Update,,,,
I've added some videos for everyone to enjoy. Picking up the body from the cradle with a HiLo and dragging the cradle out on a pallet. Scroll down to my youtube post.

Yeah, air tools won hands down, besides it was fun. Check out the pictures, that's me with a fresh disc on the cut off wheel. Nothing like venting some frustration with a little more power, a "Binford 6100 wheel" no less. Safety glasses, safety gloves, long sleeved sweater, yes let the sparks fly baby!









My first cradle drop, got most everything disconnected except the ebrake cable, two trans hoses, fuel lines finger tight and those two coolant hoses. I'm less than a half hour of work away from success when I resume.

Yeah, we had a little Fiero reunion. I own both white coupes, sold the GT to the wife of my co-worker, she loves it.

[This message has been edited by jetman (edited 05-25-2008).]

quote Originally posted by jetman: sold the GT to the wife on my co-worker, she loves it.

Boy ... talk about your awkward social situations ... but as long as she's happy


Rich

It kinda looks like you are doing this work in a parking garage! Probably not, but it still looks cool.

quote Originally posted by fieroguru: It kinda looks like you are doing this work in a parking garage! Probably not, but it still looks cool.

Thats the shop area at work where we park all of the service trucks, I'm working in the mechanics area. Got atarted at about 9:00AM after we got the crews out on their routes. Had to jump start the Fiero, assemble tools and run the floor cleaning machine to vacuum up all the water left behind by the service trucks.

I started on pulling vent covers, battery, grounds, C-500 connector, then inside console, ECM connections, intake, vacuum lines and vac hoses, throttle cable, automatic shift cable, loosened coolant hose, loosened fuel lines, disconnected air conditioning lines, dog bone and then got to the wheel liners, splash guards.

Man alive, those stupid plastic fasteners on the wheel liners were murder to get out, I'm going to replace them. After performing my open frame surgery, cleaned up and it was about 3:00 pm

Anyone have a source for those little plastic well well fasterers?
How do you disconnect the e-brake cable? I want to disconnect the main cable to drop the cradle assembly with brakes attached.

Oh yeah, thanks Rich.

I got mine off of ebay ....


Here is one link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymot...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
This one is ardel distributors I usually order from them direct but their website (ardeldistributors.com) is currently down.


Rich


Oh, and about the other post .... Don't mention it

weld that sucker back up when your done.

Thats text book how to do it there, exactly how I do it, well except I usually wear short sleeve shirts, and squint away from the sparks as I cut bare handed, but to each his own

I actually would wear saftey glasses if I could ever find them. Which makes me wonder, how do I keep loosing them if I can never find them when I need to use them? I guess the underpants gnomes have moved up in the world...

yep, been there , twice.. still prefer those over stubborn front ones..

Just a thought for next time.

My rear bolts came out remarkably easy, it seems that the prior owner coated the threads with an antisieze compound before reinstalling the rear cradle bolts, this really protected the threads from moisture and subsequent siezing. I'll be doing that when things go back together this time too.

Oh, yeah, air tools rock, I need to pick up a die grinder for some upcoming work.

Cheers

I'm all about that anti-sieze, thanks for the reminder.

Whats that old jingle? "Nothing beats deep heating?" Well I took a torch to the cradle capture nuts, heated them up almost to glowing, clamped down on the nut with vice grips and used an 18 MM socket on an impact wrench. That made fast work out of that. For those who don't have access to air tools, a long breaker bar and an 18 MM socket will do the trick also.

Tomorrow I will finish the cradle drop with just the front bolts to go.

quote Originally posted by jetman: I'm less than a half hour of work away from success when I resume.

Before you know it, after a couple more drops, you'll be able to do everything in a half hour

------------------
87 SE V6 Turbo

Screw the L67...

Front cradle bolt update,,,,

Actually not bad at all. At first the impact wrench did not budge it so I heated up the drivers side for two minutes and the nut came right off. I took an 18MM ratchet wrench to the head of the bolt, broke it loose and with the use of a BF hammer and channel locks, backed it out. I did that on both sides.



I had positioned my jack stands in the center (front to back) of each side of the cradle, only had to use a floor jack on the drivers side to take the pressure off the bolt. I could tell exactly how I was doing on unloading the pressure on the bolt by turning it as I was gently lifting with the floor jack until I got to minimum resistance.



I used the company HiLo to lift and extracted the cradle on a pallet with my other Fiero and a tow strap.



I reconsidered my decision to use an electrical cord, I used a towing strap instead, worked great to pull pallet of Fiero cradle out from under the car.

The HiLo is my new engine stand, hahahaha.


You know, I did all this by myself, no outside help whatsoever, kinda proud about that. I uploaded about 60 photos of the project to my photo page for everyone to enjoy.

Link is here.

http://www.jetman.smugmug.c...4958542_QKwbE#P-1-16

ya so far on the drivers side cradle bolt, the last one i have to get out before i can drop it, ive broken numerous sockets, wrenches, extenders and just yesturday i added a dremel to the list while i was trying to cut the head off it. Im so close to lol. Air tools would be nice.

Oh man alive, sounds like you're having a tough time of it, sorry to hear that. Front bolt or rear? Did you try taking a small propane torch to it? Heating up the bolt might help help break the bond of rust. If you got a "Tool Trader's" near you, they re-sell tools, you can pick up good sockets inexpensively, get a 6-point in an 18 MM, that's the one you need.

I know that it's a bear to get those bolts out, stick with it, you'll get it.

Now how are you going to get the cradle back under the car?

quote Originally posted by Emc209i: Now how are you going to get the cradle back under the car?

AAaaaahahahahaha. Yeah, I just knew that there would be a wise guy in the group.

You make a valid point though as I don't have a wheeled dolly. I was thinking about putting the engine cradle on a short pallet right next to the rear bumper, then use the HiLo, lift and pull the body over the engine. If I had longer forks, I could lift the body from the side, wouldn't that be cool.