My 1978 Dodge Monaco 4 door sedan.

[Chargerjase]

Geezus Gary, I'm so sorry to hear about your business woes brother. Prayers are with you and your family. Keep your chin up mate, it will all work out.

 

[Gary P]

Geezus Gary, I'm so sorry to hear about your business woes brother. Prayers are with you and your family. Keep your chin up mate, it will all work out.

Thanks brother, and thank you to all of you for your sentiments. We won't give up!

 

[moparedtn]

Prayers and best of wishes broadcast your way, Gary.
Yeah, this yeah has sucked royally for many of us - been there, done that.
If not for the kindness of many folks, we'd be dead in the water....
I pray you find similar help, as the work on that website is simply amazing!
God bless,
-Ed

 

[Gary P]

You guys are the greatest, most helpful and positive bunch of car guys I've ever come across - and I've been around a LOT of car guys in my time, internet based and in person. Thank you all for your well wishes and kind words of encouragement both professionally and regarding our beloved Monaco.

I must stress to you all, the kindness and well wishes come right back at ya! Thank you!

I better post something on topic... my buddy Steve was rooting around in our local "Antiques Mall" yesterday, and came across this, and texted me this picture.... the label said '65, I'm not sure if that's correct, but it was $5. I might go get it today, just for fun!

 

[moparedtn]

Oh hey Gary, I almost forgot - I ran across a baggie full of those plastic body plugs the
other day out in the garage.
Weren't you looking for some of those a while back?
If so, PM me your address and I'll send you these.

 

[HawkRod]

Gary, I certainly hope things turn around for you business wise - I'm sorry to hear business is slow.

On the other hand, I am glad to hear the Monaco is still running trouble free and that you enjoying driving the car around. Super!

From a business perspective - could you make custom car graphics and decals? If so, why not advertise here? Maybe some members want some custom graphics? Just thinking out loud...

Hawk

 

[Gary P]

Greetings everyone, and it's the holiday season again...I sure hope you can all have the Christmas that you want and deserve. Sending you all festive good wishes and all that jingle-bell-iousness!!

It's been a while since I posted, mostly because I got busy, not life-changing busy but busy none-the-less, and for that I am thankful.

Here's a Christmas Miracle that I love sharing.

A few days ago, I had a full wrap on a customers car to print and install. One of them suffers from MS, and I most certainly didn't want to leave them without a car while I carried out the work - so I left them with my VW Golf so they were not stranded. This allowed me to drive their car back to my shop, so I could install the wrap. It also, however, meant that my commute and going to see the wifey had to be made in the Monaco. I felt totally ok with this, because weirdly here in Central Utah, we have still had no significant snowfall so far in 2020. Anyways, long story short, the last quarter mile that I needed to drive the Monaco, the steering started whining and as I pulled up at the shop, it emptied all of its PS Fluid in pretty much one big puddle under the car - magically, right outside the shop where it's stored. It didn't leave me stranded.

After much gratitude that a tow truck was not involved in my morning commute, I emailed a customer of mine, also an FBBO member here, and asked him if he had some clues as to what, when and if a repair kit is available, or a new part or what. He responded immediately and mentioned this...Here's the top of the steering box. Just under that dome shaped thing, the recess is where everything is leaking from. Under it, there's a bad seal.

With that information I was a little at ease, either a new part or a seal kit if one exists, and I'll have a good oily project to get into one weekend when I have some cash. I hate not knowing, and the advice was well appreciated.

I had a couple of jobs and a meeting to go to. I assumed that I would have to park her up right here for a little while...

When I returned, I had an email from said FBBO member/customer , which read...

"Gary, we do a lot of business with NAPA and we have some pull with them as well as bonus credits accrued for special purchases we have made. I was able to secure a remanufactured steering box for you with some credits that we had. There is a NAPA store at Springville UT. Talk to a nice young lady named Christy and she will hand you over a steering box at no charge. She says that she will have this in stock after 12:30 today so head over any time after that."

Blown away much? Yes, that doesn't even come close to how I felt. And sure enough, I went over to NAPA and picked this up...

They say Christmas is the time of miracles. Now, I know a real Christmas miracle should be to feed the starving, house the homeless, or protect the vulnerable, so I am very much aware of perspective - but this was such an unexpected and kind thing to do for me, that I class it such. This site is full of excellence and I am fortunate enough to have an extended relationship with one of those excellent. All I reached out for was advice, I had no clue what was to come. Amazing.

A round of applause for that man, please!

(Identity kept secret until such a time as he decides to publicly get the praise he deserves!)

