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Sep. 14th, 2008 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogNow that my hands and wrists don't hurt too much to type, here's the Saturday update!
Huge thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
akreaveter for spending all of yesterday with me and helping out with the car by taking care of Kuma, handing me tools, and being the foot on the brake while I bled the system and eyes on the instrument cluster as I poked at things under the hood. Thanks!
Ak and I were up 'till about 1 or 2 playing Spore. He stayed over at my place and I got up and started on the car around nine, Ak joining me at ten. I started with final making of room in the garage, then drove the Neon around the Posivan to get the nose in. I took the front passenger wheel off and removed the splash gaurd to look at the alternator and wiring bundles. Though assabrinageek said, they'd clearly been worked on and taped up, they seemed ok. I had Ak start the car and watch for the battery light as I poked at various wire bundles trying to duplicate the problem from Monday.
When I realized that the short might not stay disconnected long enough to trigger the battery light even if I was in the right place, I tried plugging the ScanGauge in to the car to see if we could watch the voltage level. Interestingly, the Scanguage did work on the Neon! But I was unable to get the voltage to drop by poking wire bundles. Finally I decided that if that was where the problem was, I'd wait 'till it was more obvious to work on it. And of course, when we tried to put the splash gaurds back on behind the wheel, one of the bolts had vanished into a pocket universe (barton_fender says they're probably building cars over there and need parts), so it was added to our list of things to buy at the hardware store. (When I noted this, Ak started singing bits of Weird Al's hardware store song. I like him.)
So with the wheel off, I disconnected the brake line from the flexible hose, and then pulled the hose off the caliper. Easy enough. The new one went in without too much fuss. I overtightened the caliper-end connector and brake fluid went spraying out of it when Ak stepped on the pedal, so I did it again with new washers and all was good. So I tried to open the bleeder valve to bleed the air out. Unfortunately, the valve was frozen solidly in place by rust. I even put a vise grip on it and just rounded it off. After some moments of panic, it was off to the parts store for a new caliper. And a bolt. And, at that point, lunch.
The parts store had the caliper (only $40 as opposed to my fears of double that), but no bolt. (No lunch either, but that was expected.) A trip to Super China provided a meal, and we stopped at Ace to get a replacement for the cross-dimensional fastener.
Getting home, I realized that the brake line had been leaking fluid the whole time, in a slow but steady drip. Fortunately, the master cylinder still was about half full; the manual says this car should never have the master cylinder get 'too low' because it will cause ABS problems. I filled it up and installed the new caliper. I had Tim get in and test it; all seemed well. I opened the bleeder valve (Much easier this time!) and bled the line.
While I was there, I had Ak start the car one more time so I could look at wires and such. When he turned the key, there was a loud clang followed by nothing. After more moments of panic (I guess they're unavoidable when doing this stuff on a car you need to get to work), I figured the light under the open hood must have drained the battery too much to spin the starter. As I stared to disconnect the battery to take it out and charge it, lights flicked on and off. Ah-ha! The negative battery terminal connection was looser than I thought! The starter probably applied force to the engine, which made the engine rock to the side, which disconnected the battery. Which means I've probably tracked down the battery light issue too! I fixed that and it started up just fine. Whee!
The brakes felt spongy on the test drive so I looked in the book and realized I'd bled the brakes completely the wrong way. Decided to do it right, we went to the parts store and got a brake bleeding kit (the little bottle and hoses and everything) and, disassembling the wheel again, bled them again. Hey, look at all those bubbles! In a test, I confirmed that I had enough braking power to activate the ABS; good enough for me.
Turning the car around, I backed it carefully in around the Posivan to get the rear end into the garage. On a car with as high a back end as the Neon, this was not so easy! Telling Tim that this would, in theory, be the easiest part, I got it up on the jack and started trying to take the wheel off. As it turned out, this wheel was just as frozen up as the one on the other side thatsabrinageek did at her place. After some WD40 did not help, I combed the garage to find Moira's dad's propane torch and applied it to the nuts. To each nut in turn, I applied propane flame (a trick that I'm very thankful to Sabrina for teaching me) followed by the tire iron, on whose opposing crossmembers I applied, respectively, two hands puling up, and one foot pushing down. And, in turn, each one broke loose with a noise that I don't think I even have a simile for. On the first one, I thought I'd snapped the stud off.
After some resting, I looked at the drum. In theory, the drum is just held on by the tension of the lug nuts holding the wheel on and will just slide right off. In theory. Just as on the other side last weekend, it took a full hour to get this thing off. Ak and I, working jointly, applied hammers (breaking a claw off one of them), screwdrivers, and even a three foot crowbar (Gordon Freeman would be proud) to it. He asked me a couple times if I was sure there wasn't something else I was supposed to do first, but no, it was just rusted in place, probably around all five lug studs. It was so rusted that every time I struck it, particles so fine that they looked like smoke would waft out of the drum, hanging there in the light of the work lamp.
