Long weekend and pictures galore

As all weekends seem to start, a trip to the local parts store. In today’s kit, some jack stands, front and rear brake pads and a tie rod separator/ball joint separator. I’ve found a new place to work on the car. It’s a new industrial estate, which features shade, shelter, ample space and no one around.

I have a particularly stubborn tie rod which will not come free. I’ve use two of these… yes two, this is the SECOND one to break… heap of rubbish.
To remind you all, you can click on these pictures to see the full size. I also have the typical fork type separator, also by Stanley and it too is rubbish. The angle of the forks is too steep, so it’d doesn’t really split it apart, it just smashes it with a little tension. I’m going to try source one like the below with a gradual slope, and it should work a treat. It’s a public holiday tomorrow in Canberra, but we’ll see how I go. I’m in no great rush.

Above, the offending tie rod end. Don’t be alarmed, I tore the rubber boot off to get better smashing access.

I also changed the front pads too. I’ve never worked on an easier brake calliper. You slide the two pins out, then just pick out the pads. Everything stays in place and everything lines up perfectly. The second picture shows the calliper off the steering knuckle, it turns out unnecessary to remove it due to the simple design. It doesn’t have the complexity and room for failure like my floating Pajero calliper.
Second picture indicates compressing the pistons with the old brake pads and vice grips. The cheap part of me thinks the old pads had another 20,000km in them, but oh well.

These ones (if you believe the marketing hype) generate better cold and hot braking performance… like 30% shorter distance. I figure for the additional 30% cost that even if it buys you an one meter extra stopping distance, that’s very cheap insurance. One meter may not sound like much to us, but it’s a lot to the pedestrian who just stepped out.

On the upside, I did get two of the four replaced. The threaded tie rod proved an interesting learning exercise. One end had a reverse thread. Makes sense now, but at the time, I was quite confused. One end came out OK once I was turning in the right direction but the other end was MUCH more stubborn. I even took the whole bar out, and heated the end with our butane cooker. It worked a treat. And by a treat I mean I was able to move it a millimetre, and after a steady 15 minute diet of WD-40 and millimetres of back and forth progress, it was free enough to spin out. I did count the turns at each end in the hope of avoiding the need to get a wheel alignment, but I obviously got it wrong. It’s not a long way out, but it is out. I’d like to say that replacing just two has made a huge improvement, but it’s too early to say. I imagine it feels better, but after spending the best part of a day working on a problem, you tend to be optimistic when reviewing your work.