April 29, 2013
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Hillbilly Car Repairs
So, the search for a used Dakota Crew Cab or Ram 1500 has stalled.
The most recent prospect turned out to have an odometer rollback of 80,000 to 100,000 miles, by my guess. I don't like paying for CarFax, but it just paid for itself on that one.
This leaves me with my truck, in which I just invested $500 for completely new rear brakes. Apparently, I got them fixed just before they failed completely. Praise God for His mercies.
My truck also has a small exhaust leak from the "donut seal." I had this investigated a few months ago, and our mechanic said it probably wasn't worth the money to fix it. The seal closes when the exhaust system heats up, so it's mostly noticed only on starting the engine.
For those, like me, who don't know that these things are intuitively, here's a picture:
The Exhaust Gasket (aka "Donut seal") is what connects the exhaust system piping to the engine exhaust manifold.
One would think that's not a big deal to replace: unbolt the fitting, replace the seal, and bolt it back up.
But one would be wrong if one thought that. One would have bolts rattling about in their head would one think such a thing!
No - it involves taking a torch, heating the studs until they are "glowing red" and then disassembling and so forth and so on. In short, it's about a $300 repair job by your local mechanic. Probably more like $500 from a dealer shop.
Back to my truck.
The day after my $500 brake repair, the donut seal failed completely. All the exhaust flowed around and into the cab of the truck, to the delightful sound of every piston firing, which isn't unlike a rapid-fire paintball gun. Not pleasant.
I thought it was some other hole in the exhaust, so I crawled underneath (after the truck cooled down) to take a look. I saw my donut seal close up .. and I began pondering.
One of the things I learned in the Navy (that wasn't in the recruitment literature) is how to "make it happen." That was a phrase officers used for us enlisted scum to do whatever it takes and not tell them how it was done. Carte blanche. If you're good, it can win you great favor. If you fail ... well, not so much.
I wasn't an expert - but I was pretty good. My philosophy was always "don't be further than one step away from an explanation."
But, back to the truck.
It seemed to me that all the seal needed was something to hold the pipes more tightly together. And what might do that? A clamp. And guess what, it just so happens that I do have a small C-clamp in my eclectic tool box.
So ... instead of $300 to repair the leak, I've invested about $2 to achieve this lovely feat of engineering:
@JoyousWind had a good laugh when I told her about it. She called it a "hillbilly repair job."
I call it "don't ask, don't tell" applied engineering.
We don't know what our mechanic would think, but we suspect it would elicit a wry smile from his usually concerned demeanor.
Comments (5)
Soooooo.... that thing won't shake off as you're driving along?
I had a beater ford truck, and when the tailpipe started dragging (I said beater) I used a wire handle from a discarded bucket on the side of the road. I sold it with the thing still on the truck, lol.
Your clamp idea is genious.
Hmm. I like it. Would some insulating foam help as well or is that stuff not fire proof? I hope this fix holds until the perfect truck presents itself!
bwahahahahaah! I loves it.
and you've piqued my interest... I am going to ask my shadetree (but could be so much more) father in law about that replacement. just curious if it is something that he would/should/could tackle.
I didn't realize that about the military until a colleague who is retired Army told me that improvisation is the name of the game when an officer wants something done now.
That's a good repair. I think I would also have tried to line it with JB Weld or some other heat-resistant material, but it would be tricky getting it to where it would do any good.
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