I changed my TPS, cleaned the MAF, put on two speedbleeders (what do you mean tehy don't come in pairs?), flushed the brakes, changed the oil and rotated the tires - all before noon on Saturday. Well, if it makes you feel any better it took two weeks for me to change my LCAs:
1. Order LCAs from 96BlackSE
2. Order Bolts from Bill
3. Jack up the car, take off the wheels
4. Start loosening the subframe-to-LCA bolts.
5. Get sick of that, attack the ball-joint pinch bolt.
6. Snap the hex socket
7. Get a new hex socket and a torx socket
8. Strip the Torx end.
9. Strip the hex end. not easy with a 6-point socket.
10. Attack with the grinder
11. Cut off the nut
12. No dice
13. Torch it
14. No dice - but I burned a hole in the CV boot
15. Break off the head because the hole looks threaded
16. Drill it out
17. Whoops - not with HSS
18. Whoops - not with Titanium Oxide
19. Ah- Cobalt!
20. Whoops - the knuckle is much softer than the bolt. It's very hard to keep the bit centered.
21. Not enough clearance. Cut out the LCA with the grinder
22. Not enough clearnace: cut off the ball-joint with the grinder
24. Post online - Ray says it's not threaded
25. Try pass. side: it comes right out. Ray was right.
26. 5 lb hammer and socket extension get it out.
27. Back to the LCA bolts
28. Pop them up against the tranny
29. Jack the transaxle up to get some clearance
30. Start cutting with the grinder - very tough to fit in under there!
31. Get paranoid- check the bolts Bill sent - yep, some are the wrong ones.
32. Cut the bolts off anyway.
33. get the LCA out
34. Wedge the new one back it
35. Won't go: the CV joint is stuck out
36. Try harder. Try all night. Go to bed.
37. Next day: try again and get it
38. Bolt it all up with new hardware from NAPA
39. Whoops - not enough tranny clearance. Cut the bolts short.
40. not enough thread to cut them that short. Make spacers out of 1/4" flat stock.
41. Bolt it up again.
42. Onto the passenger's side.
43. All goes well. WTF. Only 2 hours over there.
44. Test drive!
45. Oh crap, the CV boot. Grease is every where.
46. Get a new CV boot: I order the easy-fit split kind. It'll be in wednesday.
47. Wednesday: whoops, not in. Tomorrow.
48. Thursday: whoops, not it.
49. Friday: Ah, here it is! Whoops, it's a real boot. Oh well, I was hearing bad things about the split boots.
50. I take the axle off HOW???? I think not.
51. Ah-ha! Moment of genius: Pull apart the inner CV boot.
52. Stumped by very stiff snap ring
53. Chop up some needlenose pliers to get it.
54. Wrestle the tripod off
55. get the snap ring off, and pull off inner boot
56. hack off the cut boot
57. slide on the new outer boot
58. slide on old inner boot
59. Crap, how do I get on this ring?
60. wrestle on the rings/tripod
61. Can't get these metal bands to work. Zip-tie the boots on.
62. Go to an autocross and see an Formula SAE car with zip ties on the tripod housings - yes!
63. Find a snap ring on the garage floor
64. take the whole thing apart again. Nothing is missing. This time I bought snap-ring pliers and a CV boot clamp plier. So much easier!
65. Finally rest in peace!
66. get camber kit - realize I need to take apart the suspension again - Oh, no...
To be continued
