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| 37 years old..things break down (Page 2/2) |
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cliffw
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MAY 25, 11:00 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by tbone42:
This week I was supposed to be working on the bus conversion...and things just keep cropping up. |
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There must be a rain cloud above your head. That never happens to us,  .
| quote | Originally posted by tbone42:
... on the driver's side the metal grabbed the drill bit, sent it through the hole and RIGHT INTO my CV boot.
Out comes the oil, making a mess and I proceeded with a ridiculous amount of cussing and swearing. |
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Grease, not oil.
| quote | Originally posted by tbone42:
I have no choice but to drive it to pick up the parts. I know it's going to throw grease everywhere but not many other options unless I can borrow someone's car. My bus isn't insured right now (that's a whole other story) so I'm down to just the Fiero at the moment. |
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Your Fiero's short shaft has life yet. Let it die for the cause. Your worn short shaft will not let you down. It will give you time.
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tbone42
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MAY 26, 10:02 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by cliffw:
Your Fiero's short shaft has life yet. Let it die for the cause. Your worn short shaft will not let you down. It will give you time. |
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Too late. Spent the whole afternoon doing the job. First trouble was separating the lower ball joint from the knuckle. That took forever, and my ball joint boot is now buggered. I'll get that done later. Next problem was removing the old seal, it had what appeared to be rtv around it and there's just no room to swing a mallet to work it out. That took forever.
Next problem I had was the new seal, buggered the first one than had to borrow a friend's car to go get another. Thankfully Smyth ordered an extra, pretty smart thinking. Second seal went in with one nice tap on the 2"pvc pipe I use for such occasions. Last problem was getting the ball joint back into the hole in the knuckle. Found out I could only do it if I removed the bearing assembly to give me some play. That took forever.
I learned a lot of stuff today, like "screw trying to put the splash shield back on under the bearing hub." Mine was all bent up and fatigued anyhow. What else did I learn? I need a garage. This was an ordeal on the gravel, and of course I lost an 18 mm socket somewhere in the rocks. Ill only find it after it's rusty. 🙄
Tomorrow: replace the tach board so my RPMs are correct and do the oil change. Also taking off the fuel pressure sender because it's leaking. Redo the threads with threadlock and reinstall them just waiting on a new ebrake handle and I'm *gasp* done for now. Then I have 3 whopping days of vacation left to work on the bus.
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Patrick
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MAY 26, 10:11 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by tbone42:
First trouble was separating the lower ball joint from the knuckle. That took forever, and my ball joint boot is now buggered.
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Never use a pickle fork (which is what I suspect you used) on a ball joint that you aren't prepared to replace.
This is what you want to use. Relatively simple to make, or get one from Rodney.
 [This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 05-26-2023).]
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tbone42
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MAY 29, 12:35 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by Patrick:
Never use a pickle fork (which is what I suspect you used) on a ball joint that you aren't prepared to replace.
This is what you want to use. Relatively simple to make, or get one from Rodney.
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I didn't, I don't own one. I was using the jack on the knuckle to push up, then beat downwards on the A Arm with a piece of wood and a 5 pound sledge. The angle was the problem, when i removed the bearing (tried separating without doing it at first) it finally gave me a way to angle the knuckle so the pin would come out. I think I buggered the boot with the piece of wood, but was trying not to. Original ball joint, probably would have torn just by looking at it It's all good, was going to get poly covers for my ball joints and this will no doubt start that process shortly.
When I jacked the knuckle that high, the old shaft came apart right at the inner boot...made removal pretty easy haha, but there was more grease everywhere. This grease is old, it runs like oil probably completely useless after 37 years. I'll probably replace theing shaft at some point coming as well, but my wallet is running warm and it still works. I'll get a separator tool before then.
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