I Finally Figured It Out,.....i Don't Have Bad Luck After All. I'm Just Stupid.

CarMichael Angelo

my rearend will smell so minty fresh,
15 Year Member
Nov 29, 1999
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Birmingham, al
It now very obvious to me. The last three years I've spent building my car has been plagued w/ a series of what somebody could consider bad luck. Multiple instances of having to do something over on just about every single thing I've touched would lead somebody to conclude that I am just incredibly vexed. It seemed that every modification I attempted required a degree of customization, and every single thing needed re-customizing 2,3,even 4 times over.


Really, really, bad luck.

But now, after yesterday I know for a fact,... I don't have bad luck. I'm just....

Really, really stupid.

Yesterday, I decide to help #2 with his squealing drive belt. The car has been making noise indicative of a loose slipping belt. His car is an 86 Mustang, with a 3.8 V-6. A 3.8 w/ factory air uses a manually adjusted, combo belt tensioner/Idler pulley.

So, I go out there yesterday,...examine the situation. I see the belt has pieces missing, I condemn it as part of the problem.

I go get another belt. I install that thing, adjust the tensioner, and have #2 start the car.

It's screaming bloody hell. Waaay worse than it did with the old belt.

It's gotta be the Idler pulley bearing I think next. Lets go get another.

Nope. The part is one piece, the pulley is pressed on the bracket, and cannot be simply replaced. I call Ford, and told that it is obsolete. I got no choice.

I have to modify the bracket, and replace the pulley.

I spend the rest of the day doing just that. The old pressed on bearing had to be drilled out. Then I had to find a universal replacement that had the right offset. Once that was done, I had to bush the 17mm hole down to a more manageable 3/8" so I could get a bolt through that worked. (17mm is smaller than 3/4,...and bigger than 5/8.....I had no 17 mm bolts, and I wasn't about to go downtown on a mad hunt for one of those big-assed things,.....I was already into this fiasco for several hours at this point.)

I finally get the thing built though. Brand new Idler pulley, square, and true.

I bolt the thing back on,...tighten the belt and again have #2 restart the engine.

Screamin bloody hell.

W. T. F.!!!!

I look at the driven accessories, which one of these pieces of crap has a bad bearing instead?

Then I see it.

After a whole day of cobbling together a "custom modified" Idler pulley,..........that now clearly didn't have a single freakin thing wrong with it in the first place.......I'm see the source of the screaming belt.

The smog pump has seized. That pulley isn't turning at all. The brand new belt is doing a burnout against the now stationary 6 rib pulley........

I'm an idiot.
 
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I feel your pain man, I have to remind myself all the time not to immediately assume something is the problem when troubleshooting things at work or in the garage. It's easy to do, and usually means I have to try more than one thing that I'm SURE is the cure. That said, I've learned to work slower, take my time and really examine everything before I try something... to the point where I don't get a lot done on my car quickly but I rarely have to do something more than once these days. Just slow it down some, take deep breaths, drink a beer, and the answer will present it's self.
 
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@madmike1157 if it makes you feel any better. Half my weekend was spent trying to change a self contained hub on a 04 Cadillac CTS ( father in laws) from its half shaft. The bad part was I did the passenger side in 45 mins (which was bad) and spent the next 7 hours chasing/ breaking/cussing parts because of "ease of mind" to replace both :crap:.

Well, broke 2 three prong pullers (one was robust but the threaded selection was not) :bang:, destroyed Advance T handle hub puller, heating:flame:, smacking it with a BFH:dead:, heat:flame:, Pb blaster, beer :thinking:, hammer:dead:, more beer, more cussing , a bigger BFH :chair:....all to finally get it off and find out that the bearing was fine smh. Oh and I mangled the end thread of the locking nut:dammit:.
 
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Oh the joy of overcomplicating a simple problem. It happens to the best of us. Glad you figured it out though. Imagine how annoying it would be if you were still trying to track it down.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
MIke- I spent all last weekend installing a Contour dual fan to replace the Dodge 300 dual fan, because the Contour fan was 'the fan' to have and supposedly pulled more cfm. After a day and a half of wondering why the temp on the car was shooting to 210 with the Contour fan, I reinstalled the Dodge 300 fan, Problem solved.
 
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It now very obvious to me. The last three years I've spent building my car has been plagued w/ a series of what somebody could consider bad luck. Multiple instances of having to do something over on just about every single thing I've touched would lead somebody to conclude that I am just incredibly vexed. It seemed that every modification I attempted required a degree of customization, and every single thing needed re-customizing 2,3,even 4 times over.


