And the dam bursts

Well, just to warn you this will be a long one...I have been working on the car non-stop for the past two days. The wheels are finally off with the assistance of my father. We did some damage to the wheels, but it is really minimal compared to what the PO (previous owner...who will forever be cursed in this tome hencforth) did when he or his hack mechanic tried to get one the wheels off. For a moment, though, let me step aside and postulate on how he came about his discission to sell the car.

One day he has a flat or for some reason the car needs to have the passenger side tire looked at. Now at the time either he comes to realize he has lost the key to his $50 lug locks or the mechanic in his exuberation strips off all the teeth...which is known to happen with this design. He then told the mechanic to get them off anyway he can. The a cacophany of drilling, grinding, and otherwise wanton destruction ensues. When it is all said and done the wheel comes off but there is about 5 grams of metal missing on the inside of the wheel. This was probably very expensive for the PO because of the time required. However, the tire is fixed and he goes on his merry way. Then one day the rear drivers wheel goes flat (there was a nail in it) and he realizes that he will have to go through the same thing again. Since, the car had been sitting in the backyard anyway he decides to sell it. (he told me it was garage kept but that is just not possible considering where the rust and rot are) Then along comes me.

Alright back to the car. Here is a picture of the wheel the PO's mechanic annihilated...fortunately he did not do too much damage to the lug seat so the wheel is still good just a little harder to balance:


As it turned out the hole saw was actually working there was just a little lip on the remnant. Once we chewed that off we were home free. Of course, not before attempting an alternate method on the front driver's side wheel. My dad thought he could drill the bolt out by going straight down the middle. That did not work because (as I predicted it is almost impossible to stay centered. The wheel came off but this is the result:

Notice the recessed bolt.

So now my car finally has no wheels. I am free to do all the things that the wheels have interfered with.


THe first thing I went after was my other nemesis the O2 sensor. Sadly, he still maintained his death grip on my catalytic converter. Pull and pull I did...still no joy. However, since the car was on blocks now anyway and did not hvae to go anywhere anytime soon...there was no reason not cut it. The cutting broke its will to hold on and soon we had freed it from the cat. Here are his remains along with the wheel locks.


Here is his successor and my car no longer smokes nor idles rough:


After that replaced teh transmission fill plug that I had earlier destroyed, and drained the oil. I had postponed changing the oil because I had the change the S-hose coming off my oil reservoir. It was causing the only oil leak on the entire car...it had to go. Here is a pic:
I knew this was going to be messy, but I was prepared, I had three oil pans standing by. When I got the oil drain plug off the crankcase...the ensuing stream shot right past oil pan one. Then when I pulled hose off the reservoir more oil was left in the reservoir than anticipated and it overfilled oil pan #2. Once the S-hose was off I had three places on the car dripping oil, which was no problem because I had three oil pans. Unfortunately, I realized too late that oil #3 had a hole in it. I should be the poster child for Clean Sweep.

Once all the oil was empty I reinstalled the hose, filled the car, and ran it. No leaks and no smoke. My new hose held. WIth those projects completed. I turned my attention to the brakes and suspension. First, we pulled all the pads. I noticed that the car pullls to the right under hard braking and braking is generally stiff. So we started out by pulling the brake pads. If you look closely you may notice what is wrong in the picture (fronts on teh left rears on teh right):

If you can't see it, one of the front wheels had a completely different set of brake pads. FYI different brands and styles have different coeffients of friction...which would explain the pull. Yet another demonstartation of a hack mechanic. Fortunately, I have a new set of pads on hand and will replace the whole set even though they are not out of tolerance...they have all just worn differently. Based on that I knew I had to rebuild the brake calipers...except for the front pasenger side one that looked as though it had been recently rebuilt. Since, I had to pull the calipers I purged the brake lines. Once the calipers were off I dropped them into the parts cleaner and I will clean them more throughly after they marinate.

Last thing I did was inspect the tires and try to get the fronts wheels balanced and the rear whell patched. Turns out the tires were never rotated so the front tires are pretty much done. Then when the guy tried to balance the other one it turned out oblong from internal damage so it was bad too. I have not boutgh tires yet, but it really sucks to know you have to replace tires that had tons of good tread left on them because someone did nto take care of tehm.

That about c0mpletes it for now. Many projects ahead and I may get them all done while I am on leave.

Price:
Tie rods, spark plug wires, and small parts: $357.35
Tire patch: $12
Brake lines, seat bolts, brake line: $185.95

TOTAL: $555.30 (are we having fun yet?)