[Shotimes] Fun with SHOs, Part 1 (of hopefully only two parts)

[Ron Porter]

Had to laugh at reading Carl's comment about looking for a SHO for his son:
"I wanted to find a low miles car that was from down south to avoid any of
the issues associated with northern cars of this age".

If you do that, you miss out on all the fun that Ryan Dudek & I had today!
Started out with a simple enough list: Install the brake plugs and 26mm rear
bar in my '94 (that has spent it's life in IL & MI), then new pads & rotors
all around, with a brake flush. Then new pads and a brake flush on Ryan's
'98. Sounds easy enough, 3-4 hours tops!!

Did the fun start when the head of the 5mm bolt that holds the lever to the
brake proportioning valve shed it's corrosion and not let the socket get a
bite of it? No, I just manhandled it back & forth to get the valves out &
the plugs in, then zip-tied it out of the way!

Did the fun start when one of the rear swaybar links broke when I put a
wrench on it? No, because I had one spare!

Did the fun start when the second swaybar link also broke? Well, almost, but
another AZ farther down the road had two left!!

NOW the fun started! One swaybar bracket bolt barely made it out. The other
wasn't so lucky it refused to budge after about two turns, then decided that
the corroded edges were no longer going to hold ANY 6-point socket. Nor was
it going to budge with vice grips. Nor was it going to fall out after
drilling all night and mangling out the hole in the frame!!

Now, we're talkin' REAL FUN!!

The broken exhaust studs have nothing on this mess!! The only solution I
have come up with is to hog out what's left of the bolt hole in the frame.
Then, drill a hole in the side of the (thick, double-wall) frame rail so
that I can get a nut & washer in there. That will be tomorrow's chore, after
a trip for new drills, a new drill, and something to hog out holes in
metal!!

Hopefully, Part Two tomorrow is the last part of this!!

Ron Porter (Hopefully I took enough ibuprophen (sp?) so I can sleep!!)