Irritations

"Aremmes" (aremmes) 03/17/2019 at 20:30 • Filed to: weekend wrenching, suspensionolopnik, fml, venting

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You know what I hate? Cotter pins.

Figure 1: Two little shits.

Occasionally you’ll find a cotter pin installed correctly, with the ends curled over the castle nut or turnbuckle, but often they invite you to ram the whole thing in so that the next fool who wants to remove the castle nut can’t grab the head of the pin with pliers because there’s nothing sticking out past the side of the nut . So you spend two hours trying to push the little fucker from the other side and bending it further because the shit’s full of brake dust and rust and it just won’t come off. So now you’ve wasted two hours removing a part that weighs less than the packaging it normally comes in that you could’ve spent removing other parts of the suspension. And because the cotter pin won’t come off, the castle nut won’t come off. And if the castle nut won’t come off, the ball joint won’t come off, which means that dropping the shock now becomes exponentially more difficult . Fuck.

You know what else I hate? Sway bar end links.

Figure 2: A fuck rod. The bolts on each end point towards the directions in which it’s gonna fuck up your day.

Dropping the shocks on a Miata requires disconnecting the sway bars. An open-ended wrench and a hex bit/wrench is normally all it takes. But if it’s a 20-year-old end link the nuts will not budge and the hex socket will round out. So you have to whip out the grinder and cut the fucker out, except that the front sway bar links in a Miata attach to the lower control arm through a tab about an inch from the shock mount, leaving no space to fit the grinder without hitting the control arm. So you have to remove the shock, but because the ball joint is still attached to the hub carrier, you have to finagle the shock body around to rotate it and finally pull it out. And guess what stands in the way of the shock? The sway bar end link. Fuck.

You might say, “why don’t you unbolt the ball joint from the control arm?,” and I’d say “awesome, let’s do it!” Guess what stands in the way of one of the bolts that fasten the ball joint to the control arm? The shock absorber. Fuck.

Figure 3: A method and device for wasting a day of wrenching and drawing blood from knuckles.

I eventually managed to yank the old driver-side shock assembly out, disassemble it, and assemble the new unit, but not before busting my knuckles bare and running out of sunlight. As I don’t have a garage or driveway, I had to clean up the area and put away the tools and parts. Since I’m lazy, I stashed everything in the Miata’s trunk.

Figure 4: Sad Miata on two jackstands.

This week I’ll be bumming rides to work with my wife. Fortunately my job is in between home and her job, otherwise I’d have another irritation to write about.

AestheticsInMotion > Aremmes 03/17/2019 at 20:38

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I used a combination of a MAP torch, big bolt cutters, angle grinder, dremel tool, lube, large hammers, and copious swear words to get my old rusted- in- place end links off. Agreed, they’re about as miserable as anything I’ve messed with on the Miata.

Aremmes > AestheticsInMotion 03/17/2019 at 20:43

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I lost the chuck from my dremel. How, I have no idea, but now I have a dremel with an assortment of collets, cut-off wheels, grinding wheels, wire wheels, buffer pads, and other less than obvious spinny bits that I can’t use because the thing that holds the spinny bits to the shaft went AWOL.

NKato > Aremmes 03/17/2019 at 20:43

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 Had my sway bar end links replaced during the shock swap. I know what you mean. :D

Urambo Tauro > Aremmes 03/17/2019 at 20:50

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I always get the rustiest SB end links too... Either they’re the rod-type that snap when you try to loosen them, or they’re the dual ball-joint style that just want to spin in their sockets . I’m sure the ball-joint ones are superior in their ability to articulate, but I prefer the rod ones, just for how cheap they are to replace.

AestheticsInMotion > Aremmes 03/17/2019 at 20:50

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For what it’s worth the dremel  was useless. As has been the case every single time I've tried using it actually..... Small enough to get into tight place but not powerful enough to matter. And that's with a corded one no less

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Aremmes 03/17/2019 at 21:00

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It’s a known fact end links were invented by the CIA covertly by the same team that perfected water boarding. 

Cash Rewards > AestheticsInMotion 03/17/2019 at 21:17

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I got one off, stripped the hex on two others, and paid a shop $30 to finish the job. Fuck those things.

Cash Rewards > Aremmes 03/17/2019 at 21:18

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Yup. Fuck endlinks. I g ave up and paid a shop $30. I didn't want to mess up that mounting tab

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Aremmes 03/17/2019 at 21:59

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I was helping my dad take the blades off a bobcat brush-hog, these blades are 3/8 thick steel 4" wide and 28" long, swinging at 200rpm. The 1" nut was held with a rusted nut and cotter pin. I squeezed what I thought was two loose ends. nope the previous moron stuck it in, and bent the curved down. the fact that it rusted in place was the only thing holding it in.  

Nick Has an Exocet > Aremmes 03/17/2019 at 22:02

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There aren’t too many spots where working on a miata is frustrating but you just hit on two of them. Well done. End links are basically disposable. Even new ones sometimes need to be cut off.

BigBlock440 > Aremmes 03/17/2019 at 22:34

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I used a sawzall for my end links, then I had to red lock-tite a second nut to get the new one tight. But as for the cotter pins, if you can’t get them out, just clip them off ,pull out what you can, and turn the nut. With enough force, it’ll come off.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Aremmes 03/18/2019 at 07:32

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Don’t forget these:

Both guaran teed to wreck your day in numerous ways.

Aremmes > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness 03/18/2019 at 08:05

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The hose clamps in the Miata have yet to give me trouble and are located in relatively accesible places. Haven’t found a circlip there either, and my most recent encounter with a circlip went without problem, when replacing the long axle shaft on a third-gen Camry.

The circlips that retain the shaft in my boat’s fresh water pump, though, those can go straight to hell.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Aremmes 03/18/2019 at 10:07

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Seems those hose clamps have always been in the most inaccessible places when I’ve encountered them. They generally lead to pinching your hand in the pliers trying to remove them. They always get replaced with a regular clamp.

Circlips usually end up flying across the garage to places unknown when they finally come out.