well I hit a snag this week, I bought a new lower arm from the auto parts store and it had a lock nut on the balljoint instead of a castle nut, progress you see. apparently its one less part in the box and one less step in assembly especially on a factory production line, and the mechanics just have to suck it up and install them. the problem with lock nuts is, they lock, and while that seems pretty obvious, when you have a highly tensed spring held in place by a floor jack as you try to compress the balljoint into the taper on the spindle there comes forth a stream of obscenities so well reasoned and spoken with such authority that all the old women praying at the local catholic church instinctively genuflect and light extra candles.
this is a photo of the process, the nut WOULD. NOT. GO. ON. ANY. GIU$Y$*(&$.
FURTHER.
IMG_7676 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
you can see the hex in the top, so I schlepped out to buy the 6MM hex socket (allen wrench just bent) and a 21mm open end wrench. it still didnt budge. I fought with it like a guy who could embed wrenches in drywall at a single throw (seems extraneous, doesnt it?) and I even went to find a new nut when I thought the threads looked a little galled. when I calmed down, turns out no such thing as an M14 1.5 flanged lock nut exists within 400 miles, I just returned the arm for another.
as it eventually came out, the flange nut on the arm was the wrong thread for the balljoint, the nut was a coarse and the balljoint was fine. the new arm fixed it and I buttoned it up BOTH SIDES in about 30 minutes. I think I am going to replace the calipers too, you know, "while I am in there".
IMG_7697 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
leafs tomorrow!
IMG_7698 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
this thing looks like it will be... lower than the last one. hmm.