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An Exhausting Problem page 2
In addition to having the problem with the
exhaust, I discovered another problem. The tensioner pulley for
the air conditioning belt was frozen, and not turning. I'm not
exactly sure why, but the belt didn't tear apart, it just started
sliding nicely across the frozen tensioner, and continued working.
I ordered a new tensioner from the Newburgh Auto Zone. On
Wednesday, June 6, I called to see if it was in. It was supposed
to be in on Tuesday. Well, it turns out that somehow, between the
time that I put the order in at the store, and paid for the part (when
it was in stock at the warehouse) and the time they got the order to
pack and ship, they shipped out their last one, and had no idea when
they would get more.
I called a local auto parts store, but they couldn't
find the part listed, then I tried the dealership, but they wanted
nearly $70 for it (it was $22 at the parts store) so I finally ordered
it from the Advance Auto website, along with the gaskets that I needed
for the exhaust system, and the tools I needed to finish removing the
old exhaust.
On Tuesday the 12th, the Extension bar, and gaskets
arrived. On Wednesday the 13th, the socket I needed arrived.
Thursday the 14th, I put the new extension and socket to work, and broke
the last bolt holding the Y pipe to the manifold, then removed the O2
sensor, and one clamp that was supporting the Y pipe, and took the pipe
off the car. In the process of removing the six bolts from the
manifold flanges, I broke three of them off in the flanges. I
spent the remainder of the day Thursday drilling out the broken bolts.
I managed to get one bolt out, and break two drill bits off working on
the second bolt. Friday, I got back to work on it, and managed to
finish removing the second bolt, and then drilled out the third bolt.
I then set to work on the catalytic converter.
The rear flange from the Y pipe was still attached to the converter.
The bolts were all rusted and seized up, so I had to cut them with the
Dremel, then pry off the flange, and grind off the old gasket. |