March 13, 2005

Time Wasters or A Shocking Story

Today I was only going to spend an hour and a half to replace the front shocks on Candy. Well the best laid plans of mice and men. I spent 7 hours. Half my time it seems I spent looking for tools either needed or when I set them down and couldn't find them or fixing things that wanted to break.

You have to hold the top shaft of the shock with a 1/4 inch wrench and screw the nut off with a wrench. Luckily I have a ratchet wrench which makes it easier. But he threads on the top of the shocks had so much dirt and paint on them it was a real chore to turn them off.

Well I got the first shock off. I jacked up the car to have room to slide the shock in place. Once the shock was in place I noticed it was too long so I used a hand jack to push the shock up so the bolts would fit. I had a minor hassle getting everything to line up and keep the shock from slipping off the jack. I finally got the bolt on and boom a problem. I forgot to put the rubber cushion on the shaft under the a-frame. Well I need the cushion so I took the shock off, put the cushion on and bolted the shock on. I had to tap it in to place with a hammer so the hole and the bolt would line up. Once I got it all lined up and tightened boom the bolt snaps twists in half. I had to drill it out and use an easy out to get the broken part out. As luck would have it the broken piece came out. Having one less bolt than I needed I went to the auto parts store and bought 4 bolts.

With bolts in hand the assembly of the first shock went in without a hitch.

I took off the second shock. The top thread was even harder than the last. I gave up on the 1/4 inch wrench since it hurt my hand and used a vice grip to hold the shaft so I could turn off the bolt. The bottom bolts came off easily. Putting them on was another matter. I guess one of the last owners or mechanics stripped the holding nut on one of the two bottom bolts. They removed the old nut and use a clip nut replacement. Some how the clip and nut just turns when I tighten the bolt. I had to take the whole thing apart again and take off the clip and weld the nut on the clip so it will not turn. The nut was also kind of stripped so I had to get a tap to clean it up for effectiveness and ease of screwing the bolt on. Once I finished taping I started to install the bolt and found out the bolt I bought was too short making me go the agony box to look for a bolt. The bolt was 5/6 by 18 bolt. I had one but not a machine bolt with threads all the way to the head. To make this bolt work I had to use an extra washer. The bolt's threads were dirty making me have to clean up the threads with a die.

Finally got it all together and notice I had broken a wire off the alt making me splice it together. In that process I broke and had to repair the connector to the alt.

With all that done I cleaned my tools. I had kept my tool box in my boat and some how the tool box got filled up with water. As you might imagine the tools were very rusty and dirty from the experience making clean up a major operation.

Well I found out how to kill a whole afternoon.

March 22, 2005

Since I didn't pass inspection for bad tires I went to Pepboys and bought 4 new tires. I also replaced the windshild wipers. Got her to pass today. Good for another year.