Ah...ezy outs....G

Yes, they have worked for me in the past, just, not when i really needed them too. My bleeder valve on the left hand caliper was kind enough to sieze off clean with the caliper for me a few months back. My car was booked in for a tailshaft balance the next day...which i ended up cancelling.

BUT anyway, on with the confession, after cursing and swearing my head off as i had no other transport, my parents had gone out, i had to choose between waiting till tomorrow or ezy outing it. I tried ezy out, only to have it sheer off as well. The next day i took it to get machined at a brake place and instead of taking 15 minutes for a drill and new seat tapped into it. It took 5 fricken hours!


GR TO EZY OUTS.

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78' 200B. 5 speed, extractors, 2 1/2" exhaust, 32/36 weber, 14" mags, Elec ign, Redlands motor. Slowly Pulling parts off while still driving around. Tree unfortunately signed its death cert.

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Myself, well a complete lack of knowledge of automatic transmissions didn't stop me from converting my brother's 260Z from auto to manual. Never having had an auto, I had trouble finding the plug to drain the transmission fluid before removing the auto box.

So, figured I'd quickly whip the tailshaft out and replace it with the front yoke of the manual box that came with the jap-import manual box, thus hopefully only loosing a bit of trans fluid that I'd catch in a pan. Worked really well too.

Then I unbolted the auto, pulled it rearwards and was flooded with transmission fluid as soon as the input shaft bit pulled out of the torque converter. Was still living at parent's place (who were on hols at the time), with a REALLY steep drive. After we put it back together, it was raining and we tried to get it up the wet driveway, with the tyres covered in transmission fluid. As soon as the drive got steep, WHEELSPIN !!!!. Slammed the brakes on and proceeded to slide backwards with all 4 wheels locked down the drive and into the side of the garage.

After much scrubbing and cleaning with all manner of soaps, we finally got it up the drive. Also discovered that day what happens when you apply an oxy torch to concrete to try to burn the trans fluid out of it. BANG !!!!! bits of concrete explode and fly into your eye.

When dear old Mum and Dad arrived home, we had to explain why there where big black skid marks up the driveway, the garage floor had burn marks all over it, and was incredibly slippery whenever it got wet.

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1970 ex Group A Rally P510
1971 P510
1972 180B SSS
1965 SP310 Fairlady
1966 SP311 Fairlady

haha thats classic dave, i bet your folks were impressed with their driveway!!

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- 1972 Datsun 1600 S15 SR20DET

Okay, forgive me Father Neil, for I have sinned, too....

Yep, I've done the long water pump bolt thing, too.
And I've fitted a Mazda distributor up without first tightening the drive gear nut. (A variable timing mod!)
Lost 3 out of 5 wheelnuts on one of my Trana's wheels while driving along.
Drained the oil from my 260Z's gearbox without first undoing the filler plug only to find it seized and rounded...
Connected a water hose to a vacuum port on my first set of SUs...
Left a pair of locking pliers locked on to a tie rod while the car went out for Qualifying...
Driven to Ballarat and back with 2 spanners on the little shelf on the passengers' side of the engine bay...
Dropped an L18 on my hand which was resting on the LHS guard of my green 16, leaving a beautiful impression of four of my fingers in the top of the guard...
Chased a driverless car down my driveway...
And driven a Morris Major Elite.

I REPENT!

Cheers,

_________________
Chris [;-{)>

As a flaggie, Chris, excuse me while I LOL... Did said pliers survive?

And Dave, that's pure Gold...

Ok my one?

Somehow managed to leave the oil filler cap off my old Corolla after an oil change, then driving to school the next day and wondering why I had no oil pressure and an oil line behind me...And oil all over the engine bay, dammit...

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1971 1600, L20b, 5 Speed Dogleg Box, R180 open Diff, 32/36 DVAG Weber soon to be Improved Production Car. My First Datto. And will get developed...

Miracles do happen. Glenn McGrath making 61 is evidence of that...

