They opened up a shop in Bloomington on lyndale Ave recently. They bought out the old Freeway 66 shop, just haven't changed over the signs.

Op, going back to your first page . . . What were the symptoms you felt on the highway before replacing everything in the back end? I am suspicious that my bushings are bad @ 250k miles

Not sure if yours is stick or auto, but upon acceleration you'll feel the back end sorta swerve out, and then swerve back in. At street speeds it's hardly noticable but at freeway speed the back end will sway to and fro every time you hit a bump that's not perfectly straight basically until you lay off the gas.

The upper and lower control arms are there to keep the axle straight. if the bushings are gone, or if the frame is wonky, the rear axle will be angled at times, causing rear sway.

Changing the lower arms made a big difference. It didn't 100% solve the issue, but probably 75-80%. Old tires were also playing a big part as well as the upper control arms and the shocks. With all of those things new, there is no rear sway at all in any situation.

I just got off the phone with them. They are done, and they did the upper ball joints as well, and they're only charging me for an hour of labor. Not bad!

Great job with the repairs so far!

Last evening I got both old tie rods off (difficult but not TOO bad since I was doing both inners and outers I just cut the boots off and used a spanner on the inners at the rack, and they both eventually gave) -- first time I can remember using a spanner as a 'primary tool' to actually accomplish the removal of something in a car. Around the house? Sure, but on cars it's pretty rare. The thing that made it difficult was that the inners I was removing only had two flat sides instead of 4 or 6, so it was hard to get the wrench in a position to apply torque.

Also got the passenger side brake line out at the ABS tee... WOOT. This means I get to do new hard lines and rubber to the new caliper. Very happy about that.

The new wheel bearings and upper BJ's are in the knuckles... I just have one question:

When I took off the knuckles I don't recall seeing an inner bearing seal anywhere. Now with the bearings pressed in and the seals installed by the shop I don't see how I could have NOT seen them. Unless they somehow did them wrong or reversed or something (please, baby jesus please say they didn't do them wrong) but they knew what kind of car they were from and I'm sure they've done them before over the years.... is it possible the old outer seals are still attached to the axles somehow? I can post pics of the axle ends later today for verification.

Latest update... spent some time being unable to make progress due to time and parts restraints... but that time is over.

I got both sides put back together and torqued. Just have to bleed the brakes again since I put a new caliper on. God I wish that were a one person job. I know there's a one-person way but I don't trust it.

Gravity bleeding works, If you have the patience for it. With long runs it can take 30 minutes or more to fully bleed each side. I don't have that kind of patience so I just ask the wife to help. lol

So the more I think about it, the more I'm pretty sure there was no inner seal on either knuckle/bearing. I suppose that might be why both bearings died a painful death. Outer seal, I can't tell because I didn't look beneath the hub (obviously).

aaaaaaand fail.

I wasn't totally done with the lower ball joint on the passenger side. I forgot I had one more bolt to go, which I knew. I went to put it on today and WTF, it WILL NOT go in. Not the new one, not any of the old ones... so I finally stop cursing and resist the urge to get one thread to bite and airgun it in.... take eeeeverything apart again (which granted is much easier when it all just went back together) and what do I see....

look at the bottom right hole. It's 'sorta' round.

My only thought is that the shop must have put it in a clamp or press or something in some odd way (they did say they had trouble getting the bearing out) -- and there's no way any bolt is going in there.



So next question is: Should I have them drill and tap it for the original thread, have them drill it out completely and use a nut and bolt, or trash the entire steering knuckle and pay (either me or them) for another wheel bearing and more labor to press it in and out.

Thoughts?

I dropped the knuckle off at the shop this morning. They think they should be able to get it to behave. I'm hopeful they'll get done soon so I can put everything back together and bring it BACK there for an alignment at 4!

I've never understood this.... do you block out your license plate where you park everyday? Ya know.... cuz criminals, thieves...

Do you *67 every call so you show up as private caller?

Get real.

It's kind of like always throwing a pinch of salt over your shoulder three times when you leave the house to ward off the evil eye.

Wait, you don't all do that?

i dont get it either not like any civilian can take your plate number and find you or where you live

you would have to know some one at the dmv or police department to do that

Nice work man!
It's gonna be really nice having everything fresh. Did you paint the calipers or rotor hats? Most part store calipers come raw, and rust like crazy as soon as they get wet. I use silver wheel paint from- I believe- Dupli-Color, and the same line of clear. It's a super nice silver, shoots awesome, cures smooth and fast- I love it. Anyway, just don't want all your hard work to look like crap after the first rain!
Hope those Moog lower BJs work out well for you