-
The Mighty Merc – No IFS, ands, or buts! Removing the IFS
One of the big days has arrived! It’s time to really commit to this project, by hacking off some parts that would be incredibly hard to put back on. By the time I remembered to grab the camera, I had already unbolted a large portion of stuff (knuckles, control arms, etc). Which left me with this:
-
Gear Review – Shining Buddy Head Lamp
I am constantly fighting with finding a good portable light source while I am out in the garage. Either I don’t have enough light, or the light I have is blinding me. After searching for a ‘flood’ type head lamp for a while, I came across a flash sale on the Shining Buddy at amazon: Amazon Link So far, I’ve been pretty dang impressed with the thing. The light is very evenly dispersed, which was exactly what I was after…
-
Garage Tip – Removing a 1 piece Rear Main Seal
Just a quick tip for today! One of the maintenance things I needed to get done on The Mighty Merc was to replace the severely leaking rear main seal. This can be a bit of a pain as there isn’t a good way to pop the seal out of there. After doing a bit of reading, it turns out the Ford 5.0 guys solved this problem a while ago. Simply take a couple of wood screws, hammer them into the…
-
The Mighty Merc – M5OD Maintenance
While the 4R70W isn’t a bad transmission, and probably one of the few automatics that doesn’t piss me off, I still rather have a manual. After searching for a small block ZF-5 that wasn’t overly priced or broken, I came across a M5OD out of a 4.2 V6 truck from a ’97 F150. The 4.2 trucks use the Small Bock Ford bell pattern (have to drill out the top two bolts to 7/16”), and they have the shifter tower further…
-
2004 Mazda 3 – I Haz the dumb
You ever buy something, and then immediately question the wisdom of your actions? I know I have, but this last round was a dozy. After looking at 7 other cars that were dismissed for various reasons, I came across this gem: