Fireworks, Subie and Muscatine.

After a very long 4th of July,  I skipped yesterday's post about fireworks.   So I will post them today....  just because I took the darn photos!


Boom!


Boom! Boom! Boom!

Drain and fill plugs. 

Time to drain,   It came off easy. 

Ok,  with that out of the way,  now for what I did yesterday.  ( This is what happens when you live an ultimately, awesome life and skip a day's blog post....)   Yesterday, I worked on the Subaru.   I did the Rear differential.   Having never done it before.... and having never done it before 170,000 miles ago!   I decided to take things slow, be methodical, and basically did my best not to screw up. 

Find the proper torque requirements. 

New crush washers. 

First:  Jack up the car and secure it.... Done!   The drain bolt and the fill bolt are both 17 mm. and they came loose easily.

Love my Torque wrench! 

Just to be safe,  I had the book available at all time.   I even had several crush bolts available, just in case there was one... ( There was!)  So I replaced it with a new one.

Find the right Gear Oil. 

Special Tip from Eric the Car Guy.

Time to fill the thing.   Eric the Car Guy showed me a cool way to fill the awkward fill hole with a small section of tubing.   It  would have worked great...had the cap on the bottle actually remained attached while squeezing.   I ended up spilling more than I had liked, but the job only called for .8 quarts.   And I checked the level with my finger to make sure it was there.   ( I would have liked it to overflow, but I could not tell if it was that, or the mess I was making trying to fill it. )

Top it off till it runs out of the fill
plug. 

Small note,   Gear oil STINKS!   It is the worst smelling liquid I have ever put in a car.   And even after the job was finished and  after I showered and changed my clothes...   I continued to smell it for the rest of the day.

Front Diff..    What is this!?!

With that success under my belt, I attempted the front differential.  This should have been easier,  since the fill opening was on the top, inside the engine bay.   All I had to do was get that drain plug open...

T70 Torx socket.  "Torx." Because
Mechanics speak a different language.

But the drain plug was NOT a 17 mm.  It was a star nut.  Or Torx bit...for people in the know.   I am not one of those people apparently.     I still do not know what size the darn thing is.   Most likely, it is a T 70...because the set I just purchased from Harbor freight only goes up to a T 60 sized bit.   I'm prepared to be disappointed.   Cheryl has ordered the T70 already, just in case.  And I figure I will tackle the job when it arrives.  Hopefully, with all this waiting and dilly dally-ing ...The job will probably be dead simple.  Meaning,  what should have taken 15 minutes..took me 4 days to complete!   Typical "Ethan's Do-It-Yourself Job."

Barges in Muscatine. 

Riding on the dike

And finally,   Muscatine.   Cheryl and I rode 25 miles today, up and down the Mississippi.   Yesterday, we rode 22 in Coralville and the Kewash Trail.   You would think we are preparing for RAGBRAI or something... but we are not.   Just two middle aged people trying to act as if we are young.   OR at least not as old as we actually are.  My hope is that somehow the suntan, sweat, and aches and pains in the groin areas will pay off when we are retirement age.  ( Not that we are ever going to be able to retire!   That is what smart people who keep a job for 30 years can do...)

The "Prarie Dawn" pushing 15 barges. 

Well,  We will try not to do anything exciting tomorrow, so  if I skip a blog day, I won't have to pile them all up later.    Thanks for stopping in.  Oh,  and Stay cool!