New England B.S. Thread

Honestly, I was really dreading it but it wasn't that bad. I think I was on the driver side for maybe 1.5-2 hours but a lot of it was figuring out what did and didn't need to be removed / moved. There's a great DIY but my recommendation is to not fully remove the intake manifold brackets, if you loosen the bottom bolt through the wheel well you can move it around up top. The driver's side is cake, you don't need to remove the intake tube as the DIY shows.

If you don't have a 24" 3/8" drive extension, grab one. It helped pull all the ratchet movement out of the bay and made everything much, much easier.

 

I didn't touch the manifold, I just unbolted the foam thing in the back, realizing you can hit some bolts from the wheel well was a gamechanger too

 

Hmm, thanks for the tip on the extension - I think my longest is 12in 1/2", not sure about 3/4"

I know there's a ton of youtubes on it, I just haven't watched any and know it's a pain I'm not too worried, I've already done the radiator, I'm used to finagling in there. At least with these it can go in stages, too, if it comes down to it. And I'm only a shade over 60k so I get to pick a nice, 65 degree sunny day.

 

Shit I didn't swap mine til 100 didn't look bad either, they must've been done at some point i think

 

I didn't hit the manifold either, just the two brackets. I pulled the nut off the rear bracket to allow the fuel lines to have flex.

Cheap and functional. These haven't let me down yet.

I'm at 61,xxx. The only reason to swap them early is for the emissions warranty. I believe the plugs are technically rated for 120k.

 

Shit I thought it was 60.

My cylinder 1 coil pack needs to be replaced it ingested some moisture once. I have that. So I was just going to do the whole shebang and clean it all up and let er rip.

 

The manual calls for 60k. You likely can push them more, but I’ve tried to get as close to the manual as possible with any part changes.

 

There are a couple of pretty gold videos on YouTube showing how to do it. Not good enough for me to try it myself instead of paying the dealer 3 hours of flat rate labor, but someone younger, more adventurous, and likely more flexible could no doubt do it.

Yes, you should have a new and tight fitting spark plug socket on a new and tight fitting extension, on a new and tight fitting ratchet to be sure that nothing drops down into the abyss.

Which, once again reminds me of a true story from my youth. I had a nice 1969 Mercury Cougar that I put a lot of work into repairing and getting back on the road. For some reason that I don't recall, maybe because the battery had been stolen, I decided to put hood pins in. Of course I didn't use looks, just cotter pins.

Anyway, I was working in my dad's business storage garage which is where the trucks were stored at night and some valuable or waiting for a customer to pick up stuff was kept. I drilled the first hold and installed the pin with no problem. I drilled the second hole, but when I went to put the pin in it jumped out of my hand and went down into the carburetor of a VW Bug engine that was lying on the floor waiting to be delivered. Fortunately, I was able to fish it out without having to take the intake manifold off. I had the help of my didn't like me all that much uncle who glared at me the whole time.

 

https://www.autotrader.com/oversteer/jdm-nissan-safari-fire-truck-for-sale

Paced it for a while to get a good look. The lady driving was clearly over it.

 

I wonder how hard it is to get parts?

 

"No wonder we can't get any water through these pipe, they're all clogged up with wires!"

 

Pro tip. Even on a Embraer 175 if you have a soft sided bag you don't have to check/ gate check. Rollerboards are dumb. Soft sided duffel like a Patagonia Black hole or similar are the tits. Fit shit for a week and never have to gate check.

 

I'm sure you will be hitting the Star Wars stuff there..so jealous..

Mostly agreed. Though I think it's arguable that the strains on the system over the past 25 years or so (and they're only gonna get worse, sadly) have almost forced some of this.

Yes but you forgot the step before that, lick the wires first as well as your hands.

I couldn't tell you how many times my wife has had to call about billing stuff and throw in that "my husband does this for a living"..

Makes it much more fun escaping the snow definitely.

Oddly I recall the #6 in my old Monte Carlo being the hugest pile of suck. 2 person job.

Learned this last tip with aforementioned Monte Carlo.

I have a '61 Cougar..hee hee..

"A fine place for wires! Well drag em outta there and get that pipe over here!"

 

That's what my son has, but for some reason he had to check it.

 

I always shove my bag under the seat in front. All the way to and from France. Well worth it. Just a backpack though nothing special. Might get something a bit more suited for flying but I don't fly a lot.



@Pugga @mach1man001 are y'all both at Disney this week?

 

On the passenger side the middle plug has a bracket that covers the coil. If you remove the bracket bolt you can move it enough to get the coil out and get a socket down in there.

When I seated the plug I wanted to make sure it was threading so I pulled the socket / extension further out than I planned and it hooked on the bracket and out it popped.

Murphy’s Law, right?

 

I had one annoying medical billing experience. I had a procedure about a year ago and the health system handled the billing on their own for everything except pathology. They used a third party biller.

I got a bill from the third party biller a couple months later which seemed odd to me. I called them and they said Blue Cross denied the claim. I called Blue Cross and they said the third party biller never submitted the claim and their guess is they coded something wrong and it never went far enough to even be officially denied. I called the third party biller back and told them what Blue Cross said, but they submitted again as-is.

Predictably, I got another bill from them after a while. This time I dug for a number for the pathology office. It was clear they didn't expect calls from patients. They had someone in the office who dealt with the billing company and they said they would look into it. I got a call from a high up person at the third party biller saying they tried to submit it as worker's comp (it wasn't) and that's why it kept getting rejected. She said she would resubmit it correctly.

By the time they did, Blue Cross rejected it saying it was billed too long after the procedure. I confirmed with them that this meant $0 due to me. Haven't heard a word since. It was very satisfying seeing their incompetence cause them to lose out on the bill entirely.

 

I am, dragged the camper down the coast last weekend. Kids are loving it, this is a big trip for us. I know some people come here regularly, that’s not us.

@ABA180 my oldest got some Star Wars stuff at the gift shop, youngest bought Mickey stuff.

 

I'm in Orlando right now too. We are on our way to Epcot as we speak.
My son is marching in the parade in Magic Kingdom tomorrow.

 

We are too. We flew down last night but got a little bit delayed.
My sons High School band was invited to play in Disney since they won the Nationals in competitions last year. We are on a whirlwind trip hitting all 4 parks in 4 days!!!