Whole lotta Miata

[Senor_Taylor]

Advance auto is like 15 minutes from my house. I've got like $50 worth of coupons now from all of the stuff I have bought. LBJ is a word every IFS offroad guy knows, or at least Tacomas. Tacos have been known to have sudden LBJ failures and your wheel abandons you.

Also that picture actually looks like a ball joint press

[Evan]

First thing he told me was that he used to be a used car salesmen. That was after his pit bull almost ate me.

words fail me

It's over $100 to rent them. I'd get that money back.

I dont think 'rent' means what you think it means'

The separator, which is easily replaced with a big ass hammer, is cheap. The actual press is always near $100. I'll make something out of a C-clamp or something.

sounds like a great way to buy 2 lower ball joints.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Advance auto is like 15 minutes from my house. I've got like $50 worth of coupons now from all of the stuff I have bought. LBJ is a word every IFS offroad guy knows, or at least Tacomas. Tacos have been known to have sudden LBJ failures and your wheel abandons you.

Also that picture actually looks like a ball joint press

That's a big ass c-clamp. LBJ, lol. So you should understand replacing RTAB on a bmw just because I know it and BMW forums guys know it so EVERYBODY must know it. Why am I picking on people this morning? :lol:

[Senor_Taylor]

Y'all regularly know more than I do, so I usually just assume y'all know what I'm talking about.

Put in the new window regulator. Works well. I also believe I fixed the grounding problem. I took the grounding block under the brake booster off and cleaned it and the metal under it, then bent the tab where the bolt goes in so it will push the block more firmly against the body. I've been wrestling with it and I think I finally got it, so if it acts up again, it's either the battery lead (that's kind of loose) or I need to get back in there and bend the tab on the ground block a little more.

Ball joint can wait for another day.

Edit: Could it be the alternator if the alternator light isn't on? The battery isn't charging and the voltage between terminals when running is only 10 volts, then only 8 with the headlights on. Also, my step dad took the positive lead off the battery while it was running to "Test" to see if the alternator was working... Hope he didn't mess things up further.

[Senor_Taylor]

That's a big ass c-clamp.

Well, a ball joint press is essentially a C-clamp. That picture is a ball joint press.

[D_Eclipse9916]

That's a big ass c-clamp.

Well, a ball joint press is essentially a C-clamp. That picture is a ball joint press.

Its basically a big ass C-clamp (call it press all you want :lol: ). Annoying to use, I just pull the arms and put it in my harbor freight press, that you know, is available to use by MMers. If you are replacing that ball joint, make sure you replace them all or you are going to chase your tail replacing all of them one by one the rest of the year.

[HAULN-SS]

Damn..didn't know you had a press. I had a hell of a time getting the new ones pushed in when I did them on my MCSS.

[Senor_Taylor]

Fixed the battery/alternator issue. Won't say what the reason was because it was really stupid.

[Jake]

Well now you have to tell us.

Keep in mind, you'll be telling someone who hacked off his timing chain guides with a mallet. Like a caveman.

[JPolen01]

And a guy who may or may not have forgotten to tighten his lug nuts on his rear passenger wheel once - no the wheel did not fall off. I caught it before then.

[BLINGMW]

I had a hose clamp holding the negative on the battery on one E30. It was working so well, I found no reason to replace it. Sitting on the side of ATL beltway exit as the sun went down and having to have Jess come jump me changed my stance on that a little.

I have also never ever never replaced bushings with the right tools. Sawzall. Gear puller. C-clamp. BFH. Fire. All clearly preferred methods that work so well, save me a ton of time, and never ever damage other components. :oops:

[SlimKlim]

Don't even make me list all the stupid shit I've done.

I caught the truck carpet of my 325i on fire once.

I nearly welded a wrench to a hot terminal on the miata. I think, my 10mm has a chunk missing but I don't really remember what happened, I just remember the pain.

I shocked myself on my Saab while making goddamn near full body contact with it.

I drove the BMW around for days after doing the HG job thinking something was seriously fucked up when really I just forgot to actually screw down one of the ground wires.

I once paid perfectly good american dollars for a motorcycle engine that had chunks missing from the head and standing water inside the cylinders.

I have forgotten to torque wheels and not thought about it until it started making scary noises.

Once while on a victory drive in the Miata to celebrate my manly ability to change a clutch all by myself, what I'm fairly certain was a bell housing bolt fell out, bounced a few times and hit the grill of the SUV behind me. He was pissed. I never checked to see what actually fell off the car, I just sold it.

[Jake]

I believe it was a 4Runner that caught whatever fell off of Joey's Miata.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Now I need to go jack my car up and make sure all my bolts are still in.

Time for my noob moments

Had my car fall off the jack

Almost had a coolant hose pop off the thermostat on the highway cause i forgot to tighten it

Almost "finished" my clutch job with the throwout bearing, clutch fork and pivot all installed incorrectly... I even had the bell housing back on!

Drove from nova to hburg with like 50% coolant in the system.

Poor car, it needs love. Can't wait to see what other silly things i do....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Senor_Taylor]

Some how, the bolt holding tension on the alternator belt had backed completely out, so there was no tension on the belt. Should have been the first thing I checked, but I convinced myself it was too simple to have been the problem.


After that, me and my buddies went to my sisters house and used his garage to put the ball joint in. It was a straight forward job, but it had its moments. Ended up taking about 3 hours. Everything went okay. Going to get the car reinspected tomorrow.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Some how, the bolt holding tension on the alternator belt had backed completely out, so there was no tension on the belt.

Yeah, uhuh, *somehow* backed out, riiight

[Senor_Taylor]

I promise you I tightened it down. I know because I had to run to town to buy a new bolt and tensioned it properly. It also held fine until the end of a day of driving.

[ViPER1313]

It backed out because the bottom bolt was not tight. Normally on that type of tensioner, the top bolt assembly is just to put tension on the belt, the bottom bolt is supposed to stay loose until the belt is tight, then you tighten the bottom bolt snug to keep the tension from adjusting.

[Senor_Taylor]

The one on the right? I went back outside last night and made sure both were tight. We should be okay now.

[Ken]

And a guy who may or may not have forgotten to tighten his lug nuts on his rear passenger wheel once - no the wheel did not fall off. I caught it before then.

I've done that - some fearsome wobbling started and I was driving this girl back home trying to tell her that it as normal as I was have a silent panic attack inside and keeping it under 30.

Wound up losing the lugnut somewhere - by dumb luck someone lost my keys at a party the next night so I got a new one when it got towed to the dealership :oops:

Speaking of the wheel falling off however, a friend of mine at JMU was getting a ride from Sunchase to the Manor at like 4AM and the taxi's wheel fell off at the top of port. He actually got out and started chasing it - AND SHE WAITED TILL HE GOT BACK SO SHE COULD PAY HIM.