Steering box removal and replacement is next, I don't know when that will be, but it'll be soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

 

[moparedtn]

Greetings everyone, and it's the holiday season again...I sure hope you can all have the Christmas that you want and deserve. Sending you all festive good wishes and all that jingle-bell-iousness!!

It's been a while since I posted, mostly because I got busy, not life-changing busy but busy none-the-less, and for that I am thankful.

Here's a Christmas Miracle that I love sharing.

A few days ago, I had a full wrap on a customers car to print and install. One of them suffers from MS, and I most certainly didn't want to leave them without a car while I carried out the work - so I left them with my VW Golf so they were not stranded. This allowed me to drive their car back to my shop, so I could install the wrap. It also, however, meant that my commute and going to see the wifey had to be made in the Monaco. I felt totally ok with this, because weirdly here in Central Utah, we have still had no significant snowfall so far in 2020. Anyways, long story short, the last quarter mile that I needed to drive the Monaco, the steering started whining and as I pulled up at the shop, it emptied all of its PS Fluid in pretty much one big puddle under the car - magically, right outside the shop where it's stored. It didn't leave me stranded.

After much gratitude that a tow truck was not involved in my morning commute, I emailed a customer of mine, also an FBBO member here, and asked him if he had some clues as to what, when and if a repair kit is available, or a new part or what. He responded immediately and mentioned this...Here's the top of the steering box. Just under that dome shaped thing, the recess is where everything is leaking from. Under it, there's a bad seal.

View attachment 1038683

With that information I was a little at ease, either a new part or a seal kit if one exists, and I'll have a good oily project to get into one weekend when I have some cash. I hate not knowing, and the advice was well appreciated.

I had a couple of jobs and a meeting to go to. I assumed that I would have to park her up right here for a little while...
View attachment 1038685

When I returned, I had an email from said FBBO member/customer , which read...

"Gary, we do a lot of business with NAPA and we have some pull with them as well as bonus credits accrued for special purchases we have made. I was able to secure a remanufactured steering box for you with some credits that we had. There is a NAPA store at Springville UT. Talk to a nice young lady named Christy and she will hand you over a steering box at no charge. She says that she will have this in stock after 12:30 today so head over any time after that."

Blown away much? Yes, that doesn't even come close to how I felt. And sure enough, I went over to NAPA and picked this up...

View attachment 1038684

They say Christmas is the time of miracles. Now, I know a real Christmas miracle should be to feed the starving, house the homeless, or protect the vulnerable, so I am very much aware of perspective - but this was such an unexpected and kind thing to do for me, that I class it such. This site is full of excellence and I am fortunate enough to have an extended relationship with one of those excellent. All I reached out for was advice, I had no clue what was to come. Amazing.

A round of applause for that man, please!

(Identity kept secret until such a time as he decides to publicly get the praise he deserves!)

Steering box removal and replacement is next, I don't know when that will be, but it'll be soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

What a truly amazing story. Thanks so much for sharing it with us Gary!!
God does work through us - it's why we're all here really, to help each other - and whoever the FBBO
member is that has performed this heartwarming, AMAZING work needs to make themselves known!

I know personally of how many truly amazing humans occupy the FBBO ranks as well, as recently
experienced and you're right, Gary - it blows you away in so many ways.
I am so happy for you!

Ok, FBBO Santa Claus - come forward and receive your accolades!

 

[Don Frelier]

I suggest you get a new pressure hose as well. Carefully flush it before connection to the new box. The nut on the bottom is quite large like 1-3/8" and very tight. Good luck with it and keep us posted.

 

[Gary P]

Happy New Year!!

Well, the removal and replacement of the steering box has begun.

Here it is, with the lines removed, and the pin that holds the steering shaft to the coupler bashed out - this was simple.

Next was the daunting task of removing the huge nut on the bottom of the pitman arm, which is very large and of course, I didn't have the right sized socket....one just too small, and one just too big of course.

Now humor me for a second, due to the excessive oil leaks under here, the pitman arm and the nut were saturated, so therefor pre-soaked in some form of lube, right??...so I thought I would just try an adjustable wrench...just for a laugh...

It broke free!! Would you believe it? I did put a bar on the end of the wrench but it didn't take much!

So then I had to remove the pitman arm from the splines of the steering box output shaft....same principle applied, its been oily for ages so...

A good couple of hits downwards...

It moved!! It actually started to free itself, as you can sort of see here...

But alas, that's as far as I got. It wouldn't budge any more, no matter how medievil I got with the hammer. So progress stopped after an hour, and I need to go rent a puller.

Watch this space.

 

[moparedtn]

Happy New Year Gary, thanks for the update.
Glad to see you at it, giving the old iron hell.
Yep, definitely a puller - which some of the big box auto parts stores will let you borrow
free of charge, by the way.

