MontegoMan's Busy Day became a Busy Weekend

"MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner" (montegoman562)
03/28/2016 at 11:33 • Filed to: MILAN, MIGHTY MILAN, MERCURY, DIY, DRIVEWAY REPAIRS

If you saw my post Friday morning you saw I had a large pile of parts to install on the Milan on Friday. Here’s the outcome, it’s a long post I’ll do a TL;DR at the bottom.

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For those who missed it:

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You probably saw the last update was a broken sledgehammer (thanks harbor freight). What you didn’t see was that I also broke the pickle fork. And a standard wrench. And a ball joint separator I borrowed from the mechanic who lives down the street. Lots of pain and intense manual labor led me to that point.

So after a full day of breaking tools on my rusted together car I called it quits for the day and the mechanic down the street agreed to work a saturday to help me out. It’s a very interested business plan he has, he’s called the Mobile Mechanic. Does everything out of a big E-Series van. Even has an air compressor in the back to run pneumatic tools on site. Theory is, no overhead from owning an actual shop. Man it’s gotta be hard on the body to not have a lift to use while doing this day in and day out though.

So Saturday came and we got to work.

We try more pickle forks and sledges, nothing will separate the ball joints on this damn thing. Heat wouldn’t even help! Had the torch on em.

That’s it. Time to cut em, I’ve got all new control arms so it’s being replaced anyhow. About 5 disc/blades per side of the car to cut through the inch think stud going through the knuckle. Now the problem of getting the stud out of the knuckle. So we removed the knuckle and got out the replacement to that little harbor freight sledge, which was a full length 8 pounder. So now the sleeve that stud sits in pops out of the knuckle too (sorry wish I had more pics to explain all this shit but I was paying this guy by the hour to work with me, even if it was a discounted rate because I was helping). So we get the stud and the sleeve out of the knuckle. Now what? we need those sleeves. Well he’s friends with the guy directly across the street from me, who happens to have a 20 ton press in his garage. So we take them over there, first time we press one out BANG goes everywhere. We found the pieces and we’re good they didn’t break.

Now that we’ve got it figured out we can get to work re-assembling. About 45 minutes after all that we have 1 side done. We started at 8 am, it’s now around 1.

ROUND 2 - FIGHT

On to the driver’s side now. Same problems as the other side, except we didn’t work as hard on it, we went straight to cutting the lower control arms off. Found out the Sway Bar Link was garbage on this side, had to run to the store to buy a new one. He keeps working while I run to the store, this side is going a lot quicker, that’s the usual though isn’t it after you’ve figured it out on the other side?

So we’re about to put it back together and be done aaaaand one of the slide pins on the brake caliper isn’t going in right. some brake clean hit the rubber on the end of the pin, it expanded and won’t fit. I send him on his way so I can stop paying him at this point because I just had to run to the store and get a new slide pin and put the brake back together which is easy enough to do myself.

So I close it up and call the shop to get an alignment on it so I can come to work today. It’s 4:15 at this point and I know they close at 6. They say we can get you in if you’re here in the next 15 minutes. I made it there in 10.

So all of the “slop” in the steering is gone, and I swear the alignment was better on the way to the shop than it was before we started all this. Now it drives GREAT. Mechanic said he couldn’t believe how difficult this project was and that I shouldn’t feel bad because I did everything right the car just fought me on it every step of the way.

So this weekend the Milan received: 2 quick struts, 6 front control arms, 2 outer tie rod ends, 1 sway bar link, and 2 new brake caliper slide pins.

TL;DR - this job was a bitch thanks to our salty roads leading to a shit ton of rust under my car. I’m crazy grateful I have a mobile mechanic down the road who could help me out because I REALLY needed to be at work today. he did give me a discount because I worked with him and he said it would have taken him many more hours if he didn’t have a second set of hands with him.

As you can tell giving the investment - I’ve called off the replacement daily driver search and I’m keeping the Milan long term.

DISCUSSION (22)

shop-teacher > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 11:40

Wow, that is quite the shit storm you slogged through. Glad you made it through!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > shop-teacher
03/28/2016 at 11:44

Man I was broken down and wanted to call the tow truck friday afternoon. Really grateful the guy was able/available to help me out over Easter weekend.

shop-teacher > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 11:45

That is fortunate. I don’t blame you for wanting to call a tow.

