BooYA!

Alright - I have been busy getting things up for school and the kids starting hockey. Man it is busy! The bees have had a treatment of Formic Acid. I will take the hives apart this weekend and inspect the varoah mites. Nasty little creatures they are! I missed the last Bee Meeting - too bad as the Provincial Apiarist was in attendance. Ah well - work has to be done first.

Speaking of work/fun I was working on my new (very old) honda civic. Pic is above from the guys driveway. It was only $800 and I got it on the road liscenced and inspeted for under $1100. Al right! Then I thought I would do what every car nut on the internet forums suggested - take the timing belt off and while I am at it also do the water pump. Ya well that has turned into a circus.

So let me paint the picture for you. I am taking the timing belt off. It was going great until - oh the crankshaft bolt was stuck.

So I had to call a friend - he tried to help me but then by helping we chipped the harmonic balancer - that's not good. Call the wreckers - oh they have one - another $40 and back to work - Hmm the bolt still will not come off. Call another friend - not the first one he cost me $40! Second friend - professional Steve Redden of Exhaust Plus- he loaned me his super impact wrench - took it off in nothing flat!

Ok back on track all is good. Take off the covers and other parts and I was going to stop there and not replace the water pump but I thought - well the experts all say I should do this now because it is so hard to get in to do it later. So off comes the bolts of the water pump and it was going great until..... one bolt shears off. Beauty.

Back to the stores - get a torch - heat the bolt and it should slide out. Ok, I heat the bolt and it was going great until ..... hmm what is that smoke coming from? Oh-oh, I fried the alternator with the torch. AND the bolt would not come out!

Excuse me a minute I need to vent. @#!!@ @!#!!#.

I'll just have to take it off and replace the alternator. Hmm that's funny the alternator through bolt does not want to come off. Back to the store - get some PB blaster because a student in my grade 8 class said it works great. Hmm it works really well - all kinds of rust were melting off the bolt but it never came off.

Well - call another friend - he's got a different tool - a heavy duty Makita hammer drill that allows only hammer action with no turning. This should work - it doesn't.

So I get the inter web up and it turns out that the bolt sometimes rusts in there so bad that you have to cut the whole thing off. Out comes the grinder. Off comes the alternator. Oh ya! See ya sucka!

From September 28, 2011

Just as I was turning to go in and do some homework - it was already 9:00. I thought I would give that nasty water pump bolt a try - guess what - it came out (after a few bloody knuckles and a few curse words). So drenched in sweat and victorious I went in to have a shower and fall into bed - homework will wait until the AM

From September 28, 2011