I went to one of the few remaining Little Caesars around here after the first day of working on Evan's car. Not having been there in a while, I was surprised to see that their entire menu had been reduced to this:
- Large cheese or pepperoni pizza, $5
- Crazy bread, $1
- Hot wings, $5
And that was it. Do you really need to call it a "large" pizza when you only offer one size?
The plan was to replace the passenger-side axle and axle bearing, and check the driver's side axle as well. The first day working on his car didn't feel very productive, by any means. After stopping by Moe's, a trip to Checker was in order to pick up a slide hammer, and it seems to be the only store that carries Mobil 1 gear oil.
Armed with instructions from the internet, work begins. Wheels off, and I realize that the impact gun that came with my compressor is pretty weak. ;-) Calipers off, rotors...well, the passenger side came off. The driver's side rotor was stuck with the force of a thousand...sticky...things. The holes that go around the studs weren't anywhere near round, and they seemed to be jammed on the studs. Guess we weren't going to check that side after all.
Ok, so get the diff cover off, and now the garage is infused with the horrid stench of gear oil. Time to remove the retaining bolt, and we run into another problem. The directions I have say it's a 5/16ths head, so I grab a 5/16ths socket, but of course, it's just barely too long. The smallest open wrench I thought I had was 9mm, so I have Evan try that one. "I think it fits," followed by "uh oh." 9mm was a bit too large, but now the head is kind of stripped, on top of being oily. Sweet. I can't find my vise-grips anywhere, so we go out to get some from his parents' house. Those take care of the bolt, but there's more wasted time. Oh, and I did have an 8mm wrench in another set, but of course I didn't remember it until the damage was done. Now we need to find a new bolt as well, on a Saturday afternoon.
Axle comes out, and it's all pitted right where it contacts the bearing, so that's a good sign that we're at least fixing something that's broken. :-P Now time for the bearing and seal, and this is where the pain sets in. The slide hammer came with a generic 3-prong puller, and I have to say, it was not the best device in the world. Hammered away at it forever. Managed to get out the seal, and totally dismantled the bearing, but the outer race was still stuck. Looking around online, I see that specific axle bearing pullers look a little different than what we have. It's too late to get a new bolt anyway, so we already know the job is going to run into a second day. Slightly dejected, the sorrows are drowned in a melee of crazy bread and Guinness.
First step Sunday was to find a new diff retainer bolt and some additional tools. The Autozone near me had neither the bearing puller nor the bearing driver, but informed us that the next-closest Autozone had both, so off we went. The Napa we visited Saturday didn't have the bolt we were looking for, but they said to check the store on University. Make the drive up there, only to find out that they're closed on Sunday. Bah! Decide to stop at Amados before making the trek out to the next-closest Napa, a decent drive out of our way (the Arizona burrito was good). They had the bolt, and all is good.
Now with the correct tools and plenty of burrito, it's time to tackle that bearing again. It doesn't fit quite as well as I'd like...there's a disc that seems to fit right over the bearing, but I would think it would work better if it went over the whole housing, so you could put tension on the thing. It was too small for that though, and lacking scrap metal, we put a couple wrenches in there. After tightening it up quite a bit (and bending one of the wrenches in the process, one shot of the slide hammer pulled the bearing out. Woo. The worst was over.
Everything was pretty straightforward going back together, but unfortunately it hasn't totally solved the noise problem. The left one could be bad as well, or it could be a different bearing entirely that's causing some of the noise. Bleh. The good news is that we finished everything, cleaned up, and returned the tools while there was still some daylight remaining. :-P That, and just the fact that the car is back together, and I have my garage back.
Last month I was drawn for jury duty, federal court. Fine, I go down there, fill out the questionnaire, whatever. I'll know next month if I'm selected. What do I get in the mail yesterday? I'm drawn for jury duty again, this time for county court! Even better, the court date is a week after the first trial I was drawn for is scheduled to start.
Last week I went to a new Costco that opened up in Chandler, on opening day even. I understand many people were waiting in line early for 360's, but I wasn't one of them. Still, I can cross that Costco off my list of places to go. :-P It was nice being in one that was new and clean, and the alcohol selection was closer to that of the Scottsdale store than the Tempe store (that's a good thing). Odd though - I didn't see ice cream bars on the food court menu. Not a good sign.
Sunday's autocross was fun, but frustrating. I DNF'd what I believe to have been my best run, but even if it was clean, I still would have been way off Clint's time. I'm going to have to make some significant improvements if I want a chance next season. Hopefully more people can be dragged into the class by then as well...two is good, but three or four would be great (especially after a few years of one).
Finally, I was sick most of this week, which is always fun. Hooray for DayQuil.