I spent the entire day doing a slew of things that I have been meaning to get to. Here's a quick synopsis of all the fun.
Tie-Rods - I purchased 2 new tie rods because the rubber boot on my driver side rod was split and oozing oil. Getting the old rods off were made a LOT easier with the Ball joint breaker tool that I got a while back. Forget the "pickle fork" and banging it with a hammer. This is the way to go. When they give, there will be a loud bang sound, but it's pretty harmless and just falls down.
- Turn the big Hex screw and it'll pop those joint right off.
- 1_jointbreaker.png (1.01 MiB) Viewed 6902 times
After getting the rods off, I decided that I wanted a clear indicator of which way to turn the rods to lengthen or to shorten them. I always get them mixed up for some reason. You can see I painted directional arrows with the word "Long" on them to help myself out. I still have to get the alignment done though. It's not right yet. Steering wheel is slightly turned to the right when going straight.
- Tie rod with a clear indicator of which direction does what!
- 2_Longer.png (1.1 MiB) Viewed 6902 times
Next was the A/C recharge. This was to be a full evacuation and recharge. I pulled a vacuum for over 45 minutes but was only ever able to get -20psi vacuum. I have seen videos where it goes to -25-30psi. The good news is that after I shut it off, it held vacuum at -20psi for well over an hour. So I started the process of charging it back up. I could have sworn this car takes 3 lbs of freon, but alas there's a sticker on the hood that says 3.9lbs! Well I didn't have enough freon. I put in 3 lbs and hoped for the best. My vents only ever showed 60 degrees. It's supposed to get to 45 degrees. So my AC, though better is still not up to snuff. It was high 80's today and blowing at 60 degrees, the car was still a bit warm inside.
Another annoying thing is that I could never get the high pressure to the 200-250psi range. After all my charging, it was showing 150psi on the high side and about 45psi on the low. My understanding was that I was supposed to get a lot more variance. Could this mean a bad compressor or is there just not enough freon?
- AC evacuate and recharge is a long job.
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Finally, something that has been vexing me forever! My sporadic speedometer. I gave it one last try and took it out of the dash and reflowed all of the solder joints on the back of the Speedo. This took a lot of time and patience. I won't know until this coming week whether it worked or not. It seems to stop working when it's cold outside and then start again when it's warm. I am hoping it's a cold solder joint that expands when warm, just enough to make contact. Honestly I don't know. I'll report back and tell you how it went. So far, driving around today, it was fine - but then again, it was warm today.
- It takes patience to de-solder and refloe every joint in the back of the speedometer!
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