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Just spent almost $1200 at Rock Auto. V. Suspension rebuild



i've only gotten 1 out of probably 5 orders from them. at least 2 of the orders was well over $100. mine says collector series 63 , steves mustang ... who's steve ? ..:th_scratchhead:
 
dont think ive had a order over 30 bucks from them. magnets on the fridge.

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i vote for scotty ... scotty i'll sell you my series 63 for 5 bucks to make your collection more respectable ...it's the rarest of rock auto magnets ...:th_mischievious:
 
not interested.....ill wait for more free oes down the road. maybe it will have my own car on it, how do we submit our cars? mines got a few rock parts on it. not many but wtf they know?
 
lol...they know how much money you've spent there . probably 5 grand would get the beagle on a magnet.
 


Bigbadjohn, you have ordered many quality parts from Rockauto. You can't go wrong with Dorman and Moog. I know because that's what I am running. Let us know how the installation is going and if all these items made any difference in your car.
 
ScottyDoggs said:
not interested.....ill wait for more free oes down the road. maybe it will have my own car on it, how do we submit our cars? mines got a few rock parts on it. not many but wtf they know?
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Subscribe to their newsletter and they have a link for submitting your car. I find their newsletter enjoyable.

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[TD]Share Your Hard Work
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[TD]Do you purchase parts from RockAuto? If so, RockAuto would like to give you the opportunity to have your car or truck possibly featured in one (or occasionally more) of our publications such as the monthly newsletter, collector magnets or RockAuto social media. New, old, import, domestic, daily driver, trailer queen, classic, antique, we want to see them all! Please e-mail [email protected] with your vehicle's history, interesting details, your favorite images and what parts from RockAuto you have used.
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nice, i never really went further then find parts for my car.

i get that damn song stuck in my head after i see the commercial too these days lol


 
Russosaur said:
Why rear dorman bar its smaller than stock? Should have went with a GMPP
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Hadn't actually used the parts I had bought until recently. Right after buying them we found a buyer for our house (without having a new home lined up) and packed and moved an entire house and 1000sqft shed packed with tools and parts. Found a foreclosed home a couple of months in but was way too rough to live in and had mold issues. By the time it got relatively liveable it was April/May when my family joined me there. Still doing work to it so I've been swamped with things I need to do.
I just started working on my suspension and steering a few weeks ago. Been having to split my time between overtime at work, helping around the house, my daughter, home improvements, christmas lights, etc

I agree that the rear sway bar was more thin but the old one I discovered was bent tubing where the new one was noticeably heavier and appears to be solid bar stock that's cold rolled/stamped on the ends

My front sway bar was much worse than I had anticipated. Now by the time I've gotten to working on my car the linkage on the right side was broken in two and the linkage on the left side snapped rather than being able to loosen the bolt on it. When I removed the left bracket/rubber bushing the left side of the sway bar came right out. It had a jagged break and was full of oil/grease/dirt/rust
The front left CV axle had also started shaking violently in the last year since buying the parts so I bought new CV axles and output shaft seals. The left CV axle came apart as I was removing it. The (brass?) rings inside of the joint closest to the transmission were very worn as well as the studs that they rode on.

I've finished with the back suspension and hubs. Had a heck of a time getting the old hubs off. I ended up having to use the hub bolts and some shims of bar stock to back the bolts up to the flange that the lug bolts go through and jack the hubs off the aluminum knuckles.
The front hubs I wasn't able to get off so I had to remove the entire knuckle/hub on each side and work on them in the garage. I ended up taking the top post from a jack stand, putting it upside down on the floor, and slamming the center of the hub on the post of the jack stand (with the hub facing up) while holding onto the knuckle. I did this until I effectively broke the wheel hub and forced the center out, just leaving the steel casing behind which I was able to drive out with a hammer and punch. This worked for both sides however it took a good 15-30 minutes for each side. I would have put it in my A frame press but there wasn't a good place to set the knuckle so that I would be pressing the hubs out straight. I also was afraid of bending/cracking the knuckle

I've removed everything but the very end of the left cv axle, transmission seals, and ti rod ends. Then I have to install all of the new parts in the front

After that I have to do a brake job (I had previously replaced all pads and rotors with lifetime parts ~7 years ago so I got about $400 in parts for free) and have to replace the left rear caliper assembly because I broke the bracket bolt off in the bracket trying to remove it. It was rusted solid. The front right caliper was a previously replaced part due to broken off bleeder screw and it had recently stuck in so I had that replaced under warranty. I had a problem with one of the brake proportioning valves in the back a few years ago and had replaced both of them. The left one was leaking so that was a free replacement.

