I put the Jeep up on jackstands today and looked at the front end, and everything was tight...but the steering damper had a shiny underside and the shinyness made a trail to the thing's piston shaft seal.
Pep Boys, $30.
Everything was going far too well for my comfort. The cotter pin came out without me having to use power tools and hand grenades. All the fasteners came loose without any real trouble. I prepared to remove it from the drag link--
Oof. Well, it had been in there for a long time, and it's not uncommon for suspension components to be hard to remove. But there was a skid plate in the way, and I couldn't hit it directly--but come on, it couldn't be in there that solidly, and I've had good luck with the air chisel, so I went ahead and used that.
Didn't budge.
Okay, so I heated it with the propane torch until the rubber bushing was burning, and hit it more, and tried using a hammer and drift, and it still didn't budge....
Finally I removed the skid plate, because I needed to hit the end of the stud directly with the BFH* and I couldn't do that with the skid plate in the way. No problem: the skid plate was held in with five bolts. (And those came out easily enough.)
BAM BAM BAM and it ricocheted off the crankcase.
Reassembly was the reverse of removal, and the hardest part was getting the skid plate back on.
* * *
The kitchen is nearing completion. The vinyl flooring went in; glue had been lain down on the floor and my cat IttyBit decided to run across the floor.
And so now she'll start to walk, and shake each paw trying to get the hardened glue off.
Anyway, the kitchen looks gorgeous; the cabinets and the vinyl floor and the new wall color all fit as if precision-machined. Monday morning we'll call to have the guys come to measure for the new countertop. Keep your fingers crossed.
I'm going to burn a CD with all the pictures of the project on it, and then slip it into a gap between two of the base cabinets. Someday, someone may find it, and might be able to read the thing with a computer or tricorder or something and see the kitchen project from start to finish. Maybe I'll include the blog entries about it, too, just for good measure.
Time capsule, 21st century style.
* * *
It looks like the new season of anime has begun, and I have to consult my list to see what I want to start downloading. Also, I must archive stuff and clear my torrent client's torrent list, because it's getting unwieldy again.
Man, it just never ends. Thank God for that.
*BFH:="Big F--king Hammer", which regular readers of the Fungus ought to know by now.