Tomorrow morning we leave to the Tiny Russian Village…
Yesterday I spent almost all day and finally succeeded in replacing a bad tie rod end on Sammy the Volga. As par to normal, a simple easy job ended up being a mess and after buying a tie rod/ball joint fork tool and a much bigger hammer. The old tie rod popped off finally and then life became better….I really thought it was going to win…
The old saying:
If at first you don’t succeed, get a bigger hammer. – Alan Lewis
Today, I have to align the front end, shade tree mechanic style, with a string and a tape measure and make sure everything is tight & secure. I never had a tie rod end this hard to remove. It was literally determined to stay in its tapered home, I guess it was happy?
I have about a centimeter of toe in on the front suspension and I need to get that to about half a centimeter or less. Some toe in is required to allow the front on a rear drive car, to center itself, but too much will hurt the tires…
Not a fun job in the parking lot of a apartment building, but we do what we must do…
I will pack the car today also and we can get the new windows to the village home that we bought. I also have new shocks to install on the rear of Sammy the Volga (in the village.) Trying to keep her in good shape…
Therefore, I will talk to everyone in a few days…
WtR