Finally!

[hillbilly]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Another useless update.

Haven't done nothin'.

Nothing serious anyway, dangit! I have most of the parts for the front end job in hand, upper and lower ball joints, springs, upper and lower poly bushings, but I haven't had the 2 day time window.

One thing of note - changed the radiator hoses. Simple, right?

WRONG! The water pump and radiator were changed recently, and the dipweed that installed the lower radiator hose must've put it on the water pump before the radiator went back in.

Sooooo, there was no way to get at the clamp screw. None. Fortunately I've become scary with a recip saw, I could just barely get the blade on the screw assembly with the blade hitting the pump on the extension and falling off the screw on the ... um back stroke. (the web says the opposite of extension is 'flexion'). Radiator hoses - 4 hour job!!

That idiot should be flayed and boiled in oil.

Kidding. Just flayed

Good news is I've gone almost 3k miles as a daily driver and it's started every time. For all it's niggling problems I really, really like this car.

It dang well better start, now that I'm down to 1 car!

Pete

Don't feel bad Pete. I remember calling the man I bought my dually from years ago and really blastin' him with words you've probly never heard from a hillbilly before.

This guy builds engines and ships them out on crates, has a website and sells his crate engines in the weekly wheels & deals books too. He told me it was his personal truck that he used to haul engines on up until he bought his new truck, and the engine in the truck was one of his own and had barely been ran. He said the truck needed NOTHING exept a driver and was very road worthy. OK, so I bought it, told him I'd get someone to follow me back to his place the next day after work to pick it up and drive my car back home. Well, the next day I came home from work and the truck was in my field down below with a note on it. It said, ''Dave, wasn't any need to drive all the way back to my place. I had to pull the trailer to Nashville to pick up a Bobcat I bought and had to pass by your place anyway. I just pulled the truck up on the trailer and dropped it off for you''.

The key was in it, so I fired it up, pulled it halfway up my driveway and a lower balljoint fell out. I had to go buy a set of balljoints, and jacked it up where it was blocking my driveway to go on and replace the one that fell apart 'first', to get it upto my shop on the hill. Well, it got even worse. I went to remove the caliper & rotor and the caliper had been WELDED to the spindle. Turns out, the dumbass had broken the bolt that holds the slider in place and rather than drilling & tapping, he just welded the caliper in place. Only the inboard pad was making contact with the rotor as the caliper was not able to slide and apply pressure on both pads. I had to grind all day to get it apart, then hunt down a caliper and spindle for the heavy duty som-beech. Man, .... you talk about pissed at a feller ... ole hillbilly was so mad that friends didn't hang around to shoot the shit that day. Some say I was really 'on the rag', that day. I was yelling shit like .. '' and that blankety black mother f*cker calls himself a blankety blank mechanic ... somebody orta shoot that blankety blank mother f*cker between the blankety blank eyes ''!!

[piece-itpete]

Originally Posted by hillbilly

... '' and that blankety black mother f*cker calls himself a blankety blank mechanic ... somebody orta shoot that blankety blank mother f*cker between the blankety blank eyes ''!!

Lmao!!! I've never heard of welding on a caliper, must be a new system

I finally got the front end done, you were right about the springs - easy.

Everything else was hard

Or at least time consuming. In my mind it goes: I know what I have to do but it's very difficult - a b*tch. I need to figure it out but think I can - a snag. I have no idea what I'm going to do, really a snag I can't figure out in a reasonable time - a stymie.

This was a 10 b*tch, 4 snag, and 2 stymie job

Fortunately swearing at it, banging it with a hammer, and drinking beer with it seems to work it out lol.

Seriously if it wasn't for my neighbors torches I never would've gotten the bushings out of the upper control arms, I would've had to bolt them back on as is. Lucky to have good neighbors. And many thanks to Rob too!

So, 16-18 hours all in, that's the front upper and lower control arm bushings & ball joints, and springs. Oof I'm not kid anymore. The verdict - drum roll please - whoa! it rocks!

I've got a Lincoln again

This is the second car I've put polyurethane bushings in, and if you have to change a bushing and Energy (or anyone) makes poly bushings for it, use them.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Now all I have to do is universals, power locks, the starter, a coupla windows, bearings and rotors, etc, etc, etc....

Should be getting a new top in a few weeks. I'll post pics.

Pete

[d-ray657]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Lmao!!! I've never heard of welding on a caliper, must be a new system

I finally got the front end done, you were right about the springs - easy.

