Isn't it amazing how all things are connected in some way. Take for instance
this weekend.
My wife had been traveling out of the country for the last couple of weeks,
good time to get the car ready for Mid-Ohio. I had lots of help getting
parts, new hood latch, gasket set to fix the leaks in the engine, new shifter
boot, new thermostat housing.
I got everything together and planned to do chores on Saturday, pick the wife
up at the airport Saturday night, and drive to Ohio early Sunday morning.
I left the house early enough to meet the wife at the gate, driving her 94
Gran Prix. Eight miles from home, at 80mph, the right front tire blew out.
Now GM uses some pretty cheezy lug nuts on their aluminum wheel cars. They
are made of a soft alloy, and threaded on the inside to gove over the stud,
and threaded on the outside to accept the cool, black plastic beauty covers.
I had long since replaced these with acorn style lug nuts due to problems
with cross-threading by the tire store gorillas with their impact wrenches,
but that's another story.
I was sharp enough to put a lug nut star wrench in the car for the new lug
nuts, so when I got the car on the jack, I thought all was cool. Well, the
wife recently had the tires rotated at a local shop, who employs the now
famous impact wrench set on "you're never gonna get this off". I broke three
of the five studs. I put the semi-inflated compact spare on the car with the
two remaining studs and limped home to get my car.
Now late, I hit so much construction that I arrived at the airport an hour
and a half late, to find that my wife was stuck in Souix Falls, Iowa, and her
new flight schedule (missed her connection in Minneapolis) would get in at
1:15 AM Sunday. We got home at 2:30.
Since it was already raining heavily here when I woke up Sunday, and my top
does not go up, I decided to fix the Gran Prix. Went to the auto parts
staore and bought new studs and nuts. The front caliper comes off by
removing 2 torx bolts, and knowing I already have the torx sockets, I thought
this would be a relatively simple job. I destroyed my 3/8" breaker bar on
the bolts, so I thought I better go 1/2" drive on the torx socket. They are
not available in 1/2" drive. Fired up the compressor and got out MY impact
driver. Thinking better of this, I used my 1/2" breaker bar with a 1/2" to
3/8" drive wobble reducer, which was another trip to the parts store. The
reducer sheared like butter.
My wife had taken my car to work so I was left with a few transportation
choices:
Drive the roadster in the rain with no top
Fix the flat on the El Camino and get the canoe off the roof
Re-assemble my kitted 67 Cougar (in parts and boxes around the garage)
My neighbor was home and lent me his S&K 1/2" to 3/8" reducer and I got the
fastener off. I removed the caliper and rotor to find that there is no place
along the rotation of the hub to remove the studs without disassembling the
hub from the spindle. The four 5/8" bolts fastening this assembly are
located in the deep recess of the strut housing. Once you get these 4 bolts
out, there is a flexible retainer, which allows you to pivot the hub and
position the studs individually to the one point where they can be removed
(Thank you GM Engineering!).
Of course, there is much more to this story having to do with wire brushing
the rusted fasteners with the dremel, and gobs of penetrating oil, as well as
the use of the impact wrench of previous lore, and the gear puller rental to
push the spindle out of the hub.
The car went back together quickly, and I am free to get on with my life, for
now. I will be inspecting, and probably replacing every other stud on the car
this weekend. Sorry to miss the meet in Ohio, I really wanted, and thought I
would, be there this year.
Dave Ford
67.5 SPL311
Much simpler to work on than newer Gran Prix
I also understand that front strut cartridge replacement on this car sets new
standards of adventure for a well equipped shop.
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