rust is a worthy opponent

last night i decided to go out while it had stopped raining and at least try to get my new starter installed. first off, the starter is so hard to get to, it must have been one of the first things on the car when they built it. my service manual should have told me to remove the body in order to get to it. anyway, i unhooked the two wires making certain that i knew where they went on the new starter. i got the upper mounting bolt nut off (that's in the engine compartment behind the fan!) and then went to work on the lower nut. it's encased in rust and after several application of liquid wrench, it's still on the car. it's so tight in there, that i couldn't get a ratchet on the bolt and had to resort to a wrench. and there's barely room for that. so i soaked it again and left it.

after that disappointment, i decided to try and get the old master cylinder off and get that area ready for the new one. after looking around, i decided to just leave the old one on for now and not even mess with it. the steel brake lines seriously look soldered on. they are extremely tight and i know that i'd just end up having to replace all the lines. this is another item that is just awful to get to. i could barely get my flared wrench in there to try and get the lines off and then i had no room to break them loose. ugh.

at this point, i just packed up and went inside. the cloud of mosquitoes was laughing at me but i didn't care. today i'll pick up new rear bearings and gaskets and another steel line in order to get the brakes done tonight. then i'll just have the starter and some engine work to do.