In reply to Toyman! :
My 86 year old father-in-law is the same - he needs to add air to his well tank so he's in his crawl space with a small pump and knocks some tube off the pump shooting water everywhere. He makes it out to pull the fuse.
Me: what's the voltage down there? 220? Can you get electrocuted? (Me trying to rile up wife)
Him; yes, 220. No, no I wouldn't get electrocuted. Right - that's all I need.
Who thought it was a good idea to design driveshaft bolts so they can only turn with the open end of a wrench?
Having to deal with the contradictory thoughts of being annoyed by someone's posting content, while simultaneously worrying about their mental state and hoping they are okay.
Toyman! said:
He's going to die with a tool in his hand. I guess that's better than the alternative but I'm dreading that day.
Remaining active keeps people vital. When people retire to total leisure, that's when both their physical and mental capabilities fade fast. Doing work is taking care of himself.
I'd rather keel over suddenly with a tool in my hand than fade for days, weeks, or months lying in a bed.
Just did an MIB style fingerprint removal while welding. Then a piece of spatter got in my pants and did not get back out.
NickD
MegaDork
10/15/22 5:54 p.m.
I'm so sick of the local rails-to-trails crowd. There are already hundreds of miles of hiking/snowmobile trails in the Adirondacks. We don't need more berkeleying trails. Stop trying to close down an active business and tourist attraction. Every post on Facebook is full of the trail cronies making nasty comments, including one video where there was a comment of "I hope the bridge fails and kills every one of the nitwits aboard." Even more disturbing was the comment had dozens of likes.
My Dirty Martinis was in a glass with ice.
Blasphemy!
Rant #1 - Just had to cancel the trip to see Sabaton tomorrow night because a) I've been feeling like E36 M3 warmed over for the last few days and b) I'm not willing to risk someone bumping into my injured ribs and shoulder in a GA venue that looks like standing room only. Hey, it's not like I've been looking forward to this for months but TBH I'd rather make sure I'm in shape to see Iron Maiden next weekend.
Rant #2 - how come that an expensive nice hotel has a worse cancelation policy in the current times than a berkeleying Motel 6? My wife had booked us into a nice hotel close to the venue as a bit of a treat and we just threw away all that cash as well as that hotel as a 48h cancellation policy. Yeah, yeah, I know, the fine print taketh away but I how come that that's never an issue with the cheaper chain hotels?
In reply to BoxheadTim :
Call or go online and move your reservation to a few weeks from now, wait a day, cancel.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
Good idea, didn't think of that and my wife already canceled the reservation so it's too late. Either way it irks me - I used to travel a lot for work in the past and even with nice hotels, I never ran into this. But apparently it's now a thing.
The other thing is to not book via third-party websites as that can make these things simpler.
Why can't ball joint boots be made out of some sort of kevlar (or other)-reinforced material? Yeah, here's a control arm you have to beat into place. By they way, keep the ball joint boot from touching the spindle or the brake disc or anything else with a sharp or rough edge while you are laying under the car with a hammer.
I love driving my Mazda5. I hate working on it.
In reply to eastsideTim :
Die grinder to clean the rust from the ball joint hole so it slips in easily. Carabiners to hold the knuckle out of the way while you get the control arm in. And a generous return policy with the parts store when all else fails. "Uh, damaged in shipping."
I have been known to remove the boot for troublesome applications, or press in ball joints where the easy way in is to heat the knuckle dull red, slip the joint in, and quench with water real fast. (Except for aluminum, which goes liquid before it goes red...)
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Got any advice for the tie rod end? One side I was able to use an adjustable wrench on the end, and a 24 mm open wrench on the nut, and the end came loose, and I just tightened it back up against the nut that wouldn't budge. On the other side, nothing is moving, despite multiple applications of Kroil, a torch, and a hammer. I am deforming the nut a little bit, though.
If I had time, I'd get a new adjusting nut, and get a nut breaker to crack the one on there off. I'm supposed to be on the road to the challenge tomorrow morning, though.
Edit: Never mind - MAPP gas torch did the trick. I think the adjusting nut is still stuck, or it only moved a tiny bit, just enough to allow the tie rod end to loosen. Now I just need to wait for it to cool, install the new tie rod end, and hope alignment is still close enough. I used OEM tie rods, and they appear dimensionally the same.
In reply to eastsideTim :
If the tie rod turns easily, spin it off, take a careful measurement of the position of the lock nut in relation to the end of the tie rod, then clamp the tie rod with a good set of vice grips and go after the nut with a deep socket and a good impact wrench. Run in and out until threads are cleaned up then put it back where it was and adjust to your hearts desire.
11GTCS
Dork
10/16/22 8:57 p.m.
In reply to Antihero :
#firstworldproblems
Edited to add, not a place that makes too many martinis?
wae
PowerDork
10/16/22 9:19 p.m.
I'm building a chicken plucker for a friend (who has chickens that will need to be plucked. I am not friends with an actual chicken). The whole time I've been working on this I've just sort of hand-waved the whole bit of "and I'll mount the motor...uh... you know... somewhere. Eh, I'll figure it out when I get there".
I am now there.
Time to get out the Kentucky Thinking Juice.
The problem with with motherberkeleyers rolling stop signs in my neighborhood and driving at me, the guy who completely stops? That guy might have followed one of these shiny happy people to their houses and called them an idiot. Or a dumb berkeley. Or both.
