63 Miles On Jack Stands
Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2017 6:40 pm
Yep. Sixty three more miles on this brand new 1991 Lexus LS 400 as I lost my nerve and refused to remove its original driveshaft. So, like down in Florida, I had the car up on a jack, the entire exhaust system halfway down resting on another jack, and I was underneath sliding two large worm clamps through every possible location, forward, mid, rearward, front shaft, forward, mid, rearward on the rear shaft, through a total of 1,728 permutations of two clamps in eight different radial locations in six different axial positions each. So, actually, it only took 63 miles, or 180,180 rotations of the driveshaft, to come up with the "best balance yet", which is to say, "not that good, but at an indicated 97 mph, the ambient noise and vibration drowned out the imbalance 'good nuff'." And the incredible heat of the exhaust system and engine trapped in the garage might have helped me decide that "this will have to do." Then Chloe drove the new used driveshaft over to the storage unit where my 30 day guarantee shall expire shortly:
The next day, I got to work on my old friend, the 1992 Lexus LS 400 at 137,848 miles, which has punished me horribly for my disloyalty in giving it to my brother. It is the one that threw a bunch of warning lights and error codes that I have been trying to bat down over the past three days. Traction Control code 51, code 19, engine code 25, and a "bulb out" warning light took up two days. On the third day, I put my brother to work cross-hatch sanding the brake discs:
And I committed brutal hackery on the brake light sockets with a soldering iron to re-establish electrical contact with the melted brake terminal ends inside the sockets:
This is actually sort of horrific:
.. .. .. to have two examples of one of the more complicated cars ever built in the same driveway:
It is also a little weird to have tweedle-dee tweedle-dum matching Lexi shared between two brothers, but I understand how I got here, and I would do it all again if I had to - I was so not ready to get rid of that car:
But I have a new problem, this new 1991 Lexus is in waaaaaay too good of a condition to use as a winter-beater, but I bought it to be my winter-beater. What a maroon:
The next day, I got to work on my old friend, the 1992 Lexus LS 400 at 137,848 miles, which has punished me horribly for my disloyalty in giving it to my brother. It is the one that threw a bunch of warning lights and error codes that I have been trying to bat down over the past three days. Traction Control code 51, code 19, engine code 25, and a "bulb out" warning light took up two days. On the third day, I put my brother to work cross-hatch sanding the brake discs:
And I committed brutal hackery on the brake light sockets with a soldering iron to re-establish electrical contact with the melted brake terminal ends inside the sockets:
This is actually sort of horrific:
.. .. .. to have two examples of one of the more complicated cars ever built in the same driveway:
It is also a little weird to have tweedle-dee tweedle-dum matching Lexi shared between two brothers, but I understand how I got here, and I would do it all again if I had to - I was so not ready to get rid of that car:
But I have a new problem, this new 1991 Lexus is in waaaaaay too good of a condition to use as a winter-beater, but I bought it to be my winter-beater. What a maroon: