What a week and a bit with vehicles.
First off, I was able to get the parts for the drifter on Wednesday and I got almost the entire bike back together in about 1.5 hours. It went really well. Here are a few pictures along the way.
Here is the new propeller shaft
And a video of what it should look/sound like:
Here is the o-ring that goes on the end of the shaft, and then you attach the propeller joint to it. You need snap ring pliers to do this job.
Once that was together I put it back on the bike. I had to remember to put the new rubber dust boot and spring on as well.
Then it was just go backwards of the steps from the disassembly.
Here is the bike after I had most of it back together after the first day.
I was able to get everything except for the muffler on.
The next evening I put the muffler on. It took a bit of work because I had to wrap part of the muffler with muffler tape because my clamps to hold the fancy chrome heat shield on had broken off, and I couldn’t fix that either. Then I had to muscle around with getting the muffler pieces to align and fit together. It took another 45 minutes, but then it was all together.
But while all that was going on with the drifter the Ford had an oil leak. Actually it was transmission fluid leaking from the left hand front CV axle. I did a bit of research and found that the axle seal may be the issue. I had replaced the axle in September, but didn’t replace the seal since it looked fine at the time. I loooked and it wasn’t a job that I thought I could easily do since all the videos talked about a special tool to put the seal in correctly. So, I took it to a shop near my house that I had dealt with before. I told them I thought it was the seal. They said they would have to back to me by the next day. The next day, 5 minutes before my class started, I got a call saying, “we replaced the seal, but it is still leaking. There is something else wrong in the transmission.” I was a bit like, “What?” I didn’t have time to deal with it then and went to class. During class, I did some more internet research and found a technical service bulletin (TSB 16-0043) that seemed to describe my exact issue. So, after class I called the mechanic and asked them to look at it. An hour later I called them back and the response was, “Yeah that could be it, and we can’t fix that.”
I was a bit frustrated. I called another mechanic that I trust a lot, but no longer live anywhere near, and they said they couldn’t do that work either, but asked why the place I took it to didn’t think the check all that area at the time of the job to make sure it wasn’t something more than just the seal. I was even more frustrated. So, I went and got the car, expressed my frustration politely, and they gave me a bit of a discount on the labor since they weren’t able to fix it. I still won’t go back to this place again since it is now the second time they have not done quality work for me.
So, now I had a car that had a bad leak and needed to figure out what to do. I tried calling a couple Ford dealerships and left multiple messages asking about the cost of the service to fix the bushing in the transmission that seemed to be bad. After 2 days no one had called me back. I guess they didn’t want the job? During this time I had talked with my dad, and he watched video on how to do the job and he felt that he and I could probably do the job ourselves if I could find a bushing puller with a slide hammer. It would take a couple days to do it out at my dad’s place, but it could get done.
Well, yesterday I tried Ford one more time, and actually got someone right away. That person told me they could get the job done in a day or two and the cost wasn’t abhorrent (not great since I had just spent a few hundred at the other mechanic, but not as much as I was fearing). So, I made the decision to take it to the Ford dealership. It is currently there, they said it may be done today depending on which technician came in on the Saturday. the car also had 2 recalls on it so Ford is going to take care of those at the same time.
Not happy with the Ford having this issue, but I am glad it is getting fixed.
I am also blessed that I have the means to pay for the repairs. Could I have saved money and done it myself (with my dad’s aid of course)? Yes, but it would have been a few weeks before I had the car back on the road that way, and I felt our family needed the car before then, and the time to get it all done can be used for better things now.
Oh the joys of being an adult.