Steve in Manhattan > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 11:46

Sometimes I watch car repair videos to relax (mercedessource.com and others). I am strange like that.

vondon302 > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 11:46

I thought this was going south when I saw the broken sledge (aka ford hammer) but I had no idea. Mobile mechanic is a new one to me neat idea.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Steve in Manhattan
03/28/2016 at 11:48

Ha, I must have watched the repair video for this process 15 times before attempting it.

Everything is easy when the rust hasn’t seized the whole vehicle together.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > vondon302
03/28/2016 at 11:49

Yeah. That was stop one on the train ride to shit-ville.

Mobile mechanic is in fact a really cool idea. He said his biggest complaint from the set up is that he can’t bring around the gas to have a real good torch with him to heat stuff up to red-hot. It’s not that he doesn’t have room- he said he’d make room or get a bigger van, but that it’s actually illegal lol

Urambo Tauro > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 11:53

Every time I struggle to get a ball-joint out of a spindle/knuckle, I find myself tempted to put it back together with anti-seize on the taper. But I know that if I make it slippery, I’m going to have a hell of a time trying to tighten the nut while the stud spins. So I just make sure it’s clean before I (grudgingly) put it together dry...

For Sweden > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 11:54

If it keeps doing planks like that, your car is going to get shredded.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Urambo Tauro
03/28/2016 at 11:55

hahahahaha

I expect I’ll never take it apart again.

Fuck I hope I never take it apart again.

He actually said with all his years working on cars (30+ years) he’s never worked THAT hard to separate ball joints.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > For Sweden
03/28/2016 at 11:56

bitch please, those are NO HANDED push ups.

Kinja'd!!!

New meaning to Mercury Muscle

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 12:06

I don’t know why, but I really like the way your Milan looks, maybe it is due to the fact that it one of the only vehicles that I have never seen imported to the Netherlands. And believe me a lot of uglier and shittier cars have been brought here for inexplicable reasons, other than to be able to drive ‘murican maybe. So I don’t see why somebody never imported a Milan.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
03/28/2016 at 12:19

It’s been the most reliable car I’ve ever owned. I should have included that. I did these suspension upgrades because after 103,000 miles of driving they were just worn out. To me, that’s just maintenance not actually broken.

It’s also got a surprising 220hp out of a 3.0L Duratec V6. So it’s DOHC with VVT. It’s shockingly sporty for a FWD auto.

I’m taking it RallyCrossing in about 2 months. I missed the first race I signed up for when it got postponed for too much water on the course.

Danger > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 12:38

Needs this

Kinja'd!!!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Danger
03/28/2016 at 12:40

For his vehicle, it’s not legal for him to carry around the tanks. Maybe because it’s an enclosed Van?

Steve in Manhattan > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 13:03

The Mercedes guy talks about that a lot when he talks about buying a used Mercedes. For him, rust is a non-starter. I’ve always lived on the east coast, so I am very aware of the problems that cars from around here can have.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Steve in Manhattan
03/28/2016 at 13:23

And you know what, Rust appears in funny places. Like when we finally separated those ball joint studs out of the knuckle there was a tiny strip of rust around them which is why they wouldn’t separate. And by tiny, I mean probably about a 1/4 of an inch.

Danger > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
03/28/2016 at 15:30

Yeah good point. Or maybe you have to have a certain CDL status to do that? Either way, glad your car is done.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Danger
03/28/2016 at 15:38

Possibly. Oh well.

Yeah in the end, car got put back together and drove me to work. I’m happy.

pip bip - choose Corrour > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
04/06/2016 at 09:22

you paged me?

prboyle42@yahoo.com.au

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > pip bip - choose Corrour
04/06/2016 at 09:55

I’ll email you Subject line will include “MontegoMan”

EL_ULY > pip bip - choose Corrour
04/08/2016 at 13:02

. What do you think is a good idea. having the TTB go to Europe or North America? I want to make a “searching” post on LaLD. Let me know when you’re ready or if you need any help with funds.