More Diet Coke and Mentos

I don't know if I posted an earlier video by these guys, but I liked this one as well and thought I would post it.

Got'er Done

It was a long, difficult stretch of work, but I got the van's rear end finished. The axle seals are in, the differential is closed up and filled, the air-adjust shocks are installed and working, and everything is back together. It is good to be done. The next big one will be the front end, but that can wait for a while.

It is nice to be done. I like the sense of accomplishment when the installation is all done.

Getting Closer

Today was a good day off. Now Monday's are normally my day off, so although it is a holiday here in Canada, it really does not seem like a long weekend to me.

I wanted to get the van finished, so I ran off to Canadian Tire to get the correct gasket maker (Napa didn't give me the right stuff.) I made sure the differential cover and the differential housing were both clean of the old gasket and any oil that may have gotten on them while I was working. I put the bead of gasket maker on the cover and attached it to the housing following the instructions on the tube. That required an hour wait until tightening the bolts all the way, so I took the time to start to take off the old shocks. Got one bolt loose, and then the hour was up so I tightened the bolts, showered, and we headed to London to get some bunnies, and have a picnic with my Mother.

The picnic did not turn out well . . . it started to rain, so we stopped at Wendy's. Then after picking up a bunny we headed to Mom's place, dropped off Justin, and went to Wal-mart to allow Justin some time with his grandma. After picking up a few things we headed back, picked up Justin and headed home.


Then I really went to work. I removed the old right hand shock. That was the more difficult one. I put the new shock on, but was not sure which way to face the air fill fitting, so I decided to leave it loose until I could ask some people. I moved on to the left shock. It was not too bad to remove, and again I left the new shock loose until I am sure which way to face the air fitting.

Not a bad day overall, and with maybe an hour or so of work on the van tomorrow, I should have it back running.

Almost All The Way Done

At last I found a way to get the pinion locking bolt out. It took a universal adaptor, and some shed blood, but it came out. Once it was out I realized I had a problem, because the pinion shaft would not come out.

See this picture:


Then I found out that I could rotate the whole thing by putting the van in Neutral. That would have made the whole process go much smoother. Once I got things rotated, I was able to get the bolt out, the shaft out, and remove the c-clips so the axle could slide out. After that it was easy.

Now everything is back together, but the cover is not yet back on because I am considering getting a new one because this one is much more rusted that I originally thought. That means I will have to wait until tomorrow when I can make some calls.

However, at this point the end is in sight.

O For A Six Point 5/16 Box End Wrench

Today is the day I take care of Justin. I thought while I was doing so, I would be able to get some of the work done on the van replacing the rear axle seals. All went well until . . . I found that the pinion locking nut would not come loose. I used my 5/16" box end wrench on it, but it is a 12 point, and even worse, it rounded the points of the bolt off a little bit.

Before doing more damage I thought I would see if I could find any way to get a six point socket on it. Not a chance there simply is not enough room. You can see it looking at this picture:


My only thought is to go and get a 6 point 5/16" wrench when Annette gets home.