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Episodes of a rust belt (hack) mechanic

frito

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As the title indicates, those of us north of the Mason/Dixon line have this fun thing called rust we need to contend with. This fun iron oxide mixture makes even the most mundane job an adventure not for the faint of heart. Case in point, my brake job, which should be an afternoon and a couple beers is now well into weekend two (time delay for ordering additional parts). Follow along my picture journey if you dare. I'm warning you now, it's not for the faint of heart - be afraid. Be very afraid.

So after our trip to Snowshoe my brakes started making a horrible grinding noise. Having smelled how hot they were in the mountains I figured I cooked them so let's replace them. And surprisingly it's been 45,000 miles since the last brake job. Order up new pads and rotors and get to work. A couple hours and I'll be done, right. Maybe in the south, but not here. Here my impact wrench can't remove the caliper slide pin. Here, my pry bar snaps the caliper slide pin.

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Well doesn't that just stink. Put it back together, move the cars to their normal spots and give Rock Auto a bunch of money the last day my 5% discount is still good. Order front and rear rotors, pads, calipers, rubber lines and a bunch of other things. By Thursday my foyer looks like a Rock Auto distribution center.

Today's the day, let's get 'er done. Hit everything with a good dose of penetrating oil and move on to a few few "easy" things while it soaks in. Easy thing number one - replace the ground strap from the hood to the fire wall. That'll give me some good vibes, right? Oh you're fooling yourself. The good vibes quickly turn bad as the firewall bolt snaps as I'm removing what's left of the old wire. Oh well, at least there's a nearby ground I can leverage for this one.

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A hack job complete, let's move on to the main course, replacing the brakes. Loosen the fittings for the hard lines to the rubber lines. Week, that seemed to work for all the caliper kines. That stupid center line over the differential - well that seems to be a no go as the entire metal line is turning with the nut vs. the nut turning around the line. Rats! Move on to the actual brakes. Wheels off, no sweat. Caliper brackets off (no need to first remove the caliper a since the new ones come with fresh brackets) works as expected. Rear drums/discs off, yep. Driver side rotor - WHY WON'T YOU BUDGE? Double check to make sure there's not a retaining screw. Actually triple check. Move over to passenger side and rotor slides right off as expected. Back to driver's side and resort to this and it still won't budge

PXL_20210207_021111882.NIGHT.jpg

What in the world? Who welded my rotor on!?! So it is now soaking with multiple hits of penetrating oil (I'm getting dizzy or stoned by the fumes at this point) and it's going to soak overnight - and probably not be any more cooperative in the morning. Something tells me I'm going to be ordering hub assemblies and half shafts tommorow, buttoning bit back up to properly position the cars and waiting another week for FedEx to deliver more goodies.

Oh, and to leave you with just one more frightening site, both of my rear jounce bumpers are gone and hiding by these pictures, I don't think buying new ones will do me any good as they'll probably fall right out.

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So now, It's time to call it quits, take a shower and have a beer or ten. I'm getting so very close to throwing all the new parts in the back and taking it to our mechanic.

Oh, and I hope these images don't give you nightmares. If I didn't love snow so much and hate the heat with a deep seeded passion I would consider moving south.
 
Nasty looking... and I am glad I live in the south with my soon to be 20 year old avy without any rust.
 
Note to self: Never live any further north than you already do.

Short visits might be OK.

But living?

I don't think so.

Best wishes for the rest of your repair.

But, it doesn't sound like my wishes will be doing you any good, unfortunately.
 
Dealing with rust is about as much fun as flaming bamboo strips hammered under the fingernails :3:
I'd clean up all that rust where the jounce bumpers go, and weld in a bracket to give the jounce something to attach on to. Then paint it up good and bolt on the jounces.
Rusty brake lines are a treat. Requires a combination of torch work, rapid cooling with water in a spray bottle, and penetrating fluid.
When I am dealing with a stubborn tube nut that is stuck to the line and won't move without twisting the line. First remove the part that the tube nut is attached to (eg wheel cylinder) and spin it around until it is off the line. Now heat the tube nut until it is dull red (have the water bottle ready as the brake fluid catches fire lol), then hit the line just behind the tube nut with a wet rag to make it contract. Hit the tube nut at the joint with a shot of penetrating fluid, and quickly wiggle the tube nut back and forth with a wrench. I have never had a tube nut I couldn't loosen yet.
If it doesn't work the first time, repeat the heating/cooling/oiling process until it lets go.
Expansion/contraction of the associated parts works every time!
The same principle can be used for all the rest of the fun stuff you are dealing with.
For stuck brake rotors, I use an 8# mallet and give' em hell. They're coming off. ;D
Rusty bolts, slider pins and brake bleeders can often be rattled loose if you hit 'em with a bit of penetrating fluid, and then give 'em a bunch of sharp hits straight on the head with a hammer. This works to shock the threads and help the penetrating fluid creep into the threads as well.
Welding a nut to a bolt that has broken off in something often works too. Then hit it with a hammer to set up vibration in the threads. Most often this works quite well.
The thing about it is you have to take your time. You have to do everything you can to avoid breaking stuff, because as we all know - dealing with broken stuff will cause more downtime than any of us will want to deal with.
Hammer, torch, vise grips ... they really are your best friends!