One thing I need to do in the future soon when I have the time (and get my garage cleaned so I can work on it inside!) is the lower engine mount is as soft as can be now and I believe that chunks of the rubber are missing. This I'm sure is due to the large amounts of oil, grease, dirt, gunk, small rocks, etc that had clogged the drain ports of the mount and the rubber was submerged in it 24/7 for years

Also a few months ago I replaced the exhaust system from the resonator and back with Walker OEM grade parts. The resonator had started leaking almost a year prior and got worse and worse until I couldn't stand to drive it anymore. By that point it was up to 105 decibels while driving highway speeds if my phone app shows anywhere right. That was almost $400 alone but well worth it. I can't describe the intense noise and do it justice

I'm also planning on replacing the thermostat and doing a coolant flush. My coolant got low and my thermostat failed (installed a fail-open one) so I was driving without heat since February.

Possible future upgrades are to replace the coolant hoses, water pump, serpentine idlers and tensioners, power steering pump, possibly power steering hoses. My a/c stopped working right before fall and I'm thinking that the compressor may be bad. I nay end up having to replace that too.
It may seem like a lot of work and money but I haven't done any major work to my car in the 7+ years and 150,xxx+ miles that I've owned it. And not having a car payment for almost 5 years now is priceless

I've considered seeking out a working engine and transmission (preferably lower miles) to have on hand if one or the other were to go bad.



Edit: Oh yeah, and the left CV axle was not only worn and broken on the inner piece, it was also bent and you could notice it easily when jacked up and in drive idling. My car had gotten to where if you were going highway speeds or better and taking a right turn it felt like the car was going to implode. Sometimes just got 5mph in a lot and turning you could hear clunking loudly


My wife is 14 weeks pregnant with out second and until this week she had been literally nauseated 24/7 and by anything and everything so I have been the one doing dishes and laundry, having to help with our daughter as much as possible etc. She's just now starting to show signs that she might be getting better. That's the reason for the month-and-a-half project. I'm getting really sick (and all but lost hope of having it on the road again) seeing it sit in the driveway on jack stands. And now it's starting to get cold. I had a few hours to work on it Saturday night and had to wear thermal underwear, army surplus thermal undershirt, and a thick carhartt coat to be able to stand being out there
I may only be 30 but I am SO DONE working out in the cold. I miss my pole barn :(
 
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I feel for you. We are expecting our first in February. My wife was really sick from about week 5 to week 17. And I am in the middle of remodeling our house. So, no dishwasher. I got real sick of doing all the choirs, but I heat it's worth it in the end.
 


GTPpower said:
I feel for you. We are expecting our first in February. My wife was really sick from about week 5 to week 17. And I am in the middle of remodeling our house. So, no dishwasher. I got real sick of doing all the choirs, but I heat it's worth it in the end.
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Yeah it definitely is. Once the baby comes even if it's a lot of late nights rocking him/her cherish every week/month of the first year of their life because before you know it they'll be a toddler and when you look back at newborn pictures/1 month/2 month/6 month, even a year you'll ask yourself where the time went and they won't look a thing like they do now. My daughter is 2.5 years now and it's hard to ever remember her so small even at just shy of 9lb
My wife has gotten better now with the nausea but now she's been blindsided with headaches and severe fatigue. She's 17 weeks today.
I am so antsy/impatient. I can't wait for the baby to be here so I can meet them and see who they look like. My wife is worried that she won't feel as connected to this one as much as our daughter being our first but with this one I plan to do my best to remember every moment of the first couple of years. After that they become a whole lot more fun in a different way. But also more trouble. Just the other day my daughter was SUPPOSED to be eating her dinner but wasn't really touching it. I had fried up some popcorn chicken New Year's Eve along with some other sides like corn nuggets, onion rings, tater tots. I bribed her with a strawberry yogurt saying she could have it if she ate her chicken. After a battle of wills and her asking for the yogurt and me replying that she can have it if she ate her chicken, this repeating itself 30 or so times in 5-10 minutes, she as plain as day said "whatever" with such a diva attitude, looked dead into my eyes, while proceeding to drop each and every piece of food one by one onto the floor. She definitely takes after her mom (and probably learned the whatever from her too) :rolleyes:

