How to double repair time...
 

...in a little more than a second or two!!

Place air ratchet w/ deep well 10mm socket on bolt of water pump, not seeing the cross member running between the frame rails is directly behind the head of the ratchet.

Press the trigger...ZZZzzzip-THUNK! (That "THUNK" was good for four hours of work alone!)

BTW, who makes a pneumatic ratchet that does NOT have the rotation switch on the back of the ratchet head??? After last Saturday, I've been in the market for one!!:redface: )

Just thought y'all would enjoy a chuckle at my expense this morning. Have a good one!:hello:

P.

Re: How to double repair time...
 

BUMMER!

I hate it when power tools make things go to sh** faster.

Jim

Re: How to double repair time...
 

Paul,

How about the one where you drop a small socket or Allen key down into the engine valley below the plenum and can't see it? :-x

Re: How to double repair time...
 

What's the old adage? The only people who don't make mistakes are the one's who never do anything! BTDT!!

BTW, how did you finally resolve it? Saw the bolt in two? Raise the engine? (I may do the same thing someday :sign10: )

Re: How to double repair time...
 

Well...I considered a lot of things, including using the "blue wrench" to cut the socket in half. (Fortunately, I resisted that urge!) With some WD40 I was able to jerk the air ratchet up and down until I could just get the tip of a screw driver on the rotation selector thingy and turn it counter clockwise enough to at least "neutralize" the ratchet head. Then with a pair of Visegrips I was able to grip the 10mm socket and rotate it about 1/16th of a turn at a time. Of course, the rotation snapped the direction selector tab back into the "remove" (left rotation) position, requiring more horsing around with a screwdriver tip to get the selector rotated back to allow (right twist) rotation of the socket/bolt. No small task, I tell ya!

I repeated this several times over at least a couple hours until the bolt was turned in enough to produce some slack: the more the easier things progressed. Once I had a clear gap between the rotation selector tab and the cross member, I made one final check to be #$^$# sure the rotation selector tab was in the correct right turn (tighten) position, I reconnected the air line and zipped the bolt home, pulled the ratchet out and used a hand-held 1/4" drive ratchet to remove the bolt.

An hour later and I was filling my baby with coolant. At least that process went off w/o a hitch, and NO LEAKS! :thumbsup: Well, almost no hitches...now and then I get a whiff of coolant coming from the vents. I sure hope it is just my paranoia-driven imagination...Or otherwise I'll be "dash diving", and I'd rather kiss a pig than tear the dash apart!!:rolleyes:

P.

Re: How to double repair time...
 

Well paul you really don't need to remove too much on the dash:
http://vettextc.jiminees.com/Dash/removal/no-dash.jpg

http://vettextc.jiminees.com/Dash/re...engerside1.jpg

:sign10:

Re: How to double repair time...
 

Oh, lord! :jawdrop:

Re: How to double repair time...
 

:jawdrop: :???: so that's what the fire wall looks like! Oh Joy!

Paul, sorry to hear about the snafu.....but I gotta agree with Jerry. fwiw, I've done sooo many things like that on my Z I stopped counting. I just make notes in the FSM so I don't do them again!

You sure that the smell is coming from the vents?
What type of clamps are you using on the hoses, ideal type or OEM?
The ideal type do some kind of heat cycle thing and they leak vapor, that you can smell strongly from the bumper to just about the end of the door. Go further to the rear of the car and ya can't smell it.

:thumbsup:
Tom