wae said:Before I can do any of that, though, I have to make some room at the inn which will start with getting the Focus cut up the rest of the way and disposed of.
When should I bring my sawzall over?
wae said:Before I can do any of that, though, I have to make some room at the inn which will start with getting the Focus cut up the rest of the way and disposed of.
When should I bring my sawzall over?
eastsideTim said:wae said:Before I can do any of that, though, I have to make some room at the inn which will start with getting the Focus cut up the rest of the way and disposed of.
When should I bring my sawzall over?
Any time after 5. I've got fresh blades and an extra face shield. :)
wae said:eastsideTim said:wae said:Before I can do any of that, though, I have to make some room at the inn which will start with getting the Focus cut up the rest of the way and disposed of.
When should I bring my sawzall over?
Any time after 5. I've got fresh blades and an extra face shield. :)
I'm supposed to be showing the trailer tonight, but I should be free tomorrow
I just went through the first couple of pages. I appreciate all the SRT knowledge. Thank You, and good work, Sir.
Apparently, there is something called chicken booyah, and that is a picture of it above.
Well, hello there everybody! I guess since the first cancellation of the season is in like a month or so, I should probably do all that stuff I said I was gonna do 4 months ago, huh?
The first challenge was getting it into the shop. Despite the "no storage" clause in the lease, my neighbor has been storing his dump trailer basically where the Neon has been wintering:
Crappy view, but there's just enough room to get the B.U.T.T. between the building and his trailer. The Neon is in front of the truck there. Since the CV joint is trashed, I had to pull it up the hill with the truck. Nothing sketchy about this at all!
It took a lot of back and forth and some pushing to get it over the hump, but 30 minutes of labor and I was rewarded with this:
Now I'm going to put it on dollies to get it where I want it and then the axle comes out!
Giggity.
Don't forget that if you need neon crack, im a dealer.
This is why I can't get anything accomplished. Before putting it on the rollers, I had to make another one of these because I... Lost one?
And naturally, I couldn't make that until I made an organizer for the forstner bits
And now, before I can move forward, I have to try to fix this:
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Awwwww yeah! I might need a front motor mount to take apart and use to build an embettered one, but I think I have one kicking around the garage at home somewhere...
In reply to wae :
Think i have a few. Let me know and il add it to your pile....
After taking some time to sorta fix the dolly, then some time to search around for an audiobook to listen to, and then getting some texts about selling some Focus parts that I have left over, I got the wheel off and the axle out.
I got more work to do than I thought.
First problem:
A little hard to see but the bobble strut relocation bracket is bent and torn. I knew my bobble was broken, but I didn't realize the bracket was in such sorry shape.
Next up, when I went to disconnect the sway bar endlink:
The endlink just went through the end of the swaybar somehow. So that's #2 on my list. Next up, no picture, but the other cheapo wheel bearing that I put on when my good ones had an extended vacation to Canada has failed. I've already got the good one on a shelf. Make wheel bearing job #3. Moving along to what I knew was broken:
There were only two of the balls left in there and there was that shard of metal. I can't find a place that bit originated from but I'm hopeful that it won't be too much for A1CVTech to put back together. I'll call them first thing Monday so I can get it shipped.
So to review in no particular order:
New Energy Suspension endlinks are ordered for the front bar. I also got new lug nuts to go all around since the ones on there are really shallow and kind of a pain to get the impact on. Just so I have one "on the shelf" again, I also ordered up a new wheel bearing to replace the one I'm going to press in later on.
Because I was curious, I went back through this thread to see if I noted which wheel bearing I replaced. Apparently this will be the second left front wheel bearing that I've put in to the car. Initially, I thought it was just the second cheap-o one failing on me, but no... that first Timken unit didn't last very long at all. I wonder what I'm doing to the left side of the car to keep beating up that bearing...
All the courses at Bitzer's tend to have high speed right hand corners and tight left hand corners?
Spitballin' here.
The right side start on the back field is always awesome, because it's basically a 10-15 second dyno pull/gut check down and around the hill.
In reply to Knurled. :
Could be... Could be that whatever force that killed the CV joint also banged on the bearing. Or could be that the dummy that installed the bearing didn't do it right.
New bearing is pressed in. I need to get my puller from home to remove the inner race from the hub.
I can't tell and didn't measure, but from some angles it looks like that's a little cockeyed.
