Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Changing the water pump on my Riviera. Part Three.

In many ways the Series Two engine is a thing of beauty.

It turns out that RockAuto sent me the wrong water pump. Unfortunately I didn't catch that until I compared the old pump to the new one prior to installation.

Clearly they are different. I'll put this up for sale on CraigsList.

The R/A pump has a bigger pulley mounting hub, The belt pulley wouldn't fit over it. This would have been apparent if I'd inspected the pump more closely when it arrived. Unfortunately I didn't check it out for over a month, well past the return date.

It always important to compare the new part with the existing component to be sure that they are identical.

So I went straight to my local NAPA affiliate indie parts store, Evergreen Auto Supply. They had the right pump in stock, and it only cost me about fifteen bucks more than the R/A part. It was actually less than that, since I didn't have to pay for any shipping. Luckily, I don't need to have the Riviera available as a daily driver so I have the luxury of dragging my feet. However when time is of the essence, I'll often just skip online shopping and hit Evergreen Auto. Online is usually cheaper, but not always better.

These studs have a torx head on them. It was the upper stud,

A bit of extra drama occurred when I lost one of the motor mount studs. I dropped it and though I (thought) heard it hit the floor, I just couldn't find it. I looked all around (and around!) and still couldn't find it! This is a specific use part, so I really needed it. However digging around, I found a bolt that I could substitute in my magic bolt stash, but I preferred to use the correct part. I even went down to the Buick dealer to ask the parts guy if they had one in stock, gathering dust on a shelf somewhere. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the Buick dealer had now morphed into a GMC/Hummer franchise! 

I guess that there is more money to be made by selling big SUVs than little Korean Buicks! The parts guy informed me that they still sold parts and serviced Buicks, but that stud was no longer available.  Of course.

I was a bit disappointed, as I didn't want to look like a poor mechanic that had to cobble up something on that finely engineered mill, but I resigned myself to that fate. 

After I started buttoning up the job, I was lying on my back putting the bolts back into the power steering pump, I saw the stud laying somewhat hidden on the subframe. No wonder I couldn't find it on the floor. 

Reassembly was the reverse of disassembly, as they say in those helpful Haynes and Chilton manuals. I refilled the radiator as much as I could in preparation of firing up the motor. It started up without a problem, or apparent coolant leaks. I had remembered to charge

up the battery before this. Now it would be ready to exit the garage once I figured out how to shore up the garage door. 

I'd put off that job long enough, but now the Holidays, were over and it was time to get down to business!

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One job that I haven't put off is updating this blog. I have often wondered why the number of daily page views didn't match the number of individual post view numbers. The total daily page views are listed up at the top of my info page, and the individual post numbers are in a series that are matched with thumbnail photos from the postings. 

I'd often wondered, how come there are 150 page views for the day, but the individual listings only added up to 35. What I didn't realize was that the blog can be viewed in two formats on a smart phone. Those individual numbers were from people reading the blog on their smart phones.  

I asked my Wife if it would be possible to change the format on the computer version to the thumbnail style. She did a bit of research and showed me how to update each individual post. I had hoped that I could just do a couple of keystrokes and change all of them automatically. No such luck, I'd have to update each old post individually. Of course all my new posts would follow the new format as I publish them. There are over 500 posts in my archive.

I'd been posting approx 50 posts each for the last eight years, so there were a lot to update.

This will make my site much more user friendly and easier to search. The reader can scroll through current and recent postings, or pick a year out of the archive and scroll through a year of posts, clicking on a thumbnail and teaser sentence that catches their interest. 

I hope that this will encourage new readers to explore the early years of my blog. Going through the earlier posts I found many that I remembered very fondly. I hope that my readers will find them equally entertaining.

Again, thanks for your interest and support.