O yeah, make me get off the couch and go crawl around under the dash looking at hoses I cut years ago, thanks a bunch. Off my Christmas list buster!

 

AHHH! I'm sorry! I'll make ya a deal. If you put me back on the list I'll send my own private trained leprechaun out to dig under there for ya and see what's up. He's very good and if you sneak out and catch him you get to keep 'e's pot 'o gold!

Seriously though, I'll bet you're on the white line too. I almost tied to the red myself and had to go back and research which line it was.


Get this, last night The Redhead took Skippy to work and said, "Daddy, it was cold enough, but it all blew out the defroster and not out of the vents".

I was like, "Hubba whaaa????"

So I went back out there today and sure enough Max AC blew out the defrost vents only. I checked the little actuator thingy and it wasn't on when Max AC is on. Hmm.... I popped open the glovebox again and looked at my "T" fitting and guess what?















Split fitting! How about that? I guess I mashed a smaller fitting on the "T" and it didn't hold. I grabbed my trusty scissors and snipped it off at the larger portion of the fitting.

















After that I plugged it back in and WHOOSH! The vents blew out crazy all over me again. Problem solved! But for a minute there I really thought I messed something up!

 

You're right it was the white line... and look what I found!

 

Sweet McGreggor's Ghost! You found the gold! That silly leprechaun leaves the stuff all over. Wait till he starts leaving bags of lucky charmz!

 

I had to work on the fish pond today but The Redhead was sitting out spending time with me and noticed Skippy's wiper arms were rusty toward the middle and end. She decided she would fix it right then and there, and by hand. No power tools.














I gave her some sandpaper and she went to work. For two solid hours she worked those wiper arms over, blowing the black dust off and remarking about how the sandpaper made her fingers tender. But she didn't stop. She kept on going with a little gleam in her eye like you'd do when you're working on something that means something to you. I was impressed.
















After sanding them down to bare metal we primered them.















Then on went a new coating of black paint.

















They won't be ready to re-mount until tomorrow but they looked pretty good as they dried. As a side note I found a big fat roll of "bubble wrap" style heat shielding at Lowes for only 17 bucks.
















I plan to re-insulate the heater box on the engine side and maybe wrap my little A/C actuator in it too to make it last longer. That dang A/C is frigidly cold now. Nice!

 

Skippy got a new windshield wiper motor today. The "Hi" setting wasn't much different than the low setting and that was frustrating with all the really bad rains we've been having lately.

I got my motor off Ebay for 39.00. The local OReillys wanted 59.00 for the same thing. I passed. Oh, and everywhere you look you'll see "WITHOUT WASHER" on the wiper motors. Ignore it, they're not interrelated. Just get the one without washer and it works fine.


So I didn't really know where to look for my motor to begin with. It wasn't hanging down underneath the air dam though so I figured it was in there. I asked on the boards here and the consensus was that it was in the air dam too so that's the route I took. Luckily it was there.

To start, remove the three screws in the air intake in front of the windshield.














Then pull up on the tab on the windshield wiper with your thumb.














It comes out pretty far















Now just pull on the wiper and off it comes!
















Then open the hood up.

 

Now pull out the three plastic pressure screw thingys from the other side here. I usually use a claw hammer to pull these out, but turns out a pair of wire nippers will work too.











Then it falls off happy as you please.













Gently pull up on the rubber weather strip till it's off of the side you're working on.













Then the air dam just lifts up and out of the way.













Don't think you're going to walk to Arkansas with it though, it has that washer squirter in it. Just lay it to the side.

 

Grab your trusty socket wrench and an 8mm socket.















Attach it to the center bolt in the wiper connecting rod. Now, when you turn this bolt it's going to run the wipers. I kept mine from turning by poking a larger socket between it and the bend in the bracket. See second pic.
















Now on mine I had to use a flathead screwdriver to pry up on the top, then bottom of the arm to break it loose, going a little at a time back and forth.















There are three 8mm bolts around that one, go ahead and take them out now. When you remove the last one the motor hidden behind this bracket will fall out.















Now grab your 10mm.















Take off the three bolts holding the larger bracket on. We just want it loose and floppy, don't try to pick the bracket up and walk away.















Some of these bolts are easier gotten to from the outside of the hood.















On this one, the last one, there's a plastic washer holding the wires in place. Pull that wire holder and the wire away from the bolt hole once it's free.

 

That wire should pull out and around the bracket like this
















That gives us plenty of slack to pull the motor free















Tada! Crusty motor is out!















Mine was so old the plastic rain guard fell off the wiper connector (first bolt we took out of the center) and was lying in the air cowling area.

 

To remove the wire, press down on the tab here.















And out it pops after much wiggling.















Old and new, side by side.















Now we reverse the process to put it all back together. Some people don't like to cover this, but I hate reading backwards so lets do it together!



Plug the new one back in.















Work it around the bracket and back in the hole.

 

Just let the motor sit in the trough for now. Move the wire around the bracket again.















And bolt it down. Then do the other two bolts in the bracket.
















Now reach behind and pull the motor up into place. You only need to align one hole, the rest will fall into place easily after the first bolt is LOOSELY put in the hole.















See?
















Set the wiper arm bracket back on the new motor.

 

I had to bang on mine to get it to slip on.















Then tighten it up, holding the arm so it doesn't spin around.















That's it! Oh, tighten up your motor bolts if you didn't already. Think I forgot to say that.



Then put your air dam back up on there.















Slip the weatherstripping back on...















And put those tiny black screw-plastic thingies in place.

 

Because I didn't like the wire hanging down in the back I pushed it back into the channel it went in.












Then I put a couple of zip-ties on it to keep it in place.













And yes, I clipped my zip-ties. I'm not an ANIMAL, after all!















Then I stuck those little screw things back in.













Then put the last three screws in on the top of the air inlet.













Now snap the wipers back on by pulling up on the tab again and sliding them back on. They only go on one way. Be sure to get them all the way on or when you turn on the wipers in a torrential downpour you're liable to fling the little booger into oncoming traffic!













And if you're like me, now you go get the receipt and put it in your ziplock bag in the glove box, then you pull out the notepad and pen in that bag and write down the mileage and what you installed. The next owner will probably throw it all away, but you never know. He might like to have it.















And that's it! All done!

 

OK boys and girls. After seeing Pikachu's pic (below) about the AC fins being all plugged up with *yuck* I thought I should spend a day cleaning mine out. Especially since Skippy may be a Katrina truck.

Pikachu's AC fin pic:












Dude, that's nasty! Mine wasn't so bad but it was still pretty hairy. I'm going to show you how I dug into Skippy and cleaned it out, and how I put a foam filter in there to make this job much easier in the future. Come on, let's get dirty.

 

Tools you will need:

5.5mm socket
8mm socket
11mm socket
Socket wrench
Flexible extension
4 small extensions or 1 large and 1 small
Claw hammer
Flathead Screwdriver
Rubber glove or sandwich baggie
Can of spray on coil cleaner
Water hose
Foam AC filter
Insulation, if desired
Shocks for the front, if desired (best chance you'll get to change them is today!)


Time: 3 hours if you're a stud, 8 hours if you're a "me". Yes, it took me 8 hours.

Warnings!!!!!! READ ME OR DIE!!!!!:

• This works with the AC system. This is a closed, high pressure system! There's over 9 billion PSI of pressure (or so) in there. If you screw up and puncture one of the lines YOU CAN GET FROSTBITE or worse, DEAD. How's a frozen eye sound?
• If you break a line you will probably have to pay over $250 to recharge your system and replace your dryer, not to mention the hose you broke! And that's if you fix it YOURSELF! This isn't a cheap thing to work on. BE CAREFUL!!!
• If your AC is working fine, SKIP THIS. It's a LOT of work and it doesn't change the world, but if you're having trouble on those hot days this just might be the thing to fix your wagon.
• In short, don't do this. Just go away and stop reading now. You'll be happier if you do.

Ok, let's get started by removing the wheel well. You don't need to remove the tire, thank goodness. I've never done this before. It's easier to get out than put back in, by the way. Now, fish out that tiny 5.5 mm socket you let roll under the workbench in 1991.




























Snap it on all those tiny bolts holding the wheel well in on the outside edge.






























Now change over to the 8mm socket. This is slightly bigger than a nose hole.
































This goes on the three fat-washered bolts running down the middle and inside of the wheel well.
































Now grab the 11mm socket. The 8mm and 11mm will see a lot of use today. Hope you charged their batteries!