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Chris G .... now thats more like a confession! (not that I'd really know!)- bless you son!

but
Isn't that what vice-grips are for? One of the great tools of all time (for a bolt-butcher anyway), I don't care what anyone says!! To my reckoning, vice grips have a 'toolability index' in the 90's, as opposed to say, your ezy-outs that struggle to about 2.....

Still, I guess you probably tried them.... maybe they just don't make them big enough. I know of only two sizes: peewee, and normal. There must be an imaginitive Taiwanese manufacturer out there looking to make an impact. What better way than a big-daddy vice-grip capable of tearing the rounded top right off that frozen filler plug


Cheers, Neil.

Ah the mention of an old Corolla brings back fond memories of our old one.... Now i have already posted this story (here) but I think it is worthy of a cross-post into this thread....

My old 76' Corolla never had a working fuel gague, so I was regularly running out of fuel in the most inconvenient areas. Because of this I carried a small can of fuel in the boot just for these occasions. I often found that if I didn't tip some fuel down the throat of the carbie before trying to start her up again that the battery would go flat whilst waiting for the new fuel to pump down the fuel line.

So this one time I tipped some fuel down the carbie and spilt a bit on the air filter - I thought no problem it will evaporate fairly quikly once I get it going. So I kick her over and she backfires through the carbie... setting the fuel and air filter on fire! Turn off ignition, run to the boot where I also kept several 2 litre coke bottles full of water (for the radiator), grabbed a bottle and tipped it down the carbie..... cleeeevvverrrrr booooy! The fire went out with practically no damage, but now I had a carby full of water!

Called the NRMA, he connected up jumper leads to my battery and we turn the engine over untill all the water is pumped out - he then used some special aerosol spray (I forget what it is called) to spray into the carby until the engine kicked over - then I could drive it home.... 4 hours late

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My Zeds

hahaha, great story Dave

Reminds me of when I picked up a free Mazda 1500 for my sister in about 2001. Just needed a new motor on a tight budget, no worries! I respected my skills and decided to leave the automatic in the car while I changed over the motor. All was going well, got old motor out pretty easily, no major troubles at all.
Then I went to bolt in the old one, bolted the big UFO thing (torque convertor) to the flex plate and away we go, drop it back in, bolt it up, connect up the fuel and spark then go to crank it over.. nup it won't even crank.. solenoid is working though, I canhear it go 'click'. Change over the starter motor for a spare... Same problem....
Scratched my head for a while, asked a few people. Turns out you have to bolt the torque converter on AFTER you fit the torque converter to the gearbox input shaft. D'oh!!!
Then I had to pull out the gearbox! The very thing I didn't want to do.. Fortunately old cars are nice and simple so a few hours later it was out and in the front of my Renault for a $200 repair of the front pump that came out of my own pocket!!
When I got it back I bolted it back in, plugged up hydraulic lines and went for a drive up the street. the auto was shifting all over the place, the engine was revving and I was dreading pulling it out again. Then after turning around I noticed a huge trail of new auto trans fluid up the street!
so I tightened up the trans oil cooler lines and it ran great!!
And that is still everything I know about automatic transmissions!

Noz, they were actually still locked on the tie-rod when the car came in after qualifying! I hadn't noticed they were missing until then.

And yes Neil, they were vise-grips!

From the Dime Quartely's Guide to Proper Tool Usage:

"VICE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand. "

"E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit. "

Cheers,

_________________
Chris [;-{)>

Ah hahahahahaha, pure GOLD!

STICKY!!!

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Classic Auto Fabrications:
http://www.ozdat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=31659

http://www.lescollinsracing.com/

As we speak, I'm sitting here nursing two burn marks just below the knee, courtesy of the big pincher-shaped vice-grips I'd just removed after tack-welding a patch in and dropped on the floor while I finished fully-welding the patch (which meant kneeling down, right onto said vice-grips)

Another confession - I once ran out of fuel just after taking off from a slighty-uphill set of traffic lights on a REALLY busy street. There was a park not far ahead of where I stopped, so rather than push the car uphill, I thought I'd "drive" it by putting it in first gear and using the battery (via the starter motor) to supply power.