Finally, finally it came free, leaving a significant mound of rust particles heaped under it. I looked at the brake shoes. They didn't look too bad. So I inserted the tip of a screwdriver into a small gap one one of the shoes between the friction pad and the shoe itself. With just a tap, the pad fell right off the shoe. The other side was equally tenuous. If nothing else, seeing that gives me a feeling of justification for having done all this work. Those things could have come apart at any moment.
By this time it was about seven o' clock, maybe seven-thirty and dusk had fallen, but I knew the worst was finally over. I spent a while working on putting the new shoes in and putting all the spring hardware back together around the hub assembly (The book says to remove the hub assembly first. As 'Brina put it, "Fuck that.") Everything in there is rusted all to hell and should probably be replaced, but at least with new shoes I feel ok about driving it. If I have time, I may buy new brake hardware kits and replace all the springs in both drums next weekend. I'm thinking I probably need new drums too as, judging by the intermittent scrape when I spun the wheel, the one I worked on last night seems to be a little bit out-of-round. Unless it's just rust buildup. Feeling exhausted and sore, I put the wheel back on and tightened it down. I was done.
So I went in the house and took a nice long, hot, wonderful shower. It was about nine when that was done, so Tim and I got in the Neon and drove (uneventfully!) over to my parents house where I just sort of hung out and talked to my parents and brothers 'till about 11:30. There was a trip in there out to Piggly Wiggly with my dad to buy some burritos and stuff (also uneventful! Woo-hoo!) which made for a nice test. My wrists hurt so much that I asked my brothers to open the little sauce packets for me 'cause it just hurt me trying to do it. They're still stiff and sore today, but are better than I was expecting.
Today I'm going to give the car that bath it's due. I don't know what else yet. I guess it depends on how I'm feeling. I'm not feeling wiped out like last night, but I am sore.
-----
You know, there is something to be said for that feeling of personal investiture in your own vehicle. It's kind of a nice feeling to look at a car and say, 'Yeah, I did this and that and this other thing and it's running thanks to me.'. That's satisfying. At the same time, as much as I like my new Neon, I really do miss having a car I don't have to do work on. A car that I just go outside and turn the key and drive and not have to worry that something is going to break on it somewhere. But that's life, I suppose.
Huge thanks to
akreaveter for spending all of yesterday with me and helping out with the car by taking care of Kuma, handing me tools, and being the foot on the brake while I bled the system and eyes on the instrument cluster as I poked at things under the hood. Thanks!Ak and I were up 'till about 1 or 2 playing Spore. He stayed over at my place and I got up and started on the car around nine, Ak joining me at ten. I started with final making of room in the garage, then drove the Neon around the Posivan to get the nose in. I took the front passenger wheel off and removed the splash gaurd to look at the alternator and wiring bundles. Though as
sabrinageek said, they'd clearly been worked on and taped up, they seemed ok. I had Ak start the car and watch for the battery light as I poked at various wire bundles trying to duplicate the problem from Monday.When I realized that the short might not stay disconnected long enough to trigger the battery light even if I was in the right place, I tried plugging the ScanGauge in to the car to see if we could watch the voltage level. Interestingly, the Scanguage did work on the Neon! But I was unable to get the voltage to drop by poking wire bundles. Finally I decided that if that was where the problem was, I'd wait 'till it was more obvious to work on it. And of course, when we tried to put the splash gaurds back on behind the wheel, one of the bolts had vanished into a pocket universe (
barton_fender says they're probably building cars over there and need parts), so it was added to our list of things to buy at the hardware store. (When I noted this, Ak started singing bits of Weird Al's hardware store song. I like him.)So with the wheel off, I disconnected the brake line from the flexible hose, and then pulled the hose off the caliper. Easy enough. The new one went in without too much fuss. I overtightened the caliper-end connector and brake fluid went spraying out of it when Ak stepped on the pedal, so I did it again with new washers and all was good. So I tried to open the bleeder valve to bleed the air out. Unfortunately, the valve was frozen solidly in place by rust. I even put a vise grip on it and just rounded it off. After some moments of panic, it was off to the parts store for a new caliper. And a bolt. And, at that point, lunch.
The parts store had the caliper (only $40 as opposed to my fears of double that), but no bolt. (No lunch either, but that was expected.) A trip to Super China provided a meal, and we stopped at Ace to get a replacement for the cross-dimensional fastener.