My brain is mush and has been for the last week since I got back for Vegas. If I am honest it has been a while I have been pushing it back. I am 100% going back on my drugs starting next month. I hate feeling like I suck and second guessing everything I do.
I cannot eat easily on the drugs though so I am packing on the food right now and feel even worse for doing it.
11GTCS said:
In reply to Antihero :
#firstworldproblems
Edited to add, not a place that makes too many martinis?
It was a Red Lobster so not exactly fine dining but I'd assume I'm not the first to order it.
But I ate about 150 shrimp to make up for it lol
Streetwiseguy said:
In reply to eastsideTim :
If the tie rod turns easily, spin it off, take a careful measurement of the position of the lock nut in relation to the end of the tie rod, then clamp the tie rod with a good set of vice grips and go after the nut with a deep socket and a good impact wrench. Run in and out until threads are cleaned up then put it back where it was and adjust to your hearts desire.
The lock nuts appear to have not actually been able to turn. It was just the tie rod ends that broke loose from them. So, the alignment should be the same as I just tightened up the new ends against the lock nuts. In reality, the car is still tracking straight, but the wheel is now just slightly off center. I am going to do a very quick check on toe in the morning and if it is inside the spec (.08" +- .2"), or even a little out of that, I'll let it ride for this trip, and deal with getting the lock nuts loosened when I get home.
eastsideTim said:
Streetwiseguy said:
In reply to eastsideTim :
If the tie rod turns easily, spin it off, take a careful measurement of the position of the lock nut in relation to the end of the tie rod, then clamp the tie rod with a good set of vice grips and go after the nut with a deep socket and a good impact wrench. Run in and out until threads are cleaned up then put it back where it was and adjust to your hearts desire.
The lock nuts appear to have not actually been able to turn. It was just the tie rod ends that broke loose from them. So, the alignment should be the same as I just tightened up the new ends against the lock nuts. In reality, the car is still tracking straight, but the wheel is now just slightly off center. I am going to do a very quick check on toe in the morning and if it is inside the spec (.08" +- .2"), or even a little out of that, I'll let it ride for this trip, and deal with getting the lock nuts loosened when I get home.
That's what I'm telling you how to do. The odds of new tie rods being the same length as the originals is slim, unless it's OE to OE. You will have to set the toe.
It's usually close enough an approximation to be in the ballpark, even if not actually ideal.
The Pete method is proactive. Great, you wrestled the outer tie rod off. NOW. To make Future You's live a hell of a lot easier, get your dial calipers, or digital calipers, or whatever you have, and use the depth gauge part of it (the bit that sticks out and jams you in the wrist-hole when you hold it wrong) to measure the exact distance from the jam nut to the end of the inner tie rod end. Use the lock nut on the calipers to hold that position. Now grab your impact gun and a deep well 22mm socket (or whatever your vehicle uses. Subaru and Honda like to be weird and use 19mm and 24mm respectively) and do what you gotta do to zip the jam nut moving. Loosen, tighten, make it cherry red first, whatever it takes. Now that the jam nut moves freely, grease the hell out of the threads, use the wrist-poking depth measuring part of the dial calipers from five minutes ago in this paragraph to set the jam nut back to where it used to be relative to the end of the inner tie rod end. Put the outer on.
Now, when you or the person who you take it to goes to align it, you won't curse Past You for not freeing up the jam nut while it was as easy as it would ever get to be.
Wish I'd thought about using the impact to loosen the nuts ahead of time, but then it has been 2.5 days of front end work that should have taken 2.5 hours, so my brain has been occupied with just getting from one step to the next.
Parts are OE. I couldn't find any aftermarket control arms and tie rod ends with good reviews. Of course, that was part of the problem. The dealer I ordered from screwed up, and lost the order. Took over two weeks longer to get the parts than it should have. If I'd had them earlier, I wouldn't have been in a rush to install them, and could have taken more time to think each time something went wrong.
And it is .44" toe in. A bit more than the .28" max recommended. I think I will get some stuff ready for my trip, and if I still have time before I leave, I will try to make a quick adjustment. If I am running short on time, I will just have to hope I don't trash the tires in 2500 miles.
The sad thing is, I have been able to adjust the lock nut on much crustier looking tie rods. Not sure what is up with this one.
Edit: Based on some rough calculations, one full turn inward of either lock nut should get me in spec.
Edit 2: It did not look that bad to me when I went to check before lifting the car. Turns out a combination of my measuring tools being a bit messed up, plus some miscommunication between my helper and I, the initial check was off. Re-checked it, and it was almost exactly to spec. Just annoying that somehow the steering wheel is off a tiny bit. I think I'll call this one a win, though, since it now means I don't have to tear into it today, and can leave on time-ish.
slefain
UltimaDork
10/17/22 10:32 a.m.
So tired of parenting cliques. Apparently middle school social events has its own message group so the kids can meet up....except we're not part of the "in" crowd and asking to be let in hasn't worked. We go to the social events, but when the directions are "meet at this huge generic complex at this time" with no further instructions it kinds of negates the idea of the kids doing something together.
(update)
Just got an email announcing the next event...with instruction to call so-and-so if you have any question. But no phone number is listed, so how the hell am I supposed to call them? We picked this school hoping to help my shy kiddo find some new friends (we homeschool mostly, this is a hybrid school) but getting a foot in the door socially has been ridiculous.