End result - one stuffed starter motor and flywheel (ruined the ringgear). But hey, I got it off the street

And finally, another painful one. I was stripping paint off the side of the rear quarter, and taking all the neccessary precautions (glasses, rubber gloves, and a big sheet of plastic to scrape the mess onto.)

I'd done most of the 1/4 panel and only had the very bottom to scrape off, which unfortunately also meant squatting down. Very soon, I felt a burning sensation around the rear-end / genital region. Yep, I'd squatted down a bit close to a pile of freshly scraped-off paint stripper / paint gunge which was now soaking through my shorts. Only those that know the sting of paint stripper on hands, etc, can imagine the feeling by the time I'd run from the garage to the house, stripped off and jumped into the shower.

All I can say is I'm glad I have an office job. I'd kill myself if I were in the trade.

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1970 ex Group A Rally P510
1971 P510
1972 180B SSS
1965 SP310 Fairlady
1966 SP311 Fairlady

Dave and I were talking about this one at the last pizza....

When pulling a steering wheel off try to avoid your forehead....

I have to admit to hitting myself (on more than one occasion) in the head with the steering wheel when trying to remove it. I think there was a story a while ago on the ozdat email list of someone who actually knocked themself out by trying to remove one.

I've done many other stupid things, just cant think of them now... probably has to do with the steering wheel injuries.

Great post, keep em coming!

_________________

I just leave the nut on (only a few turns) so that when the steering wheel finally lets go, it only goes as far as the loosened off nut.

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http://www.fifthgear.com.au - Get the Driver's Edge

Ran a whole khanacross with a fuel-pump earth wire vice-gripped on...
Only discovered it when I got home - and it wasn't like the vice grips were tucked up out of the way or anything - they were hanging waaay down in the breeze.

I dont know if Tim (usually Group3JDatsun) is a member here, but his story of the wasps in his rear crossy's pure gold.

So with apologies to Tim here we go:

At one stage I was working 2 jobs to try and fund the car. The trade off to this was that I didn't have much chance to work on the car, so it sat for a couple of months untouched. Eventually I left one of the jobs, freeing up some time to get back into the car. At this stage I decided to modify the rear crossmember.

After jacking up the car, I climbed under the car to assess how I was going to tackle the task. As I got closer to the crossmember (having climbed under behind the front wheel), it appeared to be buzzing. Buzzing?? I climbed a bit closer and suddenly noticed a wasp climb out and fly away. Not being sure as to if it was just one wasp or a number of them, I climbed out from under the car and found a hammer. Bending down and giving the crossmember a gentle tap it began buzzing again, although now more intensely.

Not being very keen to try and pull out a crossmember doubling as a wasps nest, I needed to figure a way to get rid of them. I went back in the shed and had a look at the back of a can of flyspray. The can listed the spray as being effective against wasps. I went back to the car, layed down and found a convient hole in the crossmember near where the buzzing was coming from. I opened up the can and let it go for a good 30 seconds. When I stopped the wasps went utterly insane!!! I moved away from the car and waited. After a minute or two, there was no reduction in the amount of activity in the crossmember - so being the impatient type I decided to take another course of action.

Going back to the shed I grabbed the butane blow torch, lit it up and headed back for the car, intent on burning them out. I was successful well beyond my expectations. There was obviously still alot of flyspray suspended in the air inside the crossmember and as soon as I put the naked flame near it, it ignited. It caused an explosion big enough to leave me temporarily deaf and rock the car on it's chassis stands. As I instinctivly retreated away from the car (I only had my arm under there) I saw flame exiting every hole along the crossmember. My parents who were inside the house - a good 20 meters away - came running down to the garage thinking I had blown up the fuel tank.

I decided to have a break for an hour or two to ensure I was going to think things through a bit better.....

_________________
1971 1600, L20b, 5 Speed Dogleg Box, R180 open Diff, 32/36 DVAG Weber soon to be Improved Production Car. My First Datto. And will get developed...

Miracles do happen. Glenn McGrath making 61 is evidence of that...

Recommended traders: Shakes, DAZDA