I think I'm PMS'ing.
It starts off good when Nash calls me at work to say he picked up my re-worked knuckles from my mechanic and dropped them off on my door step on his way to a movie. He confirms what the mechanic says about a few of the H&R studs being a bit loose, but I'm just thinking they just need to be snugged in a bit more. I figured I'd just hook up the impact gun and reef 'em in, then install the new shiny bits on the car tonight.

There's a fuggin' Mariners' game this afternoon or something which has traffic all messed up so I'm late picking up my wife. We hear on the radio that there's a roll over accident on 405, so we decide to stop in Factoria for dinner and let the traffic die down. We had a nice dinner and get back on the road. Traffic is a little better and we make good time getting to our exit.

Now, from the 405 offramp with medium traffic, we can get home in about 8 minutes or so. Today, it takes 50 minutes! The repaving project of 140th that has been going on for the last two yeas finally looks like it's almost done, but they had ONE LANE open up the hill for both directions and traffic was a mess. No where to turn around. We're stuck. Then, Mr. StUnNa in a Audi A4 with the loud radio decides to cut everyone off and drive down the right shoulder. I see him coming and try to pull over and cut his *** off. I didn't quite have him blocked, but he knew what I was doing so we played our horns and showed a few fingers at each other as he slowed down to get by. I see him a few minutes later in some apartment complex on the corner, and the finger flailing continues.

At this point, I'm full from dinner, pissed at traffic, and in serious need of a toilet, but we manage to finally get home. I go look by the front door and pull a knuckle out of the box. Two of the studs on one knuckle are loose, and one on the other side is loose. I played with it for a few minutes and was actually able to push the stud out of the hole until it hit the hub and wouldn't go any further. Not good. So, I plug in the impact, get a spare lugnut and go at it. No good. Still loose. I tried the other knuckle and the same thing, no good. The other three seem to be fine, so I try again and end up spinning a stud in the bore with the lugnut still on. $hit!

I'm not sure this is what I paid $70 for the H&R kit for, or $250 for the bearings, ball joints, and stud install labor. Not that there's anything wrong with the bearings or ball joints, and it's completely possible that there's a problem with the studs. The problem is, I need new bearings and ball joints for the drivers school and race next weekend. I'll have to figure out a plan "B", or run on the knuckles that are on the car now, even though the bearings are shot, and the right ball joint is toast.

PS. What happens when a wheel bearing gives out? What happens when a ball joint dries up?

John -- who's annoyed at everything right now, and who's pissed at his knuckles, pissed at himself, pissed at H&R, pissed at his mechanic, pissed at the neighbor for trimming his own 1/2 of the grass around the lightpole out front, pissed at the cat, pissed at his checkbook for not having more worth......




[Modified by johng, 9:19 PM 7/31/2002]

 

Rough day, here:

 

Failed bearings are bad. All those parts down there tends to weld together. This can lead to wheels falling off and other nasty stuff.

Totally failed balljoints lead to loss of control because the suspension collapses. Again, not good.

How bad are the ball joints and bearings? If it's just the boot on the joint, repack it after each session and you'll probably be ok. As for the bearing, well, I could tell you stories about bad bearings and RX-7s and miraculously finishing an enduro, but it would be a severe case of "do what I say, not what I do".

 

If your mechanic knew that the studs were loose, why did he continue to press the hub & knuckle together? Get the studs we were talking about. Take the knuckles back to the mechanic. Tell him to redo it for free. He should never have sent it out the door like that. It is obviously unsafe.

Get the parts back. Install on car. Race car & kick butt. It will all be worth it!

Cheer up, at least you didn't spend a whole day checking out the engine wiring harness & sensors only to find out you put the wires on the distributor cap incorrectly.

 

I brought the knuckles in to work with me and we were able to get the nut off the stud, but the stud threads are trashed. We're going to clean up the threads, suck the studs back in with another lugnut, and weld 'em. I'm going to Acura today to pick up a TL3.5 rear stud and put a micrometer on it. I hear those have the same knurl size and the overall stud length is 10mm-12mm longer. I'll post my findings with sizes later.

 

When in doubt, weld the motha'.

 

John, you don't want the bearing to go out.... I have seen a friends car bearing weld it self together and it is not a pretty sight. You have the right idea with just welding the damn things. Looks good. I'm stoked for the School next friday!! See ya there