EV-Steve's S-10 gets saved by Dave

Sorry for so long between posts, hot rod fans. I had my father-in-law and his wife as guests from Florida last week, so we spent a lot of time with them, and I did little else. Also I have had a headache for four days now, so that can't be good. Yes, I'll call the doctor first thing tomorrow, if I make it.
I have been doing a little more work on EV-Steve's S-10, but frankly I have not been giving it the priority it deserves, so thanks for your patience, Steve. I am trying to get the front wheel drive parts off, since they are not used, to save weight. I have had one side partly apart for awhile now, but I just didn't know how to finish this job. I have never done independent front axles before. My brother Dave came over to help me this evening. And when I say help, I mean he did the whole thing himself, despite my protests. He jumped right in and got filthy, while I ran tools to him. I was trying to take photos and notes, so I'd know how to do the other side, but he worked like lightning. I literally could not take notes fast enough. Dave has been a professional mechanic all his life, probably 25+ years, and you can tell. He works for a major luxury car dealer. Yes, I had it mostly apart, but watching him finish this thing with speed and confidence, was like watching a magician. Tools are going zip zip, and things get disconnected, and parts are flying off, and before you know it, he's done. He has this amazing trick to getting ball joints off that literally happens so fast you can't see it. It would take me 10 minutes to get my ball joint press set up and working. He just whacks the spindle casting with a big hammer, tap, tap, WHACK! and the ball joint pops off that fast.

Here's my cousin Pete, fellow drag racer and all around good guy, holding the passenger side axle. Yes, it's heavy, so this is all going to be worth the trouble.

Here's Dave, head down and working. No gabbing, just work. I must also say that this afternoon was probably one of the most humid days I have ever felt. I mean it was brutal! I felt so bad for Dave. I positioned a big box fan to blow right on him, and got him cold drinks, but it was just so humid out, he must have felt like he was in a jungle. Fixing a truck.

My nephew Tyler, Dave's youngest son, was able to keep cool though.

If you look close, you can see one of the many sweat beads ready to drip off the end of Dave's nose. He never complains either. He is one tough dude. My head is still pounding, so I try not to complain either. Hope it doesn't asplode.

With one side done, he decides to do the driver's side too. Probably didn't want to see me taking another five weeks on that side. Only problem was, I had already returned the 36mm socket I had borrowed from him previously. There was no way we could get it, or a new one, this late on a Sunday. We decide to torch the axle nut off. Unfortunately, my torch tip is fubar, and I had meant to replace it, because it doesn't work right. Poor Dave spent so much time trying to get the POS torch to work. Patience of a saint.

We further decide to cut this side axle shaft in two, so we can just pull the parts out without so much disassembly. A little grindy-grinding, and the shaft is in two. Both parts come out with little effort. See, I would never think to do it that way. Very crafty.

Here is the pass side with the axle shaft out, before complete reassembly. It used to connect from the circular flange in the upper right (see the threaded holes), to the hub on the left, where the wheel studs are. Kind of hard to describe something that's not there, but it is cool and weird to see the big 'ol axle BOOYAH! out of there.

Here's the driver's side axle cut in two and out. Don't worry Steve, we won't be needing that anymore. I'm pretty sure.

Next I'll go for the front differential and front driveshaft. I have preliminarily looked them over and that part looks pretty straightforward. Hopefully.

Well, I hope that I have adequately conveyed my admiration and appreciation, my love really, for my brother Dave. And I am not just saying that because he always helps me out with my car problems. But he always does. I often think of him and hope he does not remember the times when we were kids, that I may have taken advantage of the fact that I am three years older than him, as kids are apt to do. Anyway, I love him dearly, but he's not the kind of guy you just say that to, so I said it here.

Thanks, Dave.

Steering box swap

I finally took the power steering box off. I'll show putting the manual box on even though I'll take if off quick to Por15 the chassis underneath. I apologize in advance for the poor photos; my camera doesn't take close-ups well, or I just don't know how to work it properly. I'll have to check the camera manual soon.

Remove the pitman arm from the center link. The pitman arm is the arm that connects from the bottom of the steering box to the steering cross link. It changes the rotation of the steering into the side-to-side motion of the front wheels. I have a matching pitman arm on the replacement box. If you don't have the pitman, you'd remove the pitman from the box, and attach it to the new box. This is a little more work.

First remove the stud nut. I used a little heat from a propane torch to expand the metal of the arm from the stud. Then I hammered a pickle fork separator into the joint. This worked easily with the help from the torch.

Incidentally, I once did this for a friend, and we didn't have a separator tool available, but I had an idea. I heated the pitman arm end up the same way, with a torch. Then I took an ice cube and set it on the end of the stud that goes through. The center link stud compressed from the localized cooling and literally dropped right out! No hammering. It was neat. Isn't science wonderful?

The box unbolts by 3 long bolts that go from the outside of the frame, through the frame, through the inner frame rail, and into tapped holes in the steering box. This is a pretty simple remove and replace. But I have one more trick to show you.

The threaded holes in the manual box were loaded with dirt and gungo. You should never jam bolts into threads like that. You're better than that. Normally I'd run a tap through the holes to clean them out nicey-nice. I suspected these were metric threads, and I don't have any metric taps. So I just made thread-cleaning bolts.

Clean the bolt threads with a wire wheel. Secure a bolt in a vise. Then fire up an air-powered cutoff wheel, and cut a groove into the threads, along the axis of the bolt, starting at the end. In a pinch, you could use a hacksaw, but it's a little more difficult. I have done it this way. I love my pneumatic cutoff wheel.

It only has to be like an inch long. Do this to all the bolts, one groove each is fine. Man, these crap photos are BUGGIN' ME!

Now when you thread the bolts into the cloggy steering box threads, the dirt gets scraped into the slot in the bolt, just like it's the flute in a tap. You can insert and remove the bolt a couple of times, cleaning out the groove in the bolt each time, to get all the dirt out. This usually works great, and the bolt will not be appreciably weakened by the small groove.

Class dismissed. Maybe I'll redo the photos if I have time.

Still stripping the S10

I took a half day from work Friday and got some time in on the project. Here's the handsome devil gettin' ready. The camera adds 10 lbs. At least. You can see I have the front sheetmetal clip loosened here.

It may not look like much, but the manual steering box came this week. Thanks Rich!

By the end of Friday I had the front clip off. I have been doing a lot of wire labelling, but I don't know if I'm going to use it. It's a pretty complicated harness. Hard to see but I had to cut the front bumper mounts off the frame with an oxy-acetelene torch. I bought a torch rig a couple of years ago, and it has come in very handy. I literally don't know what I'd have done at that point without it. The power brake assembly is just lying on the tire, but it is all there and ready for reuse.

Here is what the interior looked like by the end of Friday. Steering column is out. Didn't get hit by the airbag. Lots of the dash is out, but the harness is sort of literally built into the dash. Don't know how I'm going to get it out, and the remainder of the dash is very difficult to remove. Kind of tough going in here. I have probably 12 hours into demo at this point. Seems like I have a lot done, but it seems like it has been a lot of work as well.