robertwheeler

Got the knuckle (37$).... It sure is bare. I wish they had at least left the bracket for the brakes on.... Dam I have to Take deb to work in 3 hours.... for me this just isnt enough time to do this or at least do it right. The knuckle came out of an 89 gl.

I had a similer problem in another car I had.... I suspected that one or both of the reman cv shafts was causing a massive shudder. Short of a leap of faith this is a hard one to prove... On an other front... change the other ball joint. It might not be bad enough to poke and prod with a bar... but it could be enough to make the wheel go off center at times... Happened with my 87 GL. I couldnt prove I had a bad balljoint until I popped it out and checked it. Robert

My frustration level is way off the scale. Im almost convinced that the Cv shaft has a bad joint on it... Its been my expirience that the only thing that makes this kind of noise is the cv... I have changed the bearing's on this car and the bad ones made the wheel loose... but diddnt make the same noise as a bad cv. BUt first things first.... while having a cv shaft make almost the same noise as the one i changed is pretty bad.... but Its seldom fatal.. SO Im going to call and see if I can get a knuckle or the whole rightside strut and when Im sure that isnt going to fall apart.... Il deal with the manager of the part store who isnt going to believe a cv shaft can be bad with intact boots. But then maybe the knuckle will also solve this issue.. or One can hope. I am so frustrated my head is spinning and my stomache hurts. Any friendly conversation or tips would be very very helpful here. Robert

What do you suppose are the chances of getting a bad rebuilt cv shaft? I have had several go bad after months.. never one that wasnt properly rebuilt.

Your not going to believe this... Less then 20 miles on the new Cv shaft and its developed a rolling rattle. It did a lot of chattering before... but this is a new noise with the new shaft.. I jacked up the right side.... spun the wheel..... I can feel the rattle in it and using my fingers to feel it.... Ir seems to be comming from the inner cv on the new shaft... or I suppose I might have a problem with the trannie now.... Again I need to monitor the situation. Dont you love it when people say... if can always be worse? Robert

The new shaft came in today.. got that in and so far the ball joint seems pretty solid... Im keeping a close watch on it.... I think Im gonna change the bolt on there for a case hardened one. Robert

The new joint is in.... I put the 3/8 bolt in loose to see if it bound the joint.. It did and once I tightened up it was fine...

Well I found out what happens when the ball joint falls out. When I put it together I had problems with the 3/8 bolt I got for this and I used a slightly smaller bolt.... and I didnt notice that the bolt wasn't thick enough to properly bind the joint... So here we were at 2am , in the middle of no where and the top of the ball joint falls out. I failed to have a flashlight but I managed to get it back together (by feel) with the 3/8 bolt .... this time the nut went on... but I broken the pin (while removing the nut in the dark) and it stripped the stud.... But I jammed it on... Put a new pin on it and drove home very carefully and now I need to replace the new ball joint.. I can however use the boot off this joint for the other side.. I know it has a bad boot... not sure about the rest of the joint though. I don't feel so intelligent right now.... but putting it in this thread is like writing it down and it will help me remember. We got home.... but not a single police officer bothered to notice us... We did get asked by a passing motorist if we needed help... I thanked him but said we were OK.. I totally shredded my finger tips... Robert

Thats a great Idea. I grew up with full size american cars...rear wheel drive mostly.... Quite a differant Idea from the A frame on one of these. Thanks Robert

I wish I had real tools at all... I used a good craftsman 6 point socket and heated it and it just diddnt go. I drilled out the thread side and the rust on the bare shaft of the bolt still held it... I had to drill 90% of that bolt before the rust broke free... But im happy with a bolt all the way through to a nut. But its Always nice to hear friendly comments Robert

Follow up : No big surprise the CV shaft didnt get here today.... But with the sense of impending disaster ringing in the ear's I managed to drill out the bolt that was on the top of the ball joint... And I fitting in the new joint... Fitting in.... all done. When the stupid CV shaft comes in it will be a sinch to change.... loose the ball joint and the sway bar on that side on the old one slides out as easy as you like... Heck I did it twice so far... too bad it was the wrong CV. There is a micro crack on where the ball joint goes in.... maybe 1/8 of an inch.. it closed up when I tightened the bolt (bolt and nut on the other side) .. I think for a street car this isn't a major issue. I hope the other side wont be such an issue.... I did change the ball joint on that side before... it shouldn't be so rusted... fingers crossed.

I like beer The funny thing is that im a night owl... And I normaly sleep til about 2 in the pm. I stayed up over night and went to work on the car at 7am. I sure did get a lot of attention "Are you a mechanic?".... not really just too poor to pay someone else to get frustrated.

I saw what might have been a silver Subu wagon.. maybe 90'ish very near where I live. Talk about a sharp car. Anyway with a Tag like Suebe I figure there is a good chance you will be here.