Edit: I like your AV by the way. My family on my moms side has farmed since who knows. My grandpa started in the 50s with a John Deere model 70 and JD is all they've used since
 
Update: I finished the majority of the work I wanted to do on my car about 1am this morning. Had to drive 20 minutes to a town that had a gas station open and wanted to test drive it. I planned on having everything aligned regardless but definitely feel a pull to the right and when I rapidly accelerate from a standstill the pull is more noticeable. I do that a few times and noticed that one time As I was accelerating I drove over an expansion joint on a bridge and as the car hit that spot in the road it tried to jerk to the right a little.

The car ended up being on jack stands for 2.5-3 months thanks to no time to work on it but here's what I did in that time:
Replaced front and rear pads under warranty
Replaced front and rear rotors under warranty
Replaced front right caliper under warranty
Replaced rear left caliper
Replaced back right proportioning valve under warranty
Replaced all 4 brake hydraulic hoses
Replaced the steel clips that hold the hydraulic hoses on
Replaced the rear sway bar
Replaced both rear wheel hubs
Replaced all 4 shocks with quick strut assemblies
Replaced front sway bar
Replaced both lower control arms
Replaced front wheel hubs
Replaced the outer tie rods
Replaced both CV axles
Replaced both of the transmission output shaft seals
Replaced the needle bearing assembly on the driver side behind the seal
Replaced the O ring for the transmission extension housing on the passenger side
Changed the oil and new filter (I always use valvoline full synthetic)
Replaced the air filter
Cleaned the MAF sensor
Replaced the thermostat and seal because it failed open
Drained the coolant, put 2 bottles of CLR in the system and topped off with water. I ran the engine for about a half hour and then drained it, filled it with water, ran it for 15-20 minutes, drained it, and added concentrated antifreeze and water (pre diluted is such a waste of money) The coolant is looking scummy again after sitting for a day or two. There might still be some CLR in it doing its thing. I might flush it with a kit I have and a garden hose until it runs clear and then refill it again.
Topped off trans fluid, power steering fluid
Painted the calipers and brackets gloss black while they were off (replacements come bare metal covered in oil and the old ones were a dull black)
Bled the brakes (will probably do it again in a few months once all of the little bubbles make their way through the system)
Rotated the tires
Tightened the lug nuts down to 100 ft lbs
Aired the tires up evenly once the car was on the ground

Here's what I still want to do:
Replace the transmission filter and fluid
Replace the fuel filter
Replace the motor mount, transmission mount, and upper dogbone mounts
Replace the water pump
Replace the plastic coolant elbows with aluminum ones
Possibly replace the a/c pump. My air conditioning stopped working all of a sudden this summer and there's a metallic rattling every so often somewhere in the serpentine systems. I got my stethoscope out and although a couple of the idler pullies are loud, the noise from the a/c pump is unbearable (and that's with the clutch off even)

I'd also like to replace the power steering pump and hoses but it's not a huge issue. It just whines a little when turning the wheels while parked and its slowly losing fluid
I need a new rear bumper. My back right tire lost the tread last year and it ripped the bumper cover (plastic) off and I've been driving with just the styrofoam since. There's one in STL that's the right color but it's $300 and my wife doesn't think the car is worth fixing
I need to get a new windshield. It's been cracked for years but the HUD windshields are $400 new



Other than the pulling to the right it drives better than it did when I bought it 7 years ago! I can't say without a doubt it was worth all of the effort but I will definitely enjoy it and won't feel so overwhelmed with the current state it's in. It was definitely in a state of disrepair for quite some time. I had considered getting another car like it when this one craps out on me and transferring every lifetime part to it that I bought in the last 7 years and enjoy further savings!
 
WOW, very extensive.....good for you. If you would be so kind, please post a follow up IF you discover any negative "side effects" of using CLR for your coolant flush. I thought about doing that( but used PEAK flush concentrate & some kosher salt dissolved in vinegar instead) earlier this year when I flushed our 3 cars. I even asked around on here, with lukewarm opinions. I just thought it would do a good job of descumifying? lol. I wondered if CLR was gonna be too harsh...lemme know, if you can, THANKS....E...
 
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