CarMech1969
 
I'll try that on the line on top of the diff. The one that will be a challenge is where the center line connects to line coming from the frame. There seems no way to get heat up there. I think they purposefully put there with a "Yeah, let's see them replace this rubber line without removing the body. 😈". I'm pretty sure the wheel bearing is shot based on the sound when I spin it. I'm going to give it one quick try with the puller and if that doesn't work I'm going to button it up and order hubs and cv axles. Heck, I've been wanting to refresh the entire suspension so I might just order it all and dive into it now. Just now happy with the time as I bought this as a winter vehicle so taking it down this time of year defeats the purpose.
 
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I also don't know how to weld.
 
Your frame pics did scare me, make sure you give it some love when the weather warms up.

Check in your area for a frame shop they will be weld the jounce bumper supports on for you.
 
Your frame pics did scare me, make sure you give it some love when the weather warms up.

Check in your area for a frame shop they will be weld the jounce bumper supports on for you.
Yeah, that's the plan. I hit some areas with can spray Fluid Film. I'm going to order the full Corrosion Free kit and hit the whole thing.
 
I have to admit the first time I did the front hubs on mine the wheels were welded to the rotor. I had to loosen the lug nuts and drive it down the driveway and turn hard to get them loose. Then rotors I had to use a BFH and bang the surface after heating them.

I learned to use anti-seize on all the mating surfaces, then all I need is a few bangs to get them off. Loctite works good on the caliper bolts.
 
Yeah, I anti-seize everything which is what is surprising me. I'd be surprised if I didn't put anti-seize on the hub prior to installing the rotor the last time I did the brakes. I had the driver side hub assembly replaced before I started doing more of my own repairs. I did the passenger side a few years ago and it wasn't as painful as I anticipated. I just know to rent a huge slide hammer from the parts store.

As far as the caliper slide pin, it snapped halfway inside the caliper where it's supposed to slide. I'm really thinking the heat from the mountains welded things together

It was a no go getting the rotor off. I'm going to order hubs and cv axles for both sides. Since I was wanting to do a suspension refresh this summer anyway I guess I'll just accelerate that plan and do it now - upper/lower control arms, inner/outer tie rods, sway bar links and shocks. My concern now is what kind of grief am I going to encounter trying to unload the torsion bar for the lower control arm. I will admit, with everything I've been encountering that has me a bit spooked.

Maybe I can use this as excuse to get a cheap welder and try to weld up the jounce bumpers mounts. They don't have to be pretty and can't be worse than what I (don't) have there now. 😉
 
You guys are better then me. I would have scrapped the thing, and bought a new truck.
 
Navigatin1 I have 3 GM trucks now so it's not my main ride so I have time to maintain the AV. I think most owners of the gen 1s have a second vehicle.

frito pick another project to learn how to weld, the frame is not a good idea. :laugh:
The frontends do last about 100,000 miles then its time to replace darn near everything.
 
Navigatin1 I have 3 GM trucks now so it's not my main ride so I have time to maintain the AV. I think most owners of the gen 1s have a second vehicle.

frito pick another project to learn how to weld, the frame is not a good idea. :laugh:
The frontends do last about 100,000 miles then its time to replace darn near everything.
Yep, I have a 2001 325i that does NOT see salt. I'm not afraid to drive it in the snow but don't want it to have this same fate. I'm going to order the suspension parts but am seriously considering taking it to the shop once it all arrives. I'm fairly certain something else is going to go wrong and I don't have the luxury of nice spring/summer weather to take my time. Heck, I may go for the idler, pitman arms - the whole shebang just so I have a reference point of when everything is new. I will then promptly hit it all with corrosion free or fluid film. Wish I would have know of that stuff years ago to have prevented this mess I'm in.
 
I understand, when my brake lines blew it actually sat for almost a year before I had time to fix it. I was not ever going spend 1400 bucks to have it fixed.

