{"id":1730,"date":"2004-08-11T20:37:11","date_gmt":"2004-08-12T01:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=1730"},"modified":"2010-11-24T10:30:34","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T15:30:34","slug":"on-the-benefits-of-having-the-right-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=1730","title":{"rendered":"on the benefits of having the right tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spent 15 straight hours on Saturday putting an engine into a car, a ’90 Supra, to be precise.<\/p>\n

It’s all part of a deal I arranged late last year in order to get a 1JZ-GTE into my ’88. See, the car I was pulling the 1JZ from had already had the conversion done, but I wanted the engine in my car, so I pulled it and installed it in mine with the understanding that I would drop an engine into the donor vehicle and restore it to saleable status. Lesson no.1: When conducting a transaction that involves labor as part of the deal, be very, very sure of what you’re getting into. I won’t say that cash is always preferable, but in my case at least, I tend to bite off more than I can chew with these deals.<\/p>\n

Of course, it wasn’t just the engine that needed to go into the ’90. One of the tie rods was bent, so I swapped steering racks and wheel hubs (easier than popping off the steering knuckle ball joint, trust me). The subframe needed a little prepping, and the engine to go in itself was basically a bare long block, and needed to be dressed and bolted to its transmission before installation. This was the part that I thought was going to be much easier than it actually turned out to be.<\/p>\n

I had a spare engine and transmission lying in my garage that would serve as the donor for the needed parts on the long block to go into the ’90. This is where the first major snag came up. The long block didn’t have a pilot bearing for the transmission input shaft, and I didn’t have a pilot bearing puller for the necessary part off the donor engine. After some scrounging around, halfhearted attempt at careful prying, head scratching, and many minutes spent just staring at the rear main seal area and stewing in frustration, it was decided to just cook up a makeshift puller. Took a piece of angle iron, fired up the drill press, found a pair of suitable bolts and one arm off a small puller, and tried out the solution. After a few minutes of wrench turning, the pilot bearing popped out. I don’t have many success stories to tell involving fabrication, so I figured I’d share this one. Picture 1<\/a> 2<\/a> 3<\/a><\/p>\n

The second major snag occurred when I realized I didn’t have a clutch alignment tool either. This was a bit more straightforward and didn’t involve any fabrication, just a lot of elbow grease. Installed the clutch disk and pressure plate, but only barely tightened two bolts opposite one another on either side of the pressure plate, allowing the clutch disk to slide around somewhat. Lifted the tranny, and after several attempts, finally got the thing to slide all the way on and touch the bellhousing to the block. This step completed, my assistant and I (Joel, who was with me the whole time–kudos) slid the tranny off very quickly and carefully, and tightened down the rest of the bellhousing bolts.<\/p>\n

So we got it all done and the engine in. About halfway through the experience Joel remarked that I was a very goal-oriented person (as opposed to someone who just gives themselves a time limit for how long they’re work on something), and I couldn’t help but agree, since my one goal was to get that engine in the car, no matter how long it took that day. But through the course of those two experiences (and several others which aren’t coming to mind at the moment), we probably squandered several hours and a lot of patience… Next time I’ll be sure to have everything I need. The right tools are good for the temper, the time, and the knuckles.<\/p>\n

Had any experiences involving the absence of the right tool?<\/p>\n

Originally posted here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spent 15 straight hours on Saturday putting an engine into a car, a ’90 Supra, to be precise. It’s all part of a deal I arranged late last year in order to get a 1JZ-GTE into my ’88. See, the car I was pulling the 1JZ from had already had the conversion done, but I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1730"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1778,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions\/1778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}