Floor pan fun, just need to get it through the winter
Floor pan fun, just need to get it through the winter
Well end of the road for this ranger too, at least for me, finished floor pan and put a complete parking brake cable set in. Did tie rod ends and sway bar links after finding they were crumbled. Day of inspection comes and get a call from mechanic, drive on down and he shows me everything I missed and overlooked. I will admit I tend to rush buying things and don't really inspect everything I should. So he shows me completely shot ball joints, ready to blow brake lines, metal to metal brake pads and a few other things, sigh. Now if this was a coil spring ranger no biggie I would have done it but being torsion bar requires some tools I don't have and cracking loose 23 year old bolts from the rust belt. Then my daily goes in for inspection right after and needs a ballpoint too, pony up the extra money for him to do it so I have one inspected vehicle. Accepting my loss and am moving on. Would really like to trade in my Veloster for a Honda fit or something else cheap and with a manual.
TLDR: I'm an idiot and spent too much on a pile
I will add with every negative is a small positive, learned a lot from this truck in the short time I had it.
Just kidding haha, no one wanted to buy and I'm impatient so I started ripping into it. One caliper slide pin was seized and snapped off so hopefully can extract that or new caliper time. Got to the point of taking the top ball joint and the pinch bolt just spun on both sides, any ideas? Got rained out so started replacing burnt bulbs. Getting closer but need to buy or rent a ball joint press and a torsion bar release tool.
In reply to Angryranger :
Try jacking up under the ball joint to get some weight on it.
In reply to Stampie :
I'll try that when it's dry out, my jack stands seem to be sinking in this picture
Beat the frozen caliper and got the slide pin out , just needed some fire and pb blaster
Rented a torsion relief tool today and got the bar and control arm out, few swings of the sledge and came right out. Pinch bolt still spinning so probably will cut it out, probably junk anyways. Brakes are on the way and got it mostly together.
Looking for help, the pinch bolt for the spindle is stripped and before I cut it off I've been looking for replacements but all are out of stock permanently it seems. Am I out of luck or am I just looking wrong.
Is the bolt in this kit the bolt you need? I don't remember if these have a through bolt and nut or if the spindle is threaded.
Good luck
Man you are committed to this thing. Pretty wild the rust hole.
In reply to Shawneedawg :
Looks like it, ended up just ordering a new upper control arm
In reply to tperkins :
Whoever patched it first just placed a 2x1 piece of sheet metal in and called it good so had a lot to patch
Got a little more done today, new upper control arm in. Almost no room to put the bolts back through, thought I was doing something wrong but it's just a bad design. Got everything bolted up and started prepping the caliper to go back together. Need to buy some wheel bearings and seals and it should be done. Also painted it with some undercoating, sticks surprisingly well for no prep and almost freezing out
Nice work, glad to see you're still grinding with this one!
Got the brakes finished up and got it back on all fours. Had to do a driveway alignment because the toe was out pretty bad. Has some camber so hoping the alignment shop can fix that, pretty sure you just need to mess with the upper control arm but would rather it be done the right way. Just need to change a ball joint and brakes on the other side, replace one more parking brake cable and find a way to fix the exhaust leak.
Turns out Moog makes an adjustable camber kit kit so time for more fun
Well not a great day today, need to buy another upper control arm, had to buy new slide pins and boots. The ball joint press I borrowed was the wrong size, might buy the harbor freight one. Times like these I wish I had a garage. Only good thing was this side has a camber kit already, just had to clean it up a bit.
Put the ball joint in with a jack and some pieces of exhaust. Got my knuckle assembled. Getting the upper control arm in now. Can't feel my fingers but need to finish before we get a foot of snow this weekend.
Keep it up! So glad I don't wrench in the snow much anymore. Following along
In reply to Shavarsh :
Thanks! It's not too bad minus the whole not feeling your fingers but who needs those
Test drove and nothing fell apart so feeling good. To do list is starting to dwindle down, camber bolts on passenger side, exhaust leak, parking brake cable and now it needs a battery. Calling it done for today and leaving with a win.
Camber bolts in, have an alignment scheduled but most of the camber is gone now anyways. Rear shoes are disintegrated so add that to the list. Win some lose some
In reply to Angryranger :
You gotta eat that elephant one bite at a time. Good job.
Found some new tires for my Veloster, 225/40r18 Dunlop sp5000 or something like that. $100 and basically brand new. Take offs from a 2021 Corolla, Good news for me as my summers are pretty scary
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