As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
OK I have some advice on Two Chiefs advice that you find online in threads and on Youtube. People online are dishonest in having experience and if you call up the company making parts for advice, I will have more ideas than those college boys do in how to install their products as they too have zero experience.
So this is the 3rd episode of installing soft plugs and apparently God intended this to be a lesson for all of you, as I have experience in all of the versions of these plugs from brass cups to copper screw in plugs to rubber based plugs........and even block heaters now as I needed all four to plug the holes in the engine block.
The above 4 x 4 Ford is not mine. I just get tired of looking at the same pictures, so this is an internet find........I would that oru F 250 was a 4 x 4 instead of this Indian wagon.
So I installed by using the back end of a punch the rear soft plug on the passenger side. I could not get the front on the passenger or the middle on the passenger as there was not room. So I purchased the copper Dorman freeze plugs, thinking this would solve the last two problems.
I tried the passenger side front. No Permatex as the Dorman said it was not mentioned in the literature. They are made in China and I discovered they are METRIC. Their quality control is so shit that I found two 1/2 inch sockets that would fit to a point as you have to use a socket as a wrench will torque and twist the plug out.
Two British mechanics suggested beating on the Dormans to get them big enough to expand to fill the hole SO THEY WILL CATCH with friction and then expand. That sounds like costing me money as you can not put the copper back into the small bottle after it is flattened out, so I used a wrench and tightened it by hand and kept checking if it would fit and got to the point of it fit enough that I did tighten the nut.
Dude said to only go 1/2 to 1/3rd of a turn, no need to go tighter. I had no idea what I had already done, and when you have a ratchet that you are getting just a click or two each time.......how big is that with flies and mosquitoes buzzing you.
In the end, I quit in probably going to far as it seemed I was almost stripping the copper threads as it started to feel more loose. There would not be a problem if I could have used a 1/4 inch socket set with an American 1/2 inch socket, instead of a 1/2 inch drive, due to this Metric shit that was all over the place in dimensions with no quality control.
So that was done and I hoped the rest would go as well and save time. No, the other hole was a bit larger, and the quality control on the coppers was not that great. After screwing around with this a half hour without results. checking other plugs, I was given the solution by the Holy Ghost for you, to use the Dorman rubber plugs.
Directions state, loosen the nut, the rubber expands and you just tighten it up.
No Charlie Chan man, that is not how things go. I could get the metal cap flush as they said but it just spun in the hole. So what the Holy Ghost led me to was to take the plug out, tighten it by hand with the socket let the rubber expand, then put it into the hole with some tapping as it is now larger.
It still spun. I took it back out, tightened to expand more and with more persuasive tapping, the rubber caught long enough to start tightening it.
OK the instructions say 3 turns. Again how in the hell do I know what 3 turns are when I had to turn the thing to get it expanded to put it into the hole so it would catch. I cranked on the thing. The rubber would spring back as I moved the ratchet to start cranking again. In the end, it felt tight like it would not blow out, so I left the thing as it was as I did not want to have to try and pull things out again because I destroyed them with all these wonderful online and literature instructions which are worthless.
I put in two gallons of water. TL could not see any leaking nor could I and with that God had it rain some.
But before we close this chapter, I still had to put the starter back on. Now the always experts said, "Put on a long ratchet extension and turn out the top nut really easy. Yeah Two Chiefs has a manifold and an exhaust in the way. I got the bolt out with a box end wrench and had to resort to a needle nose pliers, to which I dropped it in the grass.........thank God I found it as I lost a 22 cartridge this week in the grass......
So the short version was I tightened the bottom bolts of the 3 on the starter to just loose as I knew I needed some play to try and get that top bolt started. I cleaned the threads, lubed with WD 40 and went to work in a space that is too short of the length of the bolt.
I went underneath and blind like Helen Keller used my FU finger to just start rotating the bolt to try and start it. I wore the glove out, went back up to to see if I had made any headway as I did not want the bolt dropping in the grass again......no headway.
Tried again, this time wore the tip of my finger off so it hurt nicely, was frustrated more, could do nothing on top as I needed to get pressure on the back of the bolt to try and make it catch.
My wife had a 71 F100 Ranger with a 360 and a C6 trans. That was one pulling truck, of course 7 mpg respectively. Easy to work on, minus that one starter bolt that was hard to get at and never made it back on.
No kidding about the one starter bolt, 5 minutes for the two and an to get the one out.
I took the other two bolts loose some, tried again, no good as the starter was too far away from the engine block, tightened a bit, got into a new position by God's Grace under the pick up with nasty shit falling on me, and got my finger into a spot on the head of the bolt and with it worn away, started trying to turn it again and it would turn.
I got back on top and checked and started trying to see if it would come out or if it had started, and as it seemed to not come, I started rotating it again.......it seemed like it was catching, so I got the needle nose on parts of it and at about 1/16th of an inch, slipping off and pinching my fingers, I started my version of a ratchet. As I kept feeling Helen Keller, it seems like the distance was shortening. I checked and thank God it was actually turning in.
I asked TL to confirm and TL confirmed we made headway.
About this time God had it rain, so I went back under the pick up to snug up the two starter bolts down there and of course that was the only spot under the pick up leaking water was on my face.
I declared victory with things left to snug up and I have to electric tape the positive starter cable from the battery as that is over 50 years old and the insulation is off.
I can say that absolutely nothing in instructions or not instructions online or off helped in Two Chiefs. I now have 1 steel soft plug that is original or maybe two. I have two copper screw in plugs, one I put in and one that the Indian put in. I have 1 brass cup soft plug and 1 heater block. I have installed all for your education and my non entertainment as the reality is you apparently need the engine out of the vehicle as these soft plug installation tools look worthless to me. I know the removal tool is worthless for what I had as my plugs were deteriorated to metal shards and that is nothing you can screw into and jack out.
As I could not take the hood off, the manifold off or the muffler as the latter two are heat fatigue bolts which would break off and cause more problems. I really do not know what to say about Ford starters in my case as even JYG's solution of cutting a hole in the fenderwall would not have helped as there was not any room to do anything anyway. God as in all things got that bolt going after I wore my finger tip off. For the tight quarters on the plugs......I needed the 4 types to get the soft plugs in.
If donations came in, I would probably take this to a Mexican eventually and have that Pepe pull the engine and put in the other 5 or 7 brass plugs as I simply do not have the resources to do this.
It is hard to get Two Chiefs out of the coffin when Silly Pony bent over all the nails from the inside.
By God's Grace we now move onto the fuel section of chuck feeding time.
Nuff Said
Oct 26, 2022 ... ... Boney Fingers (Hoyt Axton-Renee Armand) by Hoyt Axton with Renee Armand and backing ... in your choice of either song title or artist name.
agtG