 

[HawkRod]

If you haven't done so already, keep the steering perfectly centered to make things easier to go back together. I forget if the pitman arm is splined to only go on one way, but either way if you keep everything centered it will be easier to get it all back together straight. Before you put the remanufactured unit back in, turn it lock to lock and count the turns, then center that too before you put it in.

Good luck!

Hawk

 

[QOTHL]

Thanks for posting that. Took mine out a few mos ago and need to send it off to be restored. Hope it goes back in easier than it came out.

 

[Gary P]

Thanks you guys!

So, I rented a puller. It was too small. So I measured the head of the pitman arm and returned to O'Reilly's and rented the bigger one.

It came off relatively quickly. maybe ten minutes from getting under there, to it popping off! Yay!

Then came the unenviable task of undoing the three large bolts that hold this beast in place. It was a little tricky, just because of how little space there is to move about in there. But soon enough the bolts came out...

Yes my extension is bent but I sacrificed that one for the greater good (so I could get a ratchet on that upper bolt) It's ok, I have another.

 

[Don Frelier]

Sometimes these do the trick:

 

[Gary P]

Next, a diabolical hour or so, pulling the steering column out of the engine compartment a little, which meant undoing all the bits and bobs under the dash. I particularly enjoyed the bit where my back ruptured due to excessive stretching into silly shapes to reach the bolts...

Because I had already removed the pin holding the coupler to the steering box, a little tug on the steering wheel, and the assembly should let go of the box, right? No, it was a bear. I had to use a pickle fork to separate the box and coupler...

But it let go eventually.

I had my jack under the car to "catch" the steering box as I moved it around from above. I should be so lucky...it would have been magic had the steering box fallen out the bottom of the car. Instead, much wriggling and swearing ensued, hitting the exhaust manifold, the mounting bracket, trying not to hit brake lines and spark plug wires...and then, like some metal baby born to a mechanical midwife, it came free in my hands!!!!

 

[Gary P]

This valve assembly needed to be transferred from the old box to the new. I checked the inner seals and they were all very nice, so I went ahead and bolted it up...

And in went the new box - it went back in easier than the old one came out. No swearing, no injuries.

I'm going to replace the return line with a new piece of hose, but at this point I was very happy with how this had gone. Yes, it's not something I want to do again, by any means, but I figured it out with the help of you guys, so very pleased, I was.

 

[Gary P]

Now, this is where the weird stuff began. Everything was put back together. The front wheels lifted off the floor, and I turned the wheel to check equal rotations left and right...this was good. But I noticed the steering wheel had a lot of resistance behind it. By resistance, I don't mean that it's attached to an empty un-oiled and un-powered steering box, I mean resistance at the steering wheel end. I could feel and hear a tight rough noise inside the shifter/turn signal housing, like maybe I had pinched a bearing, or something was compressed in there. This was torture. Even the wifey, when I asked her to go see, said she could feel unusual resistance too.

Stumped much?

I took the steering wheel off, to see if I could see more...and I'm not afraid to admit my stupidity, that while the wheel was off, I used a vice grip to turn the steering column which chewed up a few of the splines, and now the steering wheel won't go back on again - but I used a magnifying glass to see, and I know I can use a needle-file to rectify my silly mistake.

But still the column was super tight. I asked around. Some of you guys chimed in on my "steering box woes" thread on another part of this forum and I'm grateful for that. But no matter how much I hoped looking at it would fix the issue, I knew, the column had to come out.

Dang it.

 

[Gary P]

Yeah, tell me about it.

To get the column out, was a complete 'mare. The shifter linkage was the worst culprit, and I had to come at it from many angles to get it to detach from the plate on the column. I actually had to destroy the grommet that holds it in. So now I am nervous I won't be able to find a replacement.

After generally being annoyed, the shifter coupling let go and the column came out, and I placed it on the bench.

I immediately turned the column, with my fingers.....buttery smooth and free.

WTF?????

 

[moparedtn]

Sorry, Gary. I know there is a repair kit for the steering coupling readily available from
several places, so if that's the "grommet" you're referring to, no worries there.
The source of your resistance/grinding? That's a bit tougher to answer...

Perhaps there is a difference in engagement distance between the splines of the old box
and the new one and when you reinstalled everything, it put the whole thing in a bind?
Or maybe, God forbid, there was damage inflicted in some part of the designed-in
collapsing feature of the shaft?

In any event, thank you for updating us and I do so enjoy the way you write!
I can commiserate with your struggles (I'm sure most of us can) because we've "been there"
too.
I'm going to defer to the more expert fellas here now - they'll know what to do!
Ed