Well yesterday me and my Dad un-installed my 42% reduction underdrive pulley and installed my 310 lph fuel pump.
I wanted to take off the UD because I didn't want it slowing down the water pump for when I get my turbocharger, and because it had already eaten one battery and, after about a year, I got tired of little things like when I came to a stop my lights would dim and when I'd get going again they would brighten back up. I couldn't have my sound system up too high when I was idling or for too long because it wouldn't continue to charge my alternator. Last year when me and some of my buddies took my car to Panama City, we were going down the strip at night (more like inching down the strip because of traffic) with the windows down (so no AC) and alll I had on were the headlight/fog lights and my stereo system (up pretty high) when, all of a sudden, it just cut off. I started freaking out and didn't know what was going on and my lights started dimming and my power windows were going VERY slow. Then I realized it was the UD, and I never could get it charged back up enough until the drive back home. There were also several times when I just had my headlights on when I was parked for a while (like 10 minutes) and had to be jumped off because my battery had already run down. So in short, it never really charged my battery enough.
We did learn a few things this time around tho...
When installing a new or old pulley, don't bother with a the pulley installer. All you need is a rubber mallett. Tap both sides of the pulley in even amounts to get it on the crank shaft far enough to get the bolt to thread and then just torque it down to 125 ft lbs. and your good to go. Maybe someone already knew this but we didn't until we couldn't get the installer to work properly.
But it only took us about 2 1/2 hours, when the first time around it took us about 6 hours because we never had the right parts.
Next was the fuel pump install...
Neither me nor my Dad had ever installed a fuel pump before, so with the trusty Haynes manual and common sense at our side we went at it. It took about 5 1/2, but we managed with no major problems other than me getting pinned by the fuel tank while underneath the car. The manual suggested using a jack to support the tank but we thought "Naw, we don't need that", so we start unplugging lines and so on when we get down to one clamp and we would be home free. So I'm under it, while Dad inspects the clamp that's holding one side when all of a sudden the clamp gets tired and lets go. That sucked but overall the install was probably a 6 or 7 out of 10 just because there is a lot to do. Nothing really difficult, just a lot to keep track of. I did learn that it will be impossible for me to change my own fuel filter however, because neither me or Dad (who is incredibly strong) could get the lines disconnected from the filter...?
But then I rewarded myself by putting on some SS bumper inserts after removing crappy decal inserts. I didn't realize just how bad the decals sucked until I stepped back and looked at the SS ones. Very Nice.