Everything else was hard

Or at least time consuming. In my mind it goes: I know what I have to do but it's very difficult - a b*tch. I need to figure it out but think I can - a snag. I have no idea what I'm going to do, really a snag I can't figure out in a reasonable time - a stymie.

This was a 10 b*tch, 4 snag, and 2 stymie job

Fortunately swearing at it, banging it with a hammer, and drinking beer with it seems to work it out lol.

Seriously if it wasn't for my neighbors torches I never would've gotten the bushings out of the upper control arms, I would've had to bolt them back on as is. Lucky to have good neighbors. And many thanks to Rob too!

So, 16-18 hours all in, that's the front upper and lower control arm bushings & ball joints, and springs. Oof I'm not kid anymore. The verdict - drum roll please - whoa! it rocks!

I've got a Lincoln again

This is the second car I've put polyurethane bushings in, and if you have to change a bushing and Energy (or anyone) makes poly bushings for it, use them.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Now all I have to do is universals, power locks, the starter, a coupla windows, bearings and rotors, etc, etc, etc....

Should be getting a new top in a few weeks. I'll post pics.

Pete

Congratulations. I can only marvel at the ability of people to get such things done. Fortunately for him, my son takes after my wife's side of the family with respect to mechanical ability. His grandpa built a Maserati birdcage, and he's getting ready to replace the block on a Honda Prelude.

Here's the birdcage:

http://www.mirafiori.com/~kdickson/m...s/image016.jpg

Regards,

D-Ray

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by d-ray657

Here's the birdcage:

http://www.mirafiori.com/~kdickson/m...s/image016.jpg

Regards,

D-Ray

Oh, man!

For those who aren't familiar with the "Birdcage" Maseratis, they were so called because the frame was a tube steel "space frame", made with hundreds of small diameter steel tubes welded together to form the chassis. The result was a maze of tubes that were reminiscent if a bird's cage.

John

[piece-itpete]

Originally Posted by d-ray657

Here's the birdcage:

http://www.mirafiori.com/~kdickson/m...s/image016.jpg

Regards,

D-Ray

Too cool! It must be a BLAST to drive, a rocket powered roller skate?

Pete

[piece-itpete]

Congratulate me boys, it's a banner day!

I FIXED THE LAST RATTLE!

(insert woohoo smilie here)

Pull up to the bar, the drinks are on me!

I never would've believed that every single part of the front end could rattle at once. 1st I found the idler arm rattling. Fixed it, it got better. Then the pitman arm. Ditto.

After marching through the entire front end - and it got a little better with each new part - I came to the last one. It turned out to be the front calipers. I got hardware kits for them that included new rubber boots and thin plastic sleeves. For the life of me I couldn't figure out where the sleeves went.

It was kinda obvious, that they went inside the boots, but it didn't look like the bolts would fit. Finally I just forced the bolts in. Wala'!

Oh yeah. This has got to be the high point of the biggest overall auto job I've ever done.

Cheers!

Pete

[d-ray657]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Congratulate me boys, it's a banner day!

I FIXED THE LAST RATTLE!

(insert woohoo smilie here)

Pull up to the bar, the drinks are on me!

I never would've believed that every single part of the front end could rattle at once. 1st I found the idler arm rattling. Fixed it, it got better. Then the pitman arm. Ditto.

After marching through the entire front end - and it got a little better with each new part - I came to the last one. It turned out to be the front calipers. I got hardware kits for them that included new rubber boots and thin plastic sleeves. For the life of me I couldn't figure out where the sleeves went.

It was kinda obvious, that they went inside the boots, but it didn't look like the bolts would fit. Finally I just forced the bolts in. Wala'!

Oh yeah. This has got to be the high point of the biggest overall auto job I've ever done.

Cheers!

Pete

That does call for a celebration. You deserve it. You can make mine Gentleman Jack.

P.S. I'd try to talk the father-in-law to letting me take a spin in the bird cage this weekend, but I'm afraid my gut would not fit behind the wheel. That is not an enclosure for Big Bird.


Regards,

D-Ray

[piece-itpete]

After tons and tons of mechanical work, I finally cleaned up the beastess....

Still needs a top but it's a fairly big ticket item. I've gotta say, it's more work than I expected and I won't do this again. But it's an AWESOME daily driver.

Pete

[d-ray657]

Did she enjoy the rubdown?

She is purty. Is that a diplomatic plate on the front?

Regards

D-Ray

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by d-ray657

Is that a diplomatic plate on the front?

Ohio does seem like a foreign country sometimes.

When I lived in DC (and probably still) the diplomatic states all had "DPL" as part of the plate number. We used to joke that it stood for "double parking legal". Not so much of a joke, really.

John