I started the morning with the removal of the radiator. This proved more difficult than planned because I forgot that this was a dual core radiator. For those who may not know, that means this radiator not only flows coolant through it to cool the engine oil, but it also flows another fluid for cooling. Most commonly, and in the case of The Spike, the transmission fluid flowed through it also. So I drained the radiator, drained the Automatic transmission, and while I was under the truck anyway, I drained the oil (I knew this would have to be drained later anyway).
In process of removing the bolts for the fan shroud and the radiator, the final bolt was blocked by the power steering lines, which also ran through the front core support to a cooling loop on the front of the truck. So the power steering fluid and system also had to be drained. It needed to happen anyway, but I was not planning to do this today. So now I had 4 systems draining or dripping after draining and I had messes of oil everywhere. A circus theme rang through my head as I laughed at the mess I was making. The epoxy floor on the garage got a work out today.
Everything drained and bolts removed, the radiator came out. Success! During the process I laughed, I cried, but most importantly, I won!
Goal 2 today was the wiring harness and the steering column removal. I wanted to keep the harness in tact if possible, and I was successful after removing all the dash and even the front support brace.
Finally, on to the steering column. This proved to be a bit more work, but with careful consideration and examination for where the attachments were, I removed the column.
Finally, clean up my messes and bottle the old fluids, cleaned up the shop then called it a day.
The guy for the body sale brought me the cash today, so it is sold to him for sure. We had to wait until next week (hopefully) to get it off because I am not quite ready and his trailer for use was unavailable.
Hopefully, more tomorrow. Until then, God Bless and thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment