Mike - Tough coping w/ that type pain. Historically (for me), when I've experienced that type pain it resolves on its own over several weeks. I think it's a form of Sciatica. Prolonged sitting in the same position without freedom of movement is often sited as a cause of many forms of Sciatica.
Hope it begins to resolve for you - stretching helps.

Chris - Enjoy your time reinstalling the battery.

My right arm is responding nicely (I guess) to the flu shot. No swelling but typical soreness at the injection site. Of course, I get the high dose "geezer pleaser" which accentuates the soreness.

 

I need to get off my **** & outdoors, myself. I'm reading the NCDMV Driver License Handbook/Rules since I might have to take a written exam for license renewal. I have about six bushes/shrubs which are beginning