Bama's Mechanic Shop Now Open

[BamaSixGun]

I put on some new shocks for my niece today on her 1998 Explorer 2WD.

I thought it was going to be easy, but man , it took me and my nephew about 4 hours to change all 4.

The front wasn't to bad. Had to take off both tires, nothing out of the normal.
We also had to replace the sway bar links that connect to the sway bar and the lower A arm.(easy as pie )

Then we got to the rear and it was diff. story. Ford engineers must have been drunk when they drew the shock mounts up.

We had to drop the spare tire just to be able to get to the nuts on the top of the shocks. The nuts were lock type nuts (oblong) and no room to hardly even get a wrench on.

It's gonna need ball joints soon, but I think that may be out of my league.

All in all, it was a lot of fun and it gave me something to do today.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

........It's gonna need ball joints soon, but I think that may be out of my league......

I'm in the midst of a ball joint job on my F-250. The worst part, I had trouble getting the Dynatrac hubs/spindles off. But between a lot of penetrating oil, sacrificing a 13/16" deepwell on the loosely threaded nuts on the hub mounting studs and beating the crap outta the deepwell socket with a BFH, I got'em off. I'm on hold now for some parts to arrive. I'm getting new brake rotor spray shields. The old ones were looking kinda nasty.

I'm glad I picked up a 12 ton press from Harbor Frieght a couple of months ago. It made the ball joint job a 100% driveway/workbench job.

 

[BamaSixGun]

I found the parts cheaper on ebay for the upper & lower ball joints for my niece's Explorer. It looks like the upper ball joints come already pressed into the upper A arm, so that is a good thing. I wouldn't have to worry about those and I could have the lower ball joints pressed in at our local NAPA store.

I may just tackle this yet if my niece wants me too.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

I found the parts cheaper on ebay for the upper & lower ball joints for my niece's Explorer. It looks like the upper ball joints come already pressed into the upper A arm, so that is a good thing. I wouldn't have to worry about those and I could have the lower ball joints pressed in at our local NAPA store.

I may just tackle this yet if my niece wants me too.

I went with Moog ball joints. I heard they're the benchmark standard that other ball joint brands try to measure up to. Yea, they cost more. But I figured I had my choice between doing the job again in 3,4 or 5 years, or never.

 

[BamaSixGun]

Sharpening lawn mower blades today.

 

[BamaSixGun]

I have no idea why I started this thread.
Please excuse me.

 

[RoyBoy]

I have no idea why I started this thread.

Aww its alright, provides a bit of entertainment for us all

Reminded me that I gotta get a thread going for my new shop building here, gotta take some pictures soon...

 

[JLDickmon]

Sharpening lawn mower blades today.

5" body grinders are the tool to use..
park that bench grinder nonsense..

 

[trackspeeder]

5" body grinders are the tool to use..
park that bench grinder nonsense..

Now thats the way we did the mower blades back in the days. A couple of passes with a big birtha grinder then slap them back on the mower.

 

[BamaSixGun]

5" body grinders are the tool to use..
park that bench grinder nonsense..

All I have is a DeWalt 4" grinder. It works well for lawn mower blades.

We have some 5" that we use to "wheel or buff" out paint on cars.