Sooo.... Today was a bust... According to the USPS tracking info, my ignition parts were to arrive today. It was a warm day (upper 30s) though, so I didn't want to waste half of it waiting for the postman. A set of new suspension bushings was including among the many boxes this thing arrived in, and I figured it was a one banana job...
The DS front shackle was absolutely one banana. That's where the fun stopped. The DS frame mount pivot refused to cooperate. Refused. I broke two screw drivers. I tried every prying and hammering implement I own. Eventually I pulled out a pulley puller and had just enough real estate to get the bastard far enough out to manipulate. Wow. Getting the new bushings in was a breeze, but then I had to get the whole package back together. This was another exercise in futility. For starters, the "flat spot" that I have to work with can really only be called that if you don't actually look at it. It's also sand and small rocks... and snow. Floor jacks don't work too well if they can't roll. In case you didn't know, they pull the truck sideways. If you have to put the truck up and down enough, you'll move it a good 6 feet on the diagonal so that you're constantly laying in fresh snow. Additionally, despite owning 2-3 floor jacks and a whole fleet of jack stands, all I managed to move up here was the one jack... So that made things even more fun. At one point in my frustration, I decided it would be best to disconnect the axle from the spring so I could take the weight off the spring and move it around a bit easier... Unfortunately, a rock (one assumes) had hit the quarter inch thick steel plate that the u-bolts connect to making one of the u-bolts immovable until I can get the truck to an air hammer... I finally managed to get the bastard of a pin back in its hole using a pry bar, the spring as a fulcrum, the frame as a secondary fulcrum, and a screwdriver as a sort of sliding lock mechanism... Then I was able to bring the pin home.
At this point, I had a phone conference... When I came inside, I took off my glove to find that what I thought was some sort of rusty spring lube (I honestly hadn't given it much thought) was actually a glove full of blood. At some point (fairly early I imagine) I did SOMETHING to my left index finger... No idea. But lots of blood. The wound(s) honestly don't make a lot of sense... Not a cut really, or a pinch, lots of little abrasions (maybe) and a big sort of tear... Anyway, phone conference...
I go back out there thinking I'm on the home stretch. NOT! I buggered up the last few threads on the damn stud. Despite having several dozen taps and dies (in the state even!), I didn't have the one I needed. I managed to straighten the threads a bit (debatable in retrospect) with a chisel, then promptly cross threaded the whole thing...
At this point I needed to pick my wife up from work, and the sun was going down... I went to McGuckins and got a tap/die set (I always buy them in pairs), a set of ratchet straps, and another nut...
This is not my first automotive ro-day-oh, but what a crappy day... The ignition parts did come, but I didn't even pretend to try to do anything about it.
My wife and I generally call it my "tick" or "itchiness".