Today should have been a good day. I got a cv shaft and a ball joint for the passenger side front of my lil wagon. Working off the ground I got the entire strut assembly and Cv shaft off that side took about 1.5 hours...I figured the cv shaft was a gimme and it looked right... until you put it next to the old one. They gave me the one for an auto tranny instead of the five speed... The shaft coming to the cv is a bit larger on the 5 speed... I was right... the ball joint on that side is bad.... not suicidal bad.. but enough to cause some of my handling problems. That I had the right part for but I couldn't get the bolt from the top of the joint out.. I heated it , I oiled it and I even tried talking nice to it.... I manage to round it off severely even using a good 6 point socket. I have 2 choices I can drill it out and out a bolt and not in there or head to the local subu grave yard. All told I spent 6 hours taking it apart , trying to change the ball joint and then I had to put it back together with the old parts.... and add insult to injury the caliper expanded just enough to not want to go on.. and it didnt want to spin... But i got it on and bled the line... Talk about a wasted Saturday morning...

I looked this seller over.... they have a lot of stocking problems.... Might be a bit risky.... UNless you like getting negitive feedback because they auction more then they stock.

Follow up : I asked my brother if this car had an issue with the CE light coming on... and he said it did " Mostly when I got bad gas or the injector is clogged". The Gas around here is really bad.... I cant use gulf at all and I think I better not go below the last 1/4 tank... I'm not real sure what evil item is growing in there right now. Whenever I do get near to the last 1/4 the car runs bad.. stalls and is hard to start.... but does after a while. Is it common for Injectors to clog so often? Can I blame it totally on the gas? Short of removing the tank and finding somewhere to get rid of 2 - 3 gallons or gas...... is there someway to clean this out? Consistently I should say.... Regards Robert

Hi If you have seen any of my earlier messages you would guess that I have a lot of issues with this car but I manage to keep it going. This could be confusing cause im dealing with likly multiple causes. While I was trying to figure out why my Check engine light was flashing or staying on for short period's I managed to get some very bad gas and almost fouled my injector to the point that I almost couldnt get it to run. I dont know how you would deal with this but I find that throttle body injection isnt too hard to clean out... In my case I was able to get the car running and I used drygas and a good injector cleaner in the tank. I took it for a really unpleasant ride and after a while the injector burned clear. By the next morning it ran like a top.. I guess the chemicals sit in the injector over night and also help clean it out. But Im back to the original problem.... the car runs fairly well and I have normal indications on all the dash gages and having the check engine light on dosent seem to be bothering the engine much..... once I got the bad gas burned out it clarified that issue. Generaly it does run well but sometimes when I tach it to about 5k I can feel the ignition breaking up just slightly. But it dosent do this all the time and dosent seem to have anything to do with the CE light. I tuned the car about 7000 miles ago... so this shouldnt be an issue. The coil looks like hell and it might even be the original... I think if I ever catchup with the rest of the work or this problem gets worse that I might just get a new coil. I found a small grey plate on the front of the engine : Brngings .010 Rngs .010 Someone spent some money rebuilding at least the lower part of this engine. I would really hate to have to lose this car... and as my brother and I have put near 40k miles on this car.. I rather think the engine was rebuilt right. oh... At the moment im thinking vacume leak... its idling a bit high (1200) and when you goose it.... it takes too long to idle down. All tips,clues welcome. Thanks Robert

It turned out better then I expected it to. Before when I hit a bump the car would try to go in all directions at once.... now it takes bumps and stays more or less straight. Interesting what you can do with some hose scraps.

I took the driver side bushing out.... someone must have messed with it as the only thing around the bolt was badly worn rubber.... i expected to find a metal sleeve of sorts in here.... well I put it back the same way I found it.. cept I used better rubber... not a fix.. but it will help until i can fix it.

The cv's are about shot..... and among other noises I get those. One problem is that this car has so many issues.... more then I have money. I tryed like hell to get any play from the ball joints... but they seem tight... that noise could be from the cv's Thanks Robert

I did get the picture.... if you look at the end of the stabilizer bar you will see the parts I need. Its at the top part of the brackestish thing and is pass's through the end of the Stab bar.

Napa ordered the wrong parts... not totaly thier fault. See if this works... this pic of my frame came out suprisingly well. Its not as bad as I thought it was... but not pretty.

This car is driving me up the wall. Sometimes I get a noise I could almost swear is a bad ball joint... but I cant even find the slightest play in either of the ball joints. My other parts will be in on friday hopefully.... maybe this will help to define some of the noises. Robert

I remained comvinced that I domt want to put any money into this car because of the frame... but Im convinced it isnt the main issue. Shortlist of problems : Rear springs are collapsed... nearly riding on the struts thenselves. the front stabilizer bar isnt working great cause the ends are worn. Oddly enough while the front springs have some wear... nowhere near as bad as the rear ones. Im gonna try some of those things you put on to raise the car. Happy Easter All Robert

Thats a kind thought but as you say about 2500 miles away Robert