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Mistakes & Set-Backs | |
I felt like these were important enough to highlight so that visitors to the
site could quickly and easily find all of the mistakes and set backs I've
experienced in the project. No one, and I mean no one, is too good not to admit
their mistakes. My hope is that the reader can learn from them and anticipate
them in their own project.
Mistakes
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By not marking the position at which the tie rod ends were screwed into the tie
rod, I lost my toe-in mark. Now I will have to adjust the toe-in without a
previous reference.
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Used Hylomar gasket sealer on the rear cover of the diff
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After being so careful to keep up from which sides of the car the rear drive
shaft and road springs were from, I carelessly moved pieces to my workbench for
u-joint fitting, thus screwing up the sequence of diff flange, to axle shaft,
to hub, to road spring. Since I kept the two halves of the shaft together, they
are still in correct pairings. Thank goodness these parts are not "handed".
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Before installing the u-joints in the rear axle shafts, I took a Dremel tool
sanding bit and ran it through the yokes where the u-joint caps would go. After
installing the u-joints, I noticed that some of the caps tend to rotate inside
the yoke, instead of remaining stationary. Bottom line is that I ruined the
drive shafts.
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When installing the right rear drive shaft to the trailing arm, I over-torqued
one of the six nuts and broke the stud that protrudes from the arm. Luckily the
stud sheared, sparing the threads internal to the soft trailing arm from
stripping.
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When reconditioning the front brakes, I tested the brake using air pressure to
make sure the two pistons acted correctly. I found that one piston moved far
easier than the other. Upon further inspection I discovered that I had failed
to add the seal to the piston. Lesson learned... always test, test, test. You
are always going to make mistakes of ommision and commision, so understanding
this truth, its critical to test first!!
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I attempted to replace the oil gallery end plugs that the machine shop
fabricated with some I had purchased from TRF. In the process of attempting to
remove the existing plugs, all I managed to do was mangle them up pretty badly,
resulting in another trip to the machine shop to clean up the mess I made, and
add the new plugs I had purchased. Bottom line is to get the new plugs BEFORE
you take the block in to be cleaned and serviced, and have the machine shop add
the right plugs the first time around.
- While performing the dizzy pedastal end-float procedure, I broke off one of the
flanges by overtightening the nut. Apparently the 3mm washer I was using to provide
the gap was a bit too big. Lesson: just snug the nuts, if you need them at all.
Set Backs
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A bolt securing the rear cover to the diff casing is not tightening because the
hole is stripped. Since the other seven bolts torqued up nice and tight, and
the seal seems good, I've decided to just leave it as is and keep an eye on it
for leaks.
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The two rear differential mounting pins have stripped threads from about the
middle portion to the bottom. The upper half of the threads are fine. Not
wanting to replace the pins (especially after welding on the diff mounting
reinforcement plates), I took an alternate approach. I grinded down the lower
half of the mounting bushes, almost to the point where they begin to taper.
Then I drilled out the hole of the large washer to a diameter large enough to
slip over the shank of the mounting pin. Once I got the unchanged top bushes
on, and diff pins through the holes in the mount, I added the now dramatically
thinner lower bushings, the large washer, and a fender washer (to take up any
extra space), then the nyloc nut. With this arragement I was able to get the
nut up to the good threads without resistance, allowing me to tighten
everything up to where the whole rear mount is very sound. To test, I stood on
the diff and witnessed absolutely no movement at all.
-
After looking at the modified diff mounts a bit closer, I realized that one of
them was at an angle I was not comfortable with. I backed off the nyloc nut and
straightened-out the mounting bushes/washer. When I went to add and tighten up
the nut, it wouldn't tighten all the way. Seems like I stripped the upper
portion of the threads somehow by backing off the nut. Now I have to replace
the two rear diff pins, which means all the progress I made for the last couple
of weeks is lost.
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