Well, it's been a bumpy few past months for the Cabby...

[bLac K aBriOleT89]

Long story short, I have to admit, I've been neglecting doing some maintenance on the Cabby for quite some time....I have a short list of things that have to be done, and I've decided to start tackling as time and money permit.

So, I had a wake up call when the head gasket semi-failed a couple of months ago, and hydro-locked the engine... I decided to go ahead and resuscitate it from the coma, and looked for the flooded cylinder, found #1 (I think, the one closest to the passenger side) full of coolant so cranked the hell out of it with no spark plugs and it vomited all the coolant out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seJbemQxUVo

Cleaned the spark plug and it started right back up!
Since it will continue flood and hydro locked I decided to burn my last shot and got a bottle of Blue Devil head Gasket "magic" repair....against all odds, it seems to be holding up. (So head gasket job has been moved down the list, ...for now)

Then it was making this ridoncolus front bearing noise that it was almost unbearable to drive at speeds higher than 50....so I addressed those last week and now is back to "silent" mode.! lol

The next thing was the rear brakes...my son is 16 and a half and I have allowed him to drive the cabby randomly to run errands, etc....he loves the car since he grew up us taking the car to shows consistently over the years... (got to make new good friendships along the way!)



He also has helped me with a lot of little things over the years since he was 5, I also taught him how to drive manual transmission in this car.





So the fact that he is "occasionally" driving it, made me start to get a little concerned over his safety, so I decided to tackle the rear brakes next, since never been done since I got the car in 2004! Pedal travel and stopping power were also not acceptable.

Went ahead and did that yesterday, surprisingly enough the shoes had half life left, but the wheel cylinders were leaking a little so they recommended a full overhaul, considering I never touched the rear brakes before, I said yes, go ahead, put new drums, wheel cylinders, shoes, all hardware, and flushed the old fluid, $350.00 later, it's back at its natural braking power!

We'll, this is all for now, I have a fuel filter, VCG, and tune-up stuff coming, and will do that during some vacation time I'll have for new years....I know the head gasket will come back and bite me in my latin a$$, so I will be ready for that when it comes!

Happy holidays to all!!

[Briano1234]

Cool, but you forgot the Captn, Morgan pic.

[Briano1234]

Know the feeling, Oil pressure issues on the blue one, (new pump, and crap on order...) Passenger side Control arm bent from pot hole on Green.
New top and Headliner ordered for Blue.... Now thinking on interior seat covers.

[bLac K aBriOleT89]

Cool, but you forgot the Captn, Morgan pic.

I couldn't find it! Thanks for posting it, already saved it

[bLac K aBriOleT89]

Know the feeling, Oil pressure issues on the blue one, (new pump, and crap on order...) Passenger side Control arm bent from pot hole on Green.
New top and Headliner ordered for Blue.... Now thinking on interior seat covers.

Yep, it never ends....But I don't mind since these cars just keep going...even with failed head gaskets and no rear brakes! haha

[Calimus]

Good to see you both posting up those pics. Brings back some really good memories. Crabby still slumbers in the garage just waiting to be awakened. I had high hopes for working on her this fall, but some family life events popped up and shot that all to hell. Frankly, I've just been too damn depressed to do much of a damn thing.

The Depression is something I'm working on though. I forced myself to do some cleaning in the garage. It had really gotten to a point that I almost didn't even have enough room in there for the A6. So, now I have one full garage bay cleaned up and usable as a full service bay. Still have crabby and the 2 motorcycles (which will soon become 3 motorcycles) sharing a bay along with a lot of other crap that I have to clean out.

Juan - I really hate that I couldn't make it to the Dragon and catch up with you. I wanted to, but Cristine had to work and I just couldn't force myself to get off my ass that day. I certainly would like to catch up with you in the not too distant future and check out that M car of yours.

Brian - I've terribly neglected this site over the years but non so much as this year. An while this year I certainly have good reason, I still feel the need to apologize. I've also not kept up with you and I think that bothers me more. You've been a good friend and I've been a bit of a reclusive shit this year. I'm very sorry my friend.

To both of you, I would really like to make it a point to catch up with you both in person, but outside of BAP. Maybe I can make some road trips and catch up wit you guys and then at a later date, maybe we can have a GTG so that we are all in one spot. Let me know what you guy's think.

I'm also considering a revamp of the TRF site/forums. Not sure yet though and naturally there's the issue of is it worth the effort? I'd appreciate some thoughts on that as well. I really don't want to lose any of the valuable information that's here. Brian, you have literally contributed tonnage in that area and it would be unforgivable of me to just wipe it out, so don't worry about that. Worst case, I could create everything from scratch and keep this as an archive that we link to. Dunno, lots to think about, but I welcome input on all of it.

[Briano1234]

Brian - I've terribly neglected this site over the years but non so much as this year. An while this year I certainly have good reason, I still feel the need to apologize. I've also not kept up with you and I think that bothers me more. You've been a good friend and I've been a bit of a reclusive shit this year. I'm very sorry my friend.

To both of you, I would really like to make it a point to catch up with you both in person, but outside of BAP. Maybe I can make some road trips and catch up wit you guys and then at a later date, maybe we can have a GTG so that we are all in one spot. Let me know what you guy's think.

William you have nothing to apologize for. Neglect, Depression, Hell I suspect that I to have a tad of it, but to be honest I have been so busy in my forced retirement. Every day I look for a job, and go on the occasional interview.... But oh Well..... "Would you like fries with that?"

GTG? If I can clear my schedule, lets see in the next two weeks, I have a 3 piece top to do, control arm and exhaust on Greenie, Top, Oil Pump, on Bluey before it goes bluie........ oh and the new top on blue.....

[Calimus]

Thanks Brian. As far as a GTG, I would plan something like that in warmer months, lol. Not this unseasonably warm month though. Nothing like having to turn on the AC on Christmas eve. However, I might see about dropping by on a weekend just for a visit or maybe to even lend you a hand with one of the cabbies. I mean hell, it's only been years since I've stopped by your place.