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What do you do when a friend calls and needs help?

J

J57ltr

New member
PSo yesterday I get a call from a friend from work and he has an 05' Acura TL and he said that the center front spark plug was stripped out. Not real sure how, but I went over to see if I could help. I get over there and take a look. I had another friend call me a few months ago with the same thing on a Navagator, clogged cat and it blew the plug out of the head and destroyed the coil. I called him and he said He bought a tool from Hi-Lo but it wouldn't fit in the tube with the socket on it. He had a friend that is a mechanic with a tap that had a 3/8" drive for a standard extension. Well we bought the same kit and the head of the tap wouldn't go into the tube. So it was about 8:00 by the time we found this out and were out of options so I thought of a way to solve it but had to run to the shop to make it work.

we started out with this:



so I decided to turn down the hex round and drill a hole in the center to use a piece of rod into the end.

Started off with a file to knock the edges down, I thought it would be hardened but it wasn't.


Then turned it with a cutting tool.


So while I'm turning the tap Adam was cutting the rod to length then cutting a squarish shape to hold in a tap holder.

Cutting


Quick way to make something square.



Forth side cut, little hard to see:




So after cutting the tap it seemed like cast iron or powdered metal and I was afraid it wouldn't stick to the stainless so I decided to pin it. By now it's 9:45 so no roll pins around to be had, but we did have welding rod so we drilled a hole through the tap and rod and through the other side. I just sanded it down until I could drive the pin through then cut it off and ground it down.






And the final product:



So we get back and man I mean to tell you this is a J.O.B. You thread in a couple of turns packed with grease, pull it out clean the shavings, re grease it and keep going. For the longest time I was thinking it would not work and we were going to trash the head. We kept switching off and finally got it tapped out for the larger size threaded bushing that goes in. It took us until 1:00am to get it finished but he made it to work and isn't having the misfire that kept popping up. Luckily we had the tools but the same thing can be done with a drill press if you ever run into a situation like this.

Jeff
 


Well, hopefully it comes back around. He's helped me in the past when my PA was giving me fits he picked me up for work for a couple of days till I could figure out what was wrong. I just thought if someone else ran into the same issue this is how I solved the problem. Had it been a rear cylinder it would have been a real big deal. I had to be the calming one he was freaking out talking about getting a new car and how and what was he going to do, so I was trying to be reassuring, but several times I didn't think it would work but then he was saying we're committed. It's funny how you go from being sure of yourself to doubting everything you're doing.

Jeff
 
"Luckily we had the tools"

Understatement of the week! Now the thing to do is go buy up vehicles that are parked for need of that tool. Way to help out a podnuh.
 
Well I have been lucky enough to spec most all of our equipment and always made sure I could use it for my projects too, lol. It was nice to just drive to the shop and make the tool whenever I need. Hopefully later this year I plan on doing headers and 3" exhaust for my car, and I have a couple of IC ideas I want to do as well. Then there's the new Stud welder we just got. I am going to build up a heatshield for the intake and something to better duct air into the radiator.

Jeff
 


Nicely done Jeff...

Luckily most of the time I just get a call these days. In the past though, I'd be on the road making it happen like you did.
 
Yep, if I was broke down and needed an out of the box idea for a repair and I couldn't wing it myself, I'd reach out to ppl on this board for ideas.
 


Thanks guys, I like to help out sometimes to the determent of my own stuff if someone is in need, the 2'X2' hole in the ceiling still is a testament to that, and my lack of short term memory... and my ADD and well.. My wife wants me to fix it, and I told her the leak is repaired, and I keep forgetting to bring home supplies to fix it. That and I am afraid of Sheetrock work and getting the ceiling matched again. I am hoping my inner Mexican will come out and it'll just get put back and never be able to tell there was a leak.

Jeff
 
I remember years ago when my sister-in-law had a plug blow out on her 3.1 Grand Am. My brother was at work so she called me. I picked her up and took her to where she needed to go. The next day my brother and I went to get the car and realized we weren't going to be able to fix it in the gas station parking lot so he drove it the 10 miles home on 5 cylinders with no plug in #6. LOL

That thing was a nightmare to repair. We had the engine rocked forward and still didn't have any room. To this day I have no idea how we actually managed to fix it without destroying the head.
 
Lol, I couldn't even imagine running any length of time with a plug missing, I'd be pulling cotton out of the seat just thinking of all the debris I was picking up.

This one was touch and go, we were doing fine but I was seriously doubting if it would work. I was thinking I needed to drill it to the correct size then use the tap. The reason the rod was so long was access the hole was just high enough to see into the cylinder and the rod was about an inch over the core support. We ended up holding it like a pool cue and pushing the living daylights On the tap handle to get it to bite.

when I got there I was asking him questions and he got mad and I was like "man I've never stripped out the spark plug before" I'm not real sure what to do, that's when I called my buddy that called me asking the same question to get his opinion on how he did it. Then we ran into the issue with getting the tap to fit. I tried to scan for misses, but doesn't look like its supported by the app for his car. Either that or having the GM PIDs wouldn't allow it. Also couldn't see his bank 1&2 #1 O2's I could see Bank 2 1&2 but that's not a lot of help.

I've done the LIM on a bunch of 3.1 &3.4's but haven't really had any issues with them, other than that.

Jeff
 


I remember, when i first got my license, was on a gravel road in my 98 chevy malibu with abs/trac lights on. I assume the bearing was bad. Went in the ditch when going around a corner, car had water up to the top of the seats in the front. Called my sister, then proceeded to call a tow truck.

A couple years later, my sister and her boyfriend, still boyfriend as of now, were in her 06 g6 gt, apparently was speeding. The car hit a light pole, like the ones that they have with the huge cement barrier around it. Aprox speed from trafic report was 55, and this was in MN in the winter.

I was at work, got a call from a sheriff that there has been a accident, and I needed to go to Fargo, ND. I was a hour away. Two hours later, i was there with clothes for my sister, she broke her arm, had to have surgery later on, and was in a neck brace, made sure she was fine. Took her bf to his house about a hour and half away, he had to have 12 stitches on his head. She was in passenger seat, not wearing a seatbelt.

I seen the car about a year later in a insurance auction, the passenger tire was broke off the axle, a hole about the size of a basketball was on the window on the passenger side, and car was total wreck. Biohazard, nothing on the front end was good, might be able to take the rear tires and trunk lid, not much more mabey the engine or tranny if they weren't fked too.
 
J57ltr said:
Lol, I couldn't even imagine running any length of time with a plug missing,
Click to expand...
I blew a plug out of my Bronco years ago. Driving home on the freeway, chillin', when all of a sudden "bang" (plug hitting the hood) and what sounded like a train chugging along. I pulled over to see what was going on. Pop the hood to see a plug from the left bank sitting on top of the fender liner, with the plug wire still attached. I only had a short distance to get home, so I continued on. Turns out I didn't seat the plug properly, possibly due to cross threading it. The threads were fine so just had to properly re-install the plug and all was good.
 
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