Rex-O-Saurus Maintenance

[mrmad]

So spent the most of the day changing the timing belt, water pump, oil pump, adjusting the valves, and changing to Honda MTF. It started right up and as long as I don't have a puddle of oil or coolant under it tomorrow morning I guess I did all right.

I know this isn't very exciting, but I could tell my wife wasn't into sharing the experience, so thought I'd share it with you guys.

[VetteOwner]

well i had to fix the master cylynder AGAIN on my chevette. the rebuilt one that was on there before was defective and constantly caused random pedal squishyness. a new rebuilt one and walla! high and firm pedal! i must note that i HATE working on brakes...well not so much working on them but where they are theres brake fluid. i dunno its annoying its liek water that wont wipe off and it ruins paint so ya gotta be super careful not to touch the car, doorhandle sterering wheel , tools then caror lay tools on the car...

but yea i got that fixed and went for a drive tonight just to cruise and take some pics and the drivers side headlight wires are dirty and driving down a gravel road caused it to wiggle and cause a very dim headlight...

btw what caused you to change your water pump?

heres a pic.(sorry to invade your thread)

[CoyoteX]

Only working on cars this week I did was to yank the passenger seat and seatbelt hardware out of my metro, another 40lbs gone and it is no longer sitting on the bump stops again so time to cut more out of the springs next weekend

[VetteOwner]

i hope you arent riding around constantly on the bump stops...

[CoyoteX]

id love to find a decent chevette around here. I would be tempted to do something insane with it. They were really great cars.

I always ride on the bump stops because it makes driving way more fun I usually keep it slightly above the stops like maybe 1/2 inch of travel to hit them. Seems to work good and makes the car handle like it is on rails.

[mrmad]

I changed the water pump and oil pump as preventative maintenance. With 192K and unknown mileage on the timing belt, I knew it had to be changed, and I know with my luck, if I left the water pump alone, it'd start leaking a month or two later.

[GasSavers_bobski]

Originally Posted by VetteOwner

btw what caused you to change your water pump?

Originally Posted by mrmad

with my luck, if I left the water pump alone, it'd start leaking a month or two later.

Assembling some sense: The water pump is driven by the timing belt in at least '84-'05 Civics and CRXs, possibly before that. The belt is a pain to change - you have to remove the crank pulley, which is held on by a single bolt that often requires an insane amount of torque (jump-on-the-end-of-a-6-foot-pipe-slipped-over-your-breaker-bar-handle insane) to break loose, assuming you can even find a way to hold the crankshaft still. I bought a 1" drive, 1400 ft/lb impact gun from harbor freight just to deal with stubborn crank pulley bolts. Strange, since it's torque spec is only 134 ft/lbs.

[skewbe]

Good Job mrmad! That is a solid days work for those of us who don't do it everyday

[mrmad]

Originally Posted by bobski

Assembling some sense: The water pump is driven by the timing belt in at least '84-'05 Civics and CRXs, possibly before that. The belt is a pain to change - you have to remove the crank pulley, which is held on by a single bolt that often requires an insane amount of torque (jump-on-the-end-of-a-6-foot-pipe-slipped-over-your-breaker-bar-handle insane) to break loose, assuming you can even find a way to hold the crankshaft still. I bought a 1" drive, 1400 ft/lb impact gun from harbor freight just to deal with stubborn crank pulley bolts. Strange, since it's torque spec is only 134 ft/lbs.

I've yet to figure out how Honda crank pulley bolts bet so tight. I bought an electric (i.e. weak) impact driver to get the crank pulley off the Nissan I used to own. It would always break it loose. On my Integra or the CRX it doesn't even budge. My neighbor even brought over his compressor with a 1/2 drive impact to try to get my Integra's bolt off - no luck. I got a 25" breaker bar, an impact socket (it'll break a regular socket), a 5' section of pipe. To hold the crank pulley, I've been using a large chain wrench. I wrap an old section of belt over the pulley to protect it from scratching it. It is also long enough that you can rotate it into the ground so this becomes a one man job.

I weigh 175 and it's amazing how much I have to bounce on the pipe/breaker bar to get the bolt to break loose.

On a side note, the HF valve springs are unbelievably weak. I've never owned a vehicle (even the Honda CB125) that you could push the valves with your thumb. The springs look like they were taken from a ball point pen or something. I guess there's not much energy wasted opening the valves.

[VetteOwner]

ahh yea. i can see at 193K it would be a good idea to change water pumps. i thought id ask cuz i know people who change the water pump every year or so...i dont know why they do either...

yea my chevettes not too much of a pain. i do have to remove the crank pulley(we have a huge set of cannel locks that fits over the pulley and a 1/2" drive 2ft breaker bar will get it off in no time. then its a matter of 4 bolts holdign a plastic cover on and it slides off and bam instant acces to a belt. can easily be swapped out in less than an hour. the water pump on the vette is driven off the fanbelt.

chevettes are great i must say. they look small from the outside but inside thier quite roomy. they had some facny options available too.(not to mention a desil+5speed engine option that could easily get over 50mpg)