I'm going to drop the axle off at FedEx tonight and it should be in Canada by Friday. Hopefully Nick ata A1CVTECH can get it all put back together for me without it costing me a King's ransom. The original build wasn't that expensive ($800-$900 US, I think after taxes and shipping), so I can't imagine that the repair work will be too pricey. It is about $50 just to ship it there, though.
I took a bunch of measurements and pictures of the underside of the car today to help my thinking about how and where to put a motor mount. This is the diagram of the front of the motor from the Mopar catalouge:
The 1gn front motor mount didn't fit because of the structural collar (5). I think that the solution might be to form a new bracket that takes the basic shape of the "strut - engine mount" which is #4 in that diagram. It appears to connect the engine to the transmission but nothing else. That bracket is placed extremely close to the middle of the core support, right where the body side of the 1gn front motor mount would normally attach:
(Yes. The one mount stud for the body portion of the mount is bent like crazy. No, I have no idea how that happened. Yes, I am going to have to fix that)
I'm thinking that if I can build a new #4 bracket that connects to the engine and the transmission in all those same places, I can put in some sort of dog bone or bracket or something down to the core support. I can either fashion a new bracket there or I can use the body-side portion of the stock 1gn mount and build something that fits to that on the lower end and my new bracket on the upper end. That would enable me to keep the structural collar as well as the function of the #4 bracket.
The wife is out of town all this week for work, though, so I'm going to be able to get a whole lot accomplished until the weekend.
Gather 'round and hear the tale of how I tried to get my axle returned.
Last Tuesday, I packed it up and printed my shipping label. It also printed a document called a "Commercial Invoice". More on that later.
I do not ship internationally and don't really know what's required. So I took the package to my local FedEx store. They scanned it in and were ready to send me on my way when I held up that Commercial Invoice and said "Yeah, but don't I need to do something with this?"
"uh, no, that's just something for you to hang on to. You've got the shipping label on there so it's all good."
"Are you really sure about that? I mean, it never prints this when I ship anything else. And I really don't want things to get hung up in customs or anything."
The guy wandered off and found the store manager. She came up, looked things over, and said that "we're just supposed to keep that with our records."
"So, you're really sure about that? It doesn't need to be attached to the box or anything?"
"Nope, you're all good."
So I left the store. Those of you that ship internationally with some frequency are screaming at your monitor, right? "You fool! Don't leave the store! They've got it all wrong!!" Just like watching a horror movie.
On Thursday, I look at the tracking info and it says "Shipment exception Improper or missing paperwork - Missing Commercial Invoice - Contact customer service" for Tuesday evening and then "Returning package to shipper Shipment was not picked up within required timeframe - Unable to deliver shipment - Returning to shipper" on Wednesday night. According to the tracking info, it's on the vehicle for delivery back to me on Thursday, so I wait.
Never shows up. I call FedEx and talk to them explaining that I want to either give them the commercial invoice or get the box back so I can take care of it. They promise to call me back in two hours. Instead I get an email back from them that says that the package couldn't be sent because it doesn't have a commercial invoice. So that's a dry hole.
Friday, I call the FedEx store. I explain what has happened and basically get nowhere. The same lady that I talked to in the store now professes to know all about Commercial Invoices and tells me that of COURSE I should have had a copy of that attached to the box. Claims she would have never told me otherwise. Professes total ignorance as to whom I can call to find out where the box is and how I can get it. After some pressing, she gives me the address of the FedEx Ground facility that's out this way. So I drive out there.
My original plan is to get the box and then take it back to the FedEx store and make them overnight it on their dime. But I meet a very helpful duo who tell me that they can just attached the commercial invoice right there and then and send it on its way. Great! I have about 6 copies of the invoice with me so I give them all of those and they tell me everything is good and it'll be on the truck to Canada and on its way by about 2am.
Later that night, my wife gets a call on the home line from one of the duo and she asks her to relay a message that she needs me to email her a copy of the commercial invoice. The thing that I gave them 6 copies of just 4 hours earlier. So I do that and assume all is well.
The tracking info continues to show "Pending", but with everything else going on, I don't have time to babysit it and decide to just wait it out. Maybe it got a new tracking number, who knows what's going on.
Today, around noon, I get a call from someone else out at the facility who says they've got this package and it can't be sent because it's missing the commercial invoice. I laugh and give her the nickle tour of the saga so far and tell her that I can email that to her right now and I do so. I get an email back right away saying that everything is good to go. Hurray! My axle is on its way back to A1CVTECH!