PS I had bought the line kit years before cause I knew it was going to happen. Now I still have to get a fuel line set because sooner or later it's going to blow
 
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I was watching one of my car shows and one of the items being advertised was something similar to this Solary Magnetic Induction Heater Kit 1000W 110V For Automotive Flameless Heat Induction Heat 1KW Hand Tool.

Have any of you guys ever used something like this?

I would think it might be helpful in spots where a torch would not be a good idea.

There are some Youtubes showing how it is used.

Just an idea.
Dude!!! That looks so cool. I love how it isolates the heat to where it really needs to be. A concern with one of the lines, the stupid center line to the differential, is that I would destroy the rubber hose without being able to loosen the line and then really be up a creek. My only concern with this is if I'd be able to get it in that tight space but it's definitely worth a shot. I smell "New Tool Day" in my future. 👍
 
I think the show I saw this advertised on was Truck U.

One of the hosts used it to smoke up a rusted exhaust clamp bolt.

Looked interesting and safer than waving a torch flame around, I thought.

Some of these offered on line are quite expensive.

That's probably why we haven't seen too many of them around.
 
I think I may try it. I put together my Rock Auto Christmas list of everything I want to do - some of it just "While I'm in there" type of stuff and it came up to over two grand. I now need to take a step back decide what I really am going to do vs. a dream list. I think the truck is stopping ok now that the slide pin broke so I may try to drive it locally only as needed and spread the pain out over a couple months and hit it hard once the weather warms. After all, I may need to drive it in the 9 inches of glorious winter wonderland that Mother Nature brought us last night.

PXL_20210209_121132055.NIGHT.jpg
 
Sounds good to me, I don't think you want to rush it that's when mistakes are made like breaking more stuff.
 
What in the world? Who welded my rotor on!?! So it is now soaking with multiple hits of penetrating oil (I'm getting dizzy or stoned by the fumes at this point) and it's going to soak overnight - and probably not be any more cooperative in the morning. Something tells me I'm going to be ordering hub assemblies and half shafts tommorow, buttoning bit back up to properly position the cars and waiting another week for FedEx to deliver more goodies.
As long as you're replacing it - what I would do is take a 3 pound hammer and whack that rotor really hard near the outer edge. The vibrations set up when the rotor is ringing loosens them.

Learned this trick from an old mechanic when I was a teenager. I was trying to get a rear drum off that was stuck on a rear axle center (really the same thing as what you have there). Pulled and fussed and messed about for about 30 minutes and was getting pretty frustrated. After asking if I wanted any help, I told him this #$%^&* ing thing won't come off. He said let me try and walked back to his tool box. He came back and whacked it a really good one with a big 3 pound hammer. The drum rang and vibrated and actually fell off the axle by itself. That one I could even re-use.
 
As long as you're replacing it - what I would do is take a 3 pound hammer and whack that rotor really hard near the outer edge. The vibrations set up when the rotor is ringing loosens them.

Learned this trick from an old mechanic when I was a teenager. I was trying to get a rear drum off that was stuck on a rear axle center (really the same thing as what you have there). Pulled and fussed and messed about for about 30 minutes and was getting pretty frustrated. After asking if I wanted any help, I told him this #$%^&* ing thing won't come off. He said let me try and walked back to his tool box. He came back and whacked it a really good one with a big 3 pound hammer. The drum rang and vibrated and actually fell off the axle by itself. That one I could even re-use.
Thanks Slickside, my grandfather had a similar story and you reminded me of him. He was an ICBM Super Maintenance Supervisor towards the end of his career. 4 strong airmen were standing around trying to loosen a bolt, and at least 2 let out a chuckle when he offered to help. Grandpa took one swing with a big hammer, and then he was able to loosen the bolt with one hand. That's the only story I remember him saying more than once, must've been a good moment for him.
 
As long as you're replacing it - what I would do is take a 3 pound hammer and whack that rotor really hard near the outer edge. The vibrations set up when the rotor is ringing loosens them.

Learned this trick from an old mechanic when I was a teenager. I was trying to get a rear drum off that was stuck on a rear axle center (really the same thing as what you have there). Pulled and fussed and messed about for about 30 minutes and was getting pretty frustrated. After asking if I wanted any help, I told him this #$%^&* ing thing won't come off. He said let me try and walked back to his tool box. He came back and whacked it a really good one with a big 3 pound hammer. The drum rang and vibrated and actually fell off the axle by itself. That one I could even re-use.
Man, I tried hitting it with a 3.5 lb sledge hammer multiple times and still no dice. Maybe I'm not hitting it in the right spot?
 
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