken arm.
or superglueing a wing onto a 747. it may work for a little while...
flash forward to me sitting at my labtop, after calling around to the local parts houses, trying to find the cheapest vacuum pump, knowing full well i can't order it untill i run my two karaoke shows tomorrow and friday nights...
other than that....anyone have any advice? :)
i finally spot a pully wobbling around a little. much to my chagrin its underneath the A/C compressor. its the vacuum pump.
so i get that thing pulled out and dis assembled as far as possible and look up a new one...cheapest was 75$ from rockauto.
next was to take Jana to work since her ride was decommissioned. so we get out to cool springs mall and i hear a "honking" type of sqwak coming from the engine bay. crikey.
so now i am going to have to get an idler for the jeep too... my day keeps getting better and better...(a bit of foreshadowing there...)
well i have to beat feet back home to meet the landlord, and as soon as i get off the freeway i can tell its turned from a honkysquawk to a full on rattleknock.
pull in the driveway and narrow it down to the alternator.
damn...
price one of those out and its more money than the vacuum pump.
so i try a couple different parts houses and after being on hold for a collective 10 minutes i said screw it and i jumped in the jeep and headed over to VatoZone.
95+core for an alternator. not as bad as i had anticipated so i ask for him to look up the vacuum pump. aint got it.
well i figured one of the other two parts places close by may have a vacuum pump and or a cheaper alternator.
jump in the jeep fire it up and voila! no more rattleknock! full on screechyhowl. Time of Death: 4:10PM 1/3/10, definitely not driving home like this...
at this point spending my money on a vacuum pump for the truck is completely out of the question.
call o'reilly and they tell me they've got an alternator for 63$....or 75$...or 79$.... OR 89!!!
so there's different amperages...never heard of that before but oh well. pull off the alternator in the parking lot of the strip mall i was in and walk it over to o'reilly 3 blocks away.
lady looks it up, only ONE option and its out of stock... WTF? so then she says the guy i talked to, pulled up alternators for a grand cherokee with a V8.
so i get a quote for the 84.99 xj alternator and walk my ass back to vatozone.
wait in there for 20 minutes while the last bit of sun goes down and they match the quote from o'reilly. first good news.
pull out the trusty MAGLITE and get to work reinstalling. went pretty smoothly i must say.
almost done... lady walks up and asks if i work on cars. "yeah sort of..."
her car wont start across the street at the citgo and it won't jump start either.
okay so i tell her i've got a couple minutes worth of work left to do and i'd drive over (needed gas anyways)
first thing is first obviously and i check the cables.
loose side post. pull it off, wire brush, tighten it back up, and i am the alpha and omega, incarnate.
she says she has no money so i just tell her to pay it forward and go on my way.
The end.
epilogue. i deserved some whiskey so i stopped for it on the way home.
Day 2 of tales for the vacuum pump.
i have enough gas to take my girlfriend to work, but not enough to get home.
i only have 30 bucks...
10 in the tank and home i go. head to the parts house and see if they've got a pulley removal/installation tool.
sweet. they've got it.
but it's 32.99 to rent.
parts guy is pretty cool so he decides to give it to me under his name and it brings the price down to 26...not enough cashish.
he says wait here. goes back and grabs a couple wrenches and lets me pull the pulley off right there on the counter. sweet.
so i get home and start taking the rest of the pump apart trying to get down to the bearings. after much pain and anguish i get it disassembled and wiped down enough you can read all of the numbers on the bearings.
lucky for me (...HAH!...) the center bearing is still good. so i'm only looking at the cam bearing and the bearing and seal on the pulley side of the equation.
so i head on over to the bearing store and get a little happier when he pulls out a catalog with the name torrington on it...or some variation of that...same name thats on my bearing! may catch a break here.
he looks and looks and looks. they've discontinued that style of needle bearing. or more in depth, Timkin buys Torrington and a bunch of other companies, sells off torrington to Koyo, but Koyo doesn't bring everything with them. namely the needle bearings i need.
says he can sell me the other bearing and the seal but the seal won't be high temp...and after further inspection of the cam shaft, the time it had been running with only the center needle bearing carrying any load, had worn a lumpy groove in the center of it.
so even if i got both bearings and the seal it would be like a bandaide on a broken arm.
or superglueing a wing onto a 747. it may work for a little while...
flash forward to me sitting at my labtop, after calling around to the local parts houses, trying to find the cheapest vacuum pump, knowing full well i can't order it untill i run my two karaoke shows tomorrow and friday nights...
other than that....anyone have any advice? :)