11 January 2009

No luxury ...

While I work on a lotta Benz' and BMWs and Jags, along with exotics, I also get my share of luxury cars like this Rolls Royce Silver Spur:







Or this classic BMW:







But Nunz also has some contractors' vehicles we look after. Like this electricians' truck ('02 Ford Econoline-250) with a scrillion miles in need of a tune up.



Now, changing spark plugs on one of these is a huge pain in the ass. There ain't no room to do shit and you're working from inside and outside (Is there a motor in there?).





The fuel rails gotta come loose (don't break the injector [yellow things] seals unless you wanna replace 'em) to access the coil packs (round things) of which you can't see the hold down bolts so you're going by braille half the time. The big pucker is the plugs themselves that, in these engines with big miles (the truck 4.6L and 5.4L V-8s) they like to break instead of thread out (Ford has a fix but it's an even bigger pain in the ass). Do yourself a favor and loosen them a half-turn and then squirt a little carb cleaner (I prefer the Berkebile 2+2 gum cutter. Yeah, it's toxic as hell but it works.) down the holes. Let 'em sit for 10 minutes before taking them out all the way.





I told Nunz that when I got into this business, if somebody told me it would take 3 1/2 hours to change 8 spark plugs I woulda called the men with the white suits and butterfly net. Times like these I shoulda been a doctor.

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