June 10, 2009

June 10, 2009 odometer 113,401

1. Back to work on the bus. Mileage at time of work: 113,401
2. filled air conditioner with 6 – 12 oz cans of R134a refrigerant, now it's cold!
3. Replaced bushings on front stabilizer bar, 4 bushings 2 to frame and 2 to I-Beam. I-Beam bushings are pressed in and gave me some serious grief, concocted a bushing press out of some all thread 2 Ridgid conduit couplings a unistrut tee some washers and nuts, and a guy wire ferrel, found everything but ended up having to go buy 2 big grade 8 washers that were the exact size of the bushing to pull it through the I-Beam. Moved around pieces on fabricated tool to press new bushing in with same setup. Front sway bar is 1” in diameter (7/8” were put on some models). Used NAPA 265-2158 & 265-2254 bushings, 2 packs each one is the frame bushings, other is bar end bushings, don't recall which was which.
4. Removed transmission pan, and replaced filter, the pan magnet looked furry from the metal dust stuck to it, a couple of small aluminum shavings in pan, old filter appeared to have metal dust trapped in the media. Hopefully transmission will be ok. Refilled with Valvoline MaxLife supposedly good for 75,000 but not with some remaining old fluid, Mercon V which is the replacement for Mercon that the Van specifies. Transmission ended up taking 7 ¼ quarts of mercon V, but in reality probably would have held 6 ¾ quarts as I siphoned some back out as I thought I had overfilled it the dipstick takes some time to learn how to read properly. Couldn't remove 1 bolt from flywheel inspection cover, bolt is up above starter, so was unable to drain torque converter, nor have the tools to flush anything further. Old oil wasn't the best but was still reddish. Napa 1-7968 Filter Kit, transmission has reusable gasket kit is for E40D 2WD but it apparently shares the same filter as the 4R100 which is in the bus.