Thread: Luke's GTP

Originally Posted by WarStryker13

Trust me, I know how bad they can be...And then I fixed it. lol Might give you an idea of how to get yours out.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that suffered! haha Thanks for the pics man, but I'm not really sure what you did there to get it out. I was gonna give it another whirl and if nothing budges take it to the shop across the street and have them get it done for 10 bucks.

Originally Posted by cheatah faheatah

Your new calipers are so purdy! Me jelly. Angry gorilla...lol. OE stamped steel trailing arms are pretty wimpy, huh? Keep at it!

Gotta keep onnn, keepin on. Those calipers sure are purdy ain' they! I will paint them during these next few days. Got some POR-15 High Heat Paint, aluminium color. Should have an even more metallic look to them when I'm done, I think. And yeah man, super dinky OE arms. Just some sheet metal bent in a U shape. lol.

Spend the 10 buck lol your time is worth more then that.

Instead of going angry gorilla on those bolts you could go Bob Ross on those calipers

I got a deep well socket that was bigger than the bolt, but not bigger than the washer, set it upside down on the ground, set the bolt in it head down, and gave it one good smack with the hammer on the round tip of the bolt to break it loose. then it was just a couple more small taps to get it all the way off.

Use eye protection, cuz rust chips in the eyes is bad, mkay.

Originally Posted by wowitsfast

Spend the 10 buck lol your time is worth more then that.
Instead of going angry gorilla on those bolts you could go Bob Ross on those calipers

Hahaha. You had be laughing pretty hard man! I did go Bob Ross all over those calipers. Front ones for now. I'll post pics later. And yeah, those bolts are going to the shop. F that.

Originally Posted by WarStryker13

I got a deep well socket that was bigger than the bolt, but not bigger than the washer, set it upside down on the ground, set the bolt in it head down, and gave it one good smack with the hammer on the round tip of the bolt to break it loose. then it was just a couple more small taps to get it all the way off.

Use eye protection, cuz rust chips in the eyes is bad, mkay.

Thanks for the how-to War. Think I'm gonna drop them off though and have someone else deal with it, mkay. You at least had the bolts free from the arms with just the sleeves attached. I'm not even that far yet. Mkay children

Worked on removing the front brakes and the outer tie rods. Everything was seized up. The tie rod ends were a lot more work then I thought. Passenger side was kinda easy. Flipped the castle nut, wacked the bolt and nut with a sledge a few times and it popped from the knuckle. Damaged the castle nut though, and couldn’t get it to thread off the bolt. I grabbed my hack-saw and sawed it off. Driver side was similar, but worse. Had to saw the tie rod above the knuckle and below the knuckle. And had to drill the fu**er out. Almost drilled out anyway. Pics below.



Front brakes are off:


What do ya know.... Seized up caliper bolt. Thee old wrench-press did the trick:


Hmmm. Now, why does the drivers side have these large washers? Passenger side did not. One isn't even a real washer. I will replace it. But, should those washers even be there?


Drivers side, tie-rod. Getting the treatment:






Then drilled it. Didn't have my full selection of bits. Drilled a small hole first, then a bigger one:


Finished the night like this. Need to buy a 1/2" drill bit to finish the job:


Ohhh yeah. Spotted this beaut driving around yesterday. MINT condition:

Did you catch that plate? " L ROJO 84 " = The red 84. Bonneville?

Sure did notice. But only when I was putting the photos up on here. Lol. It's a Pontiac Parisienne

Looks like the cop car Caprices' back in the day.

I bet if you had put that jack under the tie rod end, then smacked the knuckle right next to it, it prolly would have popped right out. A tapered fit ( as opposed to a straight press fit) like that wants to let go with perpendicular shock.

Originally Posted by spazzz

Washers/spacers(or washer nuts) aren't used for the bracket bolts.
I wonder why some slickmeister put them there.

That's what I thought. From a safety perspective, it's my understanding you don't want any kind of spacers when it comes to mounting the brakes. Now I did notice that the knuckle on the passenger side was slightly different then the drivers side. The metal around the bolt holes where you mount the calipers was thicker, like fatter. The bolt hole had like a ring around it. That ring was all part of the knuckle mold, not a washer/spacer. On the drivers side that thickness around the bolt holes wasn't there. I will take a picture next time I'm out there. Not sure if I'm explaining it correctly. With the holiday coming, probably won't be out there for another week or so.

Originally Posted by cheatah faheatah

I bet if you had put that jack under the tie rod end, then smacked the knuckle right next to it, it prolly would have popped right out. A tapered fit ( as opposed to a straight press fit) like that wants to let go with perpendicular shock.

I hear what your saying. I'm thinking that's worth a try next time. The only thing that I see maybe not working out with that, is that the strut will start to go up and absorb some of the pressure from the jack pushing the entire knuckle assembly up. Might still be enough pressure to whack it on the side and have it pop. I'll probably be doing the outter rods in our Corolla before the GP needs another set. But maybe not cuz you know..., Pontiac.

Got some goodies delivered today. RockAuto said July 6th, but they came today...Okayyy. Thanks! Can't play with them till next Wednesday tho, at the earliest. Their up-sell efforts on the pickle fork paid of for them, lol. They got me. Looks like it will be a handy tool to have around. Can't play with any of this stuff till next Wednesday tho, at the earliest.

And photobucket got me. Damn it.

I haven't gotten "got" by photobucket yet.... To me it seems that the people with LOTS of pix are getting slammed. BHall, you, and a couple others. Like PB is going after heavy users... All about the Benjamins...lol

Fu**in Bull Shyt. Bunch of scammers. Pulling this on us after months and months of work. Now they got me by the balls. I was like, OK, I'll pay. But they want $40 a month, billed annually mind you, so its $400 right off the bat. They can shove that up their ass. I will find a cheaper vendor for 3rd party hosting and re-link all these photos. I will re-link them all PhotoBucket!! You hear me!! F YOU!!

Tell us how you really feel ??? lol. I totally understand, so much work held hostage... those bastages!

Originally Posted by CHI2000GTP

Fu**in Bull Shyt. Bunch of scammers. Pulling this on us after months and months of work. Now they got me by the balls. I was like, OK, I'll pay. But they want $40 a month, billed annually mind you, so its $400 right off the bat. They can shove that up their ass. I will find a cheaper vendor for 3rd party hosting and re-link all these photos. I will re-link them all PhotoBucket!! You hear me!! F YOU!!

You gotta have pics. For me, I want this all documented and available for everyone to see. As for the forum, I know people like when you have pictures of the work your doing. It's proof, it's motivation for others, and probably offers others help and insight. Fu**ing Photobucket!!

Originally Posted by cheatah faheatah

Tell us how you really feel ??? lol. I totally understand, so much work held hostage... those bastages!

LOL. Bastardos!!

I'm moving to Flickr, it's a pain in the ass but hopefully it's better.

Originally Posted by WarStryker13

I'm moving to Flickr, it's a pain in the ass but hopefully it's better.

I think that's risky as well. Especially for the long term. And this being a Pontiac, repairs are a long term thing. BroncoBoy suggested in Brandon's thread that Flickr is likely headed the way of PhotoBucket, and that makes sense to me. Flickr will probably follow that same business model at some point. I'm gonna look into supermotors like BroncoBoy recommended, and look into other vendors that charge something more reasonable.