Ok, by the next morning I was feeling a little better. Napa had chewed up the side of the hub facing the shaft so bad that it would not go on like it should. I thought "I need some sort of guide" (and no, a naked indian didn't come and tell me to see Jim Morrison!) and the first thing I thought of was to slip a peice of heater hose over the threads to help guide the splines on straight. Well, no heater hose lying around and didn't feel like walking over to Checker (although, later, I wish I had...); so I wrapped the end of the threads with electrical tape. I used a little to much at first and then kept taking off one turn of tape until it was the perfect width (a little too perfect). TADA, splines mated and shaft slipped right in (oooooh, I'm gettin' all hot!)! Ok, ok, it didn't slide to gether that easy, but it did work. The only problem, I could only get the shaft through the hub so far and then I couldn't get the tape off (that part was stuck in the hub). Took like two hours with a razor knife and a pick to get it off! That heater hose sure sounded good after words! I still have some kind of noise up front, like a pad dragging, but it doesn't change pitch when I apply the brakes. Probably the shafts, but I am not replacing those until the boots give out! Today, I got two new Dunlops (limped around on the Firerocks as long as I could; I bought the first two Dunlops last September) and WOW, what a difference. I almost forgot how smooth and quiet the ride is in these cars! Now I just have to replace the rear hubs, the front lower control arms, all the sway bar bushings, the end links and the outer tie-rod ends!
The car has 72.5k miles on it and the engine and ATX are in good shape, so I am freshening up the suspension so I don't have any suprises. I am long winded, ain't I?