Really, really, bad luck.

But now, after yesterday I know for a fact,... I don't have bad luck. I'm just....

Really, really stupid.

Yesterday, I decide to help #2 with his squealing drive belt. The car has been making noise indicative of a loose slipping belt. His car is an 86 Mustang, with a 3.8 V-6. A 3.8 w/ factory air uses a manually adjusted, combo belt tensioner/Idler pulley.

So, I go out there yesterday,...examine the situation. I see the belt has pieces missing, I condemn it as part of the problem.

I go get another belt. I install that thing, adjust the tensioner, and have #2 start the car.

It's screaming bloody hell. Waaay worse than it did with the old belt.

It's gotta be the Idler pulley bearing I think next. Lets go get another.

Nope. The part is one piece, the pulley is pressed on the bracket, and cannot be simply replaced. I call Ford, and told that it is obsolete. I got no choice.

I have to modify the bracket, and replace the pulley.

I spend the rest of the day doing just that. The old pressed on bearing had to be drilled out. Then I had to find a universal replacement that had the right offset. Once that was done, I had to bush the 17mm hole down to a more manageable 3/8" so I could get a bolt through that worked. (17mm is smaller than 3/4,...and bigger than 5/8.....I had no 17 mm bolts, and I wasn't about to go downtown on a mad hunt for one of those big-assed things,.....I was already into this fiasco for several hours at this point.)

I finally get the thing built though. Brand new Idler pulley, square, and true.

I bolt the thing back on,...tighten the belt and again have #2 restart the engine.

Screamin bloody hell.

W. T. F.!!!!

I look at the driven accessories, which one of these pieces of crap has a bad bearing instead?

Then I see it.

After a whole day of cobbling together a "custom modified" Idler pulley,..........that now clearly didn't have a single freakin thing wrong with it in the first place.......I'm see the source of the screaming belt.

The smog pump has seized. That pulley isn't turning at all. The brand new belt is doing a burnout against the now stationary 6 rib pulley........

I'm an idiot.
Baahaahaahaa! I never do such dumb things as that.......:D
 
Whhhaaaaa!:eek:

You mean to tell me that other people :leghump: :poo: up just like I do!!!!


I thought it was just me in this little box with DUMBASS written in big bold neon letter across all sides of it whilst I wear a dunce cap.
:tard:
 
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MIke- I spent all last weekend installing a Contour dual fan to replace the Dodge 300 dual fan, because the Contour fan was 'the fan' to have and supposedly pulled more cfm. After a day and a half of wondering why the temp on the car was shooting to 210 with the Contour fan, I reinstalled the Dodge 300 fan, Problem solved.
Lol well now I know what to buy hahahahahaha
 
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Well it happens to everyone, this past winter we had a blizzard, so I pull the snow blower out that I had a week previously ran to make sure it was ready. Time to start clearing some two foot deep snow and the thing quits running, I give it a pull and nothing, I yank the plug to see if I got spark, and I do. So now I'm pulling the thing apart wondering what the hell, I don't see anything that screams problem so I put it back together, so now i get the cord and I'm trying it with the electric starter, absolutely nothing. So I go get the starting fluid and it starts for a moment and I'm thinking it's not getting any fuel........Yep never turned the gas on. DOH!!
 
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Admit it. You just didnt want to be like every other guy out there and replace the smog pump, or delete it. You had make it "one off" somehow, because you wouldnt dare just replace something like one of us mere Mustang guys!
 
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It's okay Mike. I've done equally stupid. With a belt, no less.

I decided awhile back that my II's V-belts were the reason it kept throwing the alternator belt. Nevermind that the damned thing has a Chevy 1-wire alternator on it, and a lot of washers spacing it to fit the bracket correctly (previous owner's idea, not mine).

So I went to the junkyard, found a 5.0 Crown Vic Wagon with a standard-rotation water pump and serpentine belts, rob all the pullies, get home, swap all of the pullies, measure for the belt, and go to install it, and the alternator is off by exactly one rib. It was still that mis-aligned with a stack of washers. At that point I said "screw it" and threw a five-rib belt on the thing, with it on the front five grooves of the alternator and the back five of the other two. No more thrown belt, but it does squeal every so slightly from time-to-time because it's still not perfectly aligned.

But... it does start a conversation every time I open the hood... "Hey! Did you know you've got the wrong belt?"
 
So this one time in band camp........ No stupid stories to tell, because most of them are not fit for the women and children that may be peering over our shoulders. Let us just say, that I've had a few moments where Darwin would have lifted a beer in toast.