Getting home, I realized that the brake line had been leaking fluid the whole time, in a slow but steady drip. Fortunately, the master cylinder still was about half full; the manual says this car should never have the master cylinder get 'too low' because it will cause ABS problems. I filled it up and installed the new caliper. I had Tim get in and test it; all seemed well. I opened the bleeder valve (Much easier this time!) and bled the line.
While I was there, I had Ak start the car one more time so I could look at wires and such. When he turned the key, there was a loud clang followed by nothing. After more moments of panic (I guess they're unavoidable when doing this stuff on a car you need to get to work), I figured the light under the open hood must have drained the battery too much to spin the starter. As I stared to disconnect the battery to take it out and charge it, lights flicked on and off. Ah-ha! The negative battery terminal connection was looser than I thought! The starter probably applied force to the engine, which made the engine rock to the side, which disconnected the battery. Which means I've probably tracked down the battery light issue too! I fixed that and it started up just fine. Whee!
The brakes felt spongy on the test drive so I looked in the book and realized I'd bled the brakes completely the wrong way. Decided to do it right, we went to the parts store and got a brake bleeding kit (the little bottle and hoses and everything) and, disassembling the wheel again, bled them again. Hey, look at all those bubbles! In a test, I confirmed that I had enough braking power to activate the ABS; good enough for me.
Turning the car around, I backed it carefully in around the Posivan to get the rear end into the garage. On a car with as high a back end as the Neon, this was not so easy! Telling Tim that this would, in theory, be the easiest part, I got it up on the jack and started trying to take the wheel off. As it turned out, this wheel was just as frozen up as the one on the other side that
sabrinageek did at her place. After some WD40 did not help, I combed the garage to find Moira's dad's propane torch and applied it to the nuts. To each nut in turn, I applied propane flame (a trick that I'm very thankful to Sabrina for teaching me) followed by the tire iron, on whose opposing crossmembers I applied, respectively, two hands puling up, and one foot pushing down. And, in turn, each one broke loose with a noise that I don't think I even have a simile for. On the first one, I thought I'd snapped the stud off. After some resting, I looked at the drum. In theory, the drum is just held on by the tension of the lug nuts holding the wheel on and will just slide right off. In theory. Just as on the other side last weekend, it took a full hour to get this thing off. Ak and I, working jointly, applied hammers (breaking a claw off one of them), screwdrivers, and even a three foot crowbar (Gordon Freeman would be proud) to it. He asked me a couple times if I was sure there wasn't something else I was supposed to do first, but no, it was just rusted in place, probably around all five lug studs. It was so rusted that every time I struck it, particles so fine that they looked like smoke would waft out of the drum, hanging there in the light of the work lamp.
Finally, finally it came free, leaving a significant mound of rust particles heaped under it. I looked at the brake shoes. They didn't look too bad. So I inserted the tip of a screwdriver into a small gap one one of the shoes between the friction pad and the shoe itself. With just a tap, the pad fell right off the shoe. The other side was equally tenuous. If nothing else, seeing that gives me a feeling of justification for having done all this work. Those things could have come apart at any moment.
By this time it was about seven o' clock, maybe seven-thirty and dusk had fallen, but I knew the worst was finally over. I spent a while working on putting the new shoes in and putting all the spring hardware back together around the hub assembly (The book says to remove the hub assembly first. As 'Brina put it, "Fuck that.") Everything in there is rusted all to hell and should probably be replaced, but at least with new shoes I feel ok about driving it. If I have time, I may buy new brake hardware kits and replace all the springs in both drums next weekend. I'm thinking I probably need new drums too as, judging by the intermittent scrape when I spun the wheel, the one I worked on last night seems to be a little bit out-of-round. Unless it's just rust buildup. Feeling exhausted and sore, I put the wheel back on and tightened it down. I was done.
So I went in the house and took a nice long, hot, wonderful shower. It was about nine when that was done, so Tim and I got in the Neon and drove (uneventfully!) over to my parents house where I just sort of hung out and talked to my parents and brothers 'till about 11:30. There was a trip in there out to Piggly Wiggly with my dad to buy some burritos and stuff (also uneventful! Woo-hoo!) which made for a nice test. My wrists hurt so much that I asked my brothers to open the little sauce packets for me 'cause it just hurt me trying to do it. They're still stiff and sore today, but are better than I was expecting.
Today I'm going to give the car that bath it's due. I don't know what else yet. I guess it depends on how I'm feeling. I'm not feeling wiped out like last night, but I am sore.
-----
You know, there is something to be said for that feeling of personal investiture in your own vehicle. It's kind of a nice feeling to look at a car and say, 'Yeah, I did this and that and this other thing and it's running thanks to me.'. That's satisfying. At the same time, as much as I like my new Neon, I really do miss having a car I don't have to do work on. A car that I just go outside and turn the key and drive and not have to worry that something is going to break on it somewhere. But that's life, I suppose.
