Preparation for Front Sub-frame Removal
Yesterday, I actually accomplished quite a bit. On my way home from work, I called my self-proclaimed "unnamed uncle", and talked to him about the comment he left on the blog on my previous post found here. He determined that it would be best to disconnect the front sub-frame from the body and have it sandblasted.
After finishing a few chores at home, I went to the garage and got started right away. Let's see, I located all of the brake line and fuel line brackets and removed all the screws. I disconnected the brake line from the master cylinder and removed the whole brake line from the engine compartment. I removed the passenger upper control arm and all the bolts. I removed a few sway bar bracket screws, but I decided to wait to take it completely off until I have the lower control arms off, because of the awkward location of the screws. I removed the center drag link, by disconnecting the idler arm from the frame and the drag link from the Pitman arm. I also removed the steering gear from the column and the frame.
Last but not least, I followed the correct procedure in the Hayne's manual—at least I thought I did—and removed the driver side lower control arm. The manual said to strap a chain around the spring and put a jack under the control arm while taking the bolts out. I did that up until after I took the bolts out. I didn't realize that the spring was still compressed, so I took off the "chain" (rubber hose) and removed the jack. As I was unbolting the the shock absorber at the shaft, the shaft came completely out and that's when the control arm finally broke free and the compressed spring shot the control arm to the floor where my foot was. I almost broke a toe, but luckily I'm ok.
All that's left to do now is remove the passenger control arm safely and then unbolt the front sub-frame from the body and then finally I can make a trip to my unnamed uncle's house to use the sandblaster on all my disconnected parts. I hope I will have time to do this tonight. I also took a few more pictures of my progress and tools. These can be found in the photo gallery. The left photo below are all the labeled bags I have so far full of nuts, bolts, screws, etc. The middle photo is of the culprit. And the right photo is a shot of most of the parts I took off yesterday.
I Love Craig’s List
Last night I emailed someone that had a listing on Craig's List for an impact wrench. The listing included a slightly used Ingersoll Rand 231G 1/2" impact wrench and extras, that included an SAE deep socket set, an extension and a 360 degree swivel fitting. After a few emails back and forth today, I sent him the link to this blog. He read the part about me needing a grinder. He just happened to have a Craftsman electric grinder, that was used once, for $20 and a sawsall both listed on Craig's List as well. He also said that if I bought a few things from him, he would throw in a few cans of primer and rust inhibitor and some body work tools that I will need later.
Needless to say, I took a trip out to New Philadelphia after work today and came home with the impact wrench (and extras), a grinder, and a bunch of aerosol cans full of contents that I will need in the not-so-distant future. I came home and ordered a few pizzas and then used my impact wrench to take off the lug nuts of the passenger front tire. I ended up having to read the directions to see what knobs I needed to turn to get the right direction and power to the wrench. It turns out that the wrench is an air hog and I just needed to adjust the pressure a bit. I started to disassemble the passenger front suspension, but I ended up pinching my hand, so I stopped and called it a night.
Sorry folks, no pictures today. I'll have some photos of my new tools tomorrow.
Clean Up
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Preface
Before the delivery of my Nova, I had to make preparations to my garage in order to have enough room for everything. One of the improvements was done in April when I rewired the electricity in the garage and the breaker box in the house to allow for 220 volts in order to run my air compressor. After a few phone calls between my dad and other electrical experts, I installed it the correct way.
The next improvement was to repair the leak in my air compressor. This was done in the beginning of May with the expertise of my uncle. I thought it would have been an easy weld to patch a tiny hole, but I was wrong. Long story short, he cut the motor mount bracket and welded a steel plate to cover the entire leaky area.
Repairing my leaky—and apparently partly moldy—roof, was done on my birthday weekend, with the skills, knowledge, and help from my dad. We were both a little sore the next day and I learned a new trade. The most recent improvement which was completed on Saturday before the delivery, was a 9 foot work bench. This, I constructed with the verbal help from my uncle, and a borrowed saw from my other uncle to make a few cuts. Currently, the bench is completely covered with car parts. Perhaps a shelf between the bench and the floor would be a good improvement for extra storage space.
All of the above mentioned people deserve a big thank you for helping me thus far. Someone else I would like to thank is my great uncle who left most of his tool collection to me after he passed away. Without it all, I wouldn't be able to get started with this project.
Post
Today, I went to Harbor Freight to purchase over $100 worth of supplies and tools, including a few wire brushes, mechanic's gloves, safety goggles, and a new air hose and reel. I started my work by vacuuming out the interior and cleaning certain areas of the windows, as shown in one of the above pictures. I also started cleaning up the engine compartment using the wire brushes I had purchased. The first two above pictures are closeups of the engine compartment before I started cleaning.
My brother-in-law spent a lot of time cleaning the engine compartment with the a little help from the wire brush, the air compressor, and the Goof Off that I purchased earlier. Nowhere on the bottle does it say anything about rust removal, but it seemed to have done the trick. I spent some time disassembling a few parts, looking up the parts in a catalog, putting the nuts and bolts into Ziploc bags, and labeling them accordingly.
I removed both inner fender wells and set them on the floor of the garage. I later found out that when my dog got scared when my air compressor kicked on, he bolted out of the garage and he *censored for graphic content* cut his leg on one of the fenders. That incident resulted in a trip to the veterinarian emergency room at 11 at night. He is doing OK now. The five stitches come out in ten to fifteen days.
We also managed to remove the driver's front fender to have better access to the engine compartment. The work that has been done is shown in the photos below.
