"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."
So, I decided to share my automotive repair experiences. Now, I'm definitely no Twayn, but I like to think I can be somewhat useful. What follows is replacing the front-end sway bar on my 1998 Buick Century. Click to embiggen all pictures.
My car was making a dull clunk every time I went over a speed hump, of which there are a bajillion in Austin. Thinking I had a shot shock, my BiL and I took off my front driver wheel to have a look. (I also had a cross-threaded nut, but that is another post)
This is what we found. Indeed, something was messed up in my front end, but it wasn't the shock. My entire wheel was floating free as the sway bar had rusted through. When I hit speed humps, the two pieces of the sway bar would smack together. (Until it fell off on it's own, which happened before this picture.
Theoretically, this was a fairly easy swap out. Jack up the tires, place jack stands and chock the wheels (edit: thnaks to CH for reminding me to include this step. I did it, but forgot it in the write-up), undo 6 screws (well, 5 in this case), slide the old one out and new one in, and reverse. It probably wouldn't have taken me too terribly long, but I tried to fix that stud and nut while I was at it. Again, another post for another day. So I started with the front passenger stud. Thing would. Not. Budge. No amount of loosening spray seemed to help
Because I'm a sculpted vision of a human being*, I grabbed both wrenches and Hulked out so bad that I ended up shearing the bolt. Luckily it was a pretty thin one, or this whole operation may have been dead in the water. With that one out of the way, I moved on to removing the four bolts holding the bar to the frame.
*offer not vaild in US, Puerto Rico, Guam, or USVI
Three of the four came out fairly easily with my ratchet. However, there's always that one. In my case, the fuel line made the clearance as such that I could get my ratchet into the space to unscrew the bolt, but with the bolt raised I couldn't extract either the ratchet or bolt. Time to bust out the wrenches.
This took forever, but it worked. I had to take a mallet to the old bushings as they'd become quite cozy with the frame over the last 17 years Once they were knocked loose, the old assembly slipped right out.
The assembly I bought had new bushings, bolts, brackets, everything you'd need. So all the old crap got pitched. The only thing was that it was a universal sway bar designed to fit several different GM models. It had a few weird bends in it that the original did not have, presumably to around lines and shafts I don't have to worry about. This meant the new one did not slip in near as easily as the old one slipped out. It also didn't help that for about 20 minutes I tried to put in in upside down. When I figured that out, the swearing switched from being directed at the bar to myself for being a moron.
$200 and 5 hours later (three hours and $80, more accurately, as I spent time futzing with the wheel stud replacement, and about $120 of that was in tools and safety equipment that I'll be able to use for years and years, spreading out the cost) I had a new sway bar. Was it easy? No. Was there loud swearing and insinuations about the sexual habits of mothers of the people who designed this stuff? Plenty. Does the car drive better now? I no longer have the clunk or end up in the passenger's lap while making a left turn. Would I do it again? Considering both the saved expense and sense of accomplishment, I wouldn't hesitate to do this again in a heartbeat.
I'm commenting here so this shows up in the sidebar. Next edition, if people are interested, is my fuel filter replacement.
Good call on the jackstands. One of my coworkers was recently do a quick job and skipped putting them in. Of course, the jack was a bit off center and tipped. He was under the car when it started to go, realized it was happening, and got mostly free in time (his shoulder got clipped by the bumper), but the car left a divot in the garage floor.
Indeed. I don't futz around with my car even for an oil change without jack stands. They're cheap enough that it isn't worth it.
Good. I hope you chock a back wheel firmly, too.
I try to avoid much under the car since my parking brake doesn't work right now, but when I do, yeah definitely wheel chocks.
I got my jack stands (set of two 2-ton) for $20 on Amazon. I keep them permanently in my trunk now for any unexpected tie changes or the like. For thst price, there's no reason not to.
I'd love to see the fuel filter replacement.
The fuel pump in my 850 Turbo went out as I was driving from San Diego back to Camp Pendleton in 2006. It started out acting funny - the fuse kept tripping. Not wanting to pay for the tow back to base, I stopped at an AutoZone or something and bought a box of 15 amp fuses. As they blew I kept replacing them, limping the car back through the main gate off I-5. Turbox finally died about ten miles from the area of base where I lived, so I pushed it until I got it where the MPs wouldn't ticket & tow it. A few days later Pa sent me a new fuel pump he ordered at cost (still something like $350 since it was a Bosch!) and I installed it roadside. Pretty easy since the pump is mounted on the top of the tank and is accessible through a panel underneath the floor of the cargo area of the wagon. I think it took me 45 minutes to swap it.
There's another repair I could have documented. I did my fuel filter two winters ago because I'm pretty sure I gelled the fuel up and ended up with air in the fuel lines, which made driving less fun. Of course, the fuel filter in my car is ridiculously easy to replace because its right on top of the engine compartment and in the open (with the exception of the hose clamps I broke). The only part that sucked was getting diesel all over my hands and that I had to walk a mile and a half in 10 degree weather to the hardware store for new hose clamps.
By "lots of speed humps in Austin" you are referring to armadillos, correct?
Nice work and write up. Cross threaded bolts are the best! Reminds me of the time I replaced the rear shocks in my car. I should have done a write up, but it's probably for the best because all the swearing made it not family friendly.
Anyway, the driver side went fine, but i cross threaded the shit out of one of the bolts on the passenger side so bad that I couldn't get it all the way snug. I didn't have the time to do anything about it, sadly. Caused the whole shock to smack against the car, loosening the other night. I was eventually able to muscle that mf'er tight so it's ok now. I don't plan to every replace it again anyway.
That job also made me aware of a seized rear caliper that decimated a brake pad and the rotor, of which the set screw I stripped out, then broke off the easy out in. That bad rotor decimated a second pad before I finally got cobalt dill but to get that set screw. I also had to replace the bracket that held the caliper, which was easy until one of the screws rattled loose and fell out while driving. A loose caliper makes a bad sound.
All in all, I eventually got everything tightened up properly, so there's no rattles anymore! Also, I probably saved about 6-700 bucks.
Now to work on getting that parking brake re-attached.
I once used a six-foot aluminum pole from a retractable clothes line, slipped over a torque wrench as a cheater bar, on a particularly tight & rusted nut. It's all about the leverage.
Give me a lever and a place to stand, right?