Well, today was the day...
Replacing the driver side upper A-arm in my S10. The bushings have been gone for a few years on that side. After two idiots within one week, pulled out on front of me, making me slam the brakes on ....a clunk developed.
This made me re-investigate the bushings. The damage was beyond simply replacing the bushings. $110 got me a new Delco A-arm, with the ball joint, mounting arm and bushings. It's remove it all, then replace it in one fell swoop........ No bushings or ball joint to mess with, everything is pre installed, ready to rip.
That's the easy part, having everything pre installed.
On the driver's side, the steering shaft is in the way making it a royal pain to remove the mounting bolts. Once you get a wrench on one, you move it less than 1/4 turn, then have to reposition the wrench.
.....about 150 turns later, the two bolts are removed.
Oh yes, you have to put them on again later.
The passenger side is a pain, but this is a nightmare and why I've put it off for way too long.
I could have bought a crappy Chinesium A-arm for 1/2 the price or less, but with the more spendy Delco or Moog brands, you have a better chance it will fit exactly as the original.
There were two alignment shims on the front bolt and two on the rear bolt. I put them back just as they came off, hoping I wouldn't need to have a front end alignment. After finishing the install tonight at dark:30, I gave it a test drive and I think I'm good.
That's 7 hours I'm thankful to have completed. I need some healing now. I didn't stop from start to finish, forgot to drink water or eat......... but it's done.
If I die while driving, it won't be because my A-arm came off at 60 mph. It will be because some idiot pulled out in front of me.
.............I'm rethinking those two idiots that pulled out in front of me and made that clunking sound appear.
I'll have to admit..... I probably wouldn't have spent the money and the time it took had they obeyed the traffic laws and stopped instead of pulling out in front of me.
Slamming on my brakes both times created the clunk that made me realize how worn this A-arm was.
I want to hunt both of those ladies down, slap them, scold them...... and then thank them.
...so how was your Sunday?
Mine cost over $500.......
....however, on the bright side, I now have two sets of SAE and metric impact sockets, an impact wobbler, 4 impact extensions, two really nice Harbor Freight impact wrenches complete with a battery and charger, some new offset metric box end wrenches.
.....all because of distracted idiots.
Had I taken my truck to a shop and let them buy and install the A-arm, I'm sure it would have eaten up every bit and more of that $500.
........I've donated my old air tools to Habitat Restore.
I've gone the Harbor Freight Hercules brand and not regretting it one tiny bit.
power wise, they beat out DeWalt, Milwaukee and Snapon and they cost so, soooo much less. HF still has cheap crap, but their top of the line tool brands like Hercules, Doyle and ICON are very, very nice. They have sales all the time too, like two tools for $100. Or buy a tool and get the battery and charger for free...... stuff like that. It's become my favorite tool store.
They need to change the store's name to:
"We're Not Just Crap Anymore"
...sorry to ramble. Stop eating and drinking water for two days and tell me if you feel like the same person. I certainly don't.
Tomorrow won't be work. It will be a day of recovery. Between this and last week's spiral staircase..... I'm FREEKING whooped.