I had a flat tire, so I figured this would be a good time! (which may or may not have resulted from spinning into a dirt bank at speed)



Well, I went out an bought some jack stands. After over 1.5 hours, I decided that it was impossible to put the car on 4 stands (it always rested on 3). So I settled for setting up the front for now, and do the rear later. Keep in mind that most of this stuff I'm doing for the first time.



I removed the two front rims/tires. I unclipped the brake line mount from the shock mount (pardon my rudementary terms). Using my less-than-brute strenth, I managed to remove the castle nut, and the lowest mounting bolt on the left hub assembly. At this point, I had toilet paper shoved in my ears, and was pretty much inhaling mosquitos, so I called it quits. I know, not so exciting. But I'll use this thread for my updates.



Oh, and before I get too frustrated, I think I'll try to borrow an air wrench from somebody. That ought to speed things up, assuming it's not too hard to screw something up bigtime when using an air wrench for the first time.

Well, I was just informed that an air wrench would be rather inexpensive. Guess I know what I'm doing on my lunch break!

eating lunch? i dont like air tools myself, but they do speed things up



mike

Actually, I did eat lunch.



I'm just not strong enough to get some of these bolts loose, and I doubt I'm strong enough to put them back as secure as I'd like. (this is assuming that an air wrench is stronger than me)



for the lowest bolt, I actually positioned the wrench, and I had to lay down and sidekick it to loosen it up. The top two mounting bolts (one is above the other) aren't as easily accessible, so I couldn't perform the same manuever.

more torque is all you need... don't you have a breaker bar? You could also try to buy one of those cheap ass electric impact wrenches. I saw one ebay for like $30 that puts out 200+ lbs of torque. I imagine it would last as least one job..

this is where i use my big hammer



mike

I though your not supposed to use air tools on your suspention parts I heard this somewhere

someone better let me know, quick

you can use air tools on everything



mike

cool! thanks!

Just don't get too wild when tightening stuff up.. Some things need to be torqued down, and others are weak.. Just use common sense..

common...what?



j/k...I'll look over the torque specs in the haynes manual

you can adjust the torque on air tools.

I prefer assembly by hand, otherwise air tools is

way to go, once you use good air tools you are spoiled.



By the way, a 1/4 air ratchet is the tool to have when

working on the bodies of a car, doesnt have enough power to

break anything and makes assembling and dissassembling bumpers, tailights, fenders,and other parts a breeze, especially for those long bolts.

maybe your thinking about using a impact gun on custom rims?

yeah, I figured the air wrench will help more with disassembly, and I could assemble by hand, just to keep the "oh ****" factor down.







so I decided to go get the wrench, and borrow a compressor. Then my wife says, "hey, you're going to buy a compressor someday, might as well get one today." man, I love her.



so I got the wrench, compressor, hose, tire filler w/gauge, but couldn't try it out because it was 10 pm. Tonight should see more progress.

aNOTHER HELPFUL HINT YOUNG GRASSHOPPER:



ALAYS SPRAY THE THREADS OF THE FASTENERS YOU ARE REMOVING WITH PB BLASTER OR KROIL https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683894.gif

yeah, I've got a can of pb blaster nearby at all times. what I didn't do was spray it yesterday, so it could sit all today https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub..._DIR#>/sad.png .



Any other tips are appreciated, as like I've stated above, much of what I do is for the first time.

yOU DO HAVE A PROPER 10mm FLARE-NUT WRENCH FOR THE BRAKE LINES:CORRECT?

IF NOT HOME DEPOT HAS A DECENT ONE

I actually just bought a small flare wrench set like 2 days ago, while trying to change my wife's fuel filter. It didn't work, but now I have the correct wrenches! Will I need that for where the line from the hub attaches to the line from the car? I was wondering about that point.

yes you will need it there.



And a tip for the compressor- dont use a extension cord and

find a outlet that has good juice going to it. They usually

work at first, then when it fills with air and stops it will pop the

breaker when it goes to start again.



Unless you have a gas compressor, I now have both for

doing mobile jobs on my own.

well, there was only one outlet in the carport, and it had one of those built-in breakers (you know, with the "reset" and "test" buttons), which didn't work worth crap. I had to run an extension cord inside the house. I didn't have any problems.





last night I finished the front left completely, which wasn't very difficult. Then I removed everything on the front right. 2 problems I had:



The castle nut for the, um, steering bar stud thing (yeah, you know what I mean) came off easily, but I couldn't get it to go on easily. I tried a bunch, until I pretty much just screwed it on, even though it showed resistance.



Problem 2: doing all the math to figure out my torque wrench is bad enough, but torquing 1,000 inch pounds is a pain in the ass.

just remembered another problem I had.



the rubber seal thing on the ball joint stud is ripped open. how difficult to replace?

evidently not difficult at all!





should I make a write up when I'm done? (with the whole thing, not the seal)

evidently not difficult at all!





should I make a write up when I'm done? (with the whole thing, not the seal) [/quote]

sure, I don't think there is one in FAQ's.

Another tip with air tools and impact tools. DO NOT use them on bolts/screws that are going into aluminum.

so far, I've only been using it for loosening. It's made things a real snap.



I have yet to move on to the rear end, busy weekend with brother graduating, moving out inlaws, and mother's day.