racenmotorsports
New Member
So I finally got around to it. In a previous post, I talked about checking out the suspension and finding that all the bushings were shot, R&P leaked and I suspected the struts were shot.
Well, in reality, ball joints were bad too. I got new struts (Monroe's), ball joints from O'Reilly's and a reman R&P from Advance. I got luck and saved a bunch of money this week with the discounts. I suppose the economy sucks, so they are running huge discounts on-line to get people to spend money. Anyway, I got about 30% off on everything.
Again, this is my daughters first car, not a track, drag or anything else. She's going to drive to school, the mall, and her friends houses.
So last weekend, I burn out the rubber on the control arms, I replaced the front bushings with the prothane front bushings from Summit. I got the LCAs on easily, but then I had to get the springs in. What a pain in the rear. I've changed 1000 lbs springs on my race car and haven't needed a spring compressor, so I figured this wouldn't be difficult. Well, 90 minutes later, I was pi$$ed off, I finally decided to go to advance and get the spring compressor. It should have worked easily.... yeah right.... Finally, I compressed the spring, took 2 pieces of chain and held it down. fought with the jack, control arm and spring and a job that should have taken 15 minutes was finally in in 4 hours. installed the new struts, spindle and got it tight. Did the other side complete in 45 minutes....go figure. Sometimes I hate working on this car.
The struts were SHOT, The passenger one barely held up when I was pushing down on it and it took about 2 minutes for it to push up. The driver's on e was better, but not by much.
Tomorrow after work is the new alternator, replacement p/s pump and hopefully, if everything goes well, the new R&P. Then I can try it out and see if it's better...
Remember,this was the car my daughter wanted to get and work with me to fix it up... Where was she??? In the house with her boyfriend!!!! Dang-it.
Well, in reality, ball joints were bad too. I got new struts (Monroe's), ball joints from O'Reilly's and a reman R&P from Advance. I got luck and saved a bunch of money this week with the discounts. I suppose the economy sucks, so they are running huge discounts on-line to get people to spend money. Anyway, I got about 30% off on everything.
Again, this is my daughters first car, not a track, drag or anything else. She's going to drive to school, the mall, and her friends houses.
So last weekend, I burn out the rubber on the control arms, I replaced the front bushings with the prothane front bushings from Summit. I got the LCAs on easily, but then I had to get the springs in. What a pain in the rear. I've changed 1000 lbs springs on my race car and haven't needed a spring compressor, so I figured this wouldn't be difficult. Well, 90 minutes later, I was pi$$ed off, I finally decided to go to advance and get the spring compressor. It should have worked easily.... yeah right.... Finally, I compressed the spring, took 2 pieces of chain and held it down. fought with the jack, control arm and spring and a job that should have taken 15 minutes was finally in in 4 hours. installed the new struts, spindle and got it tight. Did the other side complete in 45 minutes....go figure. Sometimes I hate working on this car.
The struts were SHOT, The passenger one barely held up when I was pushing down on it and it took about 2 minutes for it to push up. The driver's on e was better, but not by much.
Tomorrow after work is the new alternator, replacement p/s pump and hopefully, if everything goes well, the new R&P. Then I can try it out and see if it's better...
Remember,this was the car my daughter wanted to get and work with me to fix it up... Where was she??? In the house with her boyfriend!!!! Dang-it.