Except that about 8 hours later, I get another call here at the house from yet another person from FedEx. He tells me that he's got this package, you see, that I'm trying to send but it appears to be missing its commercial invoice.
After banging my head on my desk for about a minute, I email him the invoice. Again. He confirms receipt.
This time, however, I think it has finally cleared that hurdle. The tracking info has been updated with a scheduled delivery date of next Tuesday.
So my lesson to you today is twofold: The people working in the FedEx store do not necessarily know the difference between their own ass and a hole in the ground; And shipping to Canada requires the commercial invoice to be attached to the outside of the box and multiple copies are typically required.
In reply to wae :
I am envisioning Vogons in the shipping department at FedEx now.
eastsideTim said:In reply to wae :
I am envisioning Vogons in the shipping department at FedEx now.
Damn!!!
Me too!
I needed that this morning
Haha! Yes, that does sound like something they would immortalize in a poem!
Good news, though: The axle is aboard one of those road-going Vogon ships as of 5:35 this morning and is finally on its way to the border!
More progress made last night! First of all, the axle made it to Syracuse and then left for parts unknown. I hope that its next stop will be closer to or within the border of Canada, but at this point I'm not assuming anything!
For the front mount, I went over to the shop last night because I hadn't left the house in about 52 hours and was going nucking futs. While I was there, I looked at the car-side of the mount and thought about taking a grinder to it to try to clearance it out so that it would fit around the hot-side charge pipe.
I didn't actually get the grinder out or anything. I drank a beer, ate some peanuts, and did a little carpentry for the set piece for my daughter's play that may or may not ever happen at this point.
Actually, when I say "looked at" I really should say that I gave it a passing glance from across the room. But I'm going to count it as having expended some level of effort on the project.
I do a lot of international shipping at work, they ask for 3-4 copies outside the box depending on the country. Also, FedEx is not the most helpful with questions.
"When I try to process this shipment it says I need this extra bit, but doesn't make sense".
"you need to check the box next to xyz"
"I did check it."
"Well, then uncheck it." 
Holy crap, my axle is finally on a FedEx truck for delivery. In Canada. Allegedly.
wae said:Holy crap, my axle is finally on a FedEx truck for delivery. In Canada. Allegedly.
A1CVTech is AMAZING. I watched him make a spare axle for us (Chris Greenhouse's SRT4 Neon Rally car) while we were there. Mig welder on a lathe and other crazy tools, top notch stuff. Chris has never had problems with his axles and he runs a pretty crazy setup.
TXratti said:wae said:Holy crap, my axle is finally on a FedEx truck for delivery. In Canada. Allegedly.
A1CVTech is AMAZING. I watched him make a spare axle for us (Chris Greenhouse's SRT4 Neon Rally car) while we were there. Mig welder on a lathe and other crazy tools, top notch stuff. Chris has never had problems with his axles and he runs a pretty crazy setup.
Chris was the inspiration for getting axles from them. 
Their shop is really cool, I think he still managed to mangle an axle or two when he was running a locked diff, but I can’t remember for sure.
I heard that Chris was getting some sort of whizbang axle from somewhere so I asked him about it a couple years back and he got me the hook-up! In fact, I have some A1CVTech-modified 1st gen hubs that he gifted me a little while ago that are in my spares bin. (bins, really).
In the hustle and the bustle of everything else I had going on this week, I totally forgot to call Nick up there but I just took care of that and the axle is repaired and on its way back to me!
Before that aaxle goes in, though, there might be another problem to solve. I pressed the new wheel bearing into the knuckle and then get the old inner-race off the hub and pressed it into the new wheel bearing. The lock ring is in place and I was absolutely certain that everything got pressed in straight. That hub is still a little bit loose in the knuckle. I suppose it's possible that the bearing itself is bad, despite being a brand-new Timken unit, but they're expensive enough that I don't want to keep popping bearings in and out and I doubt that it's a good idea to keep pressing and re-pressing those things.
I can't imagine that I'll need to have it ready to race anytime soon, though, so I guess I have time to consider my options. I may hunt around and see if I can come up with another knuckle and try one of the hubs that Chris gave me. Or maybe I can see if the Mopar bearing is still available and try to check it against the Timken one before installation. This is the third wheel bearing on that wheel that has been problematic in a very small number of miles/events, though, so the chances that I've just had three bad bearings seems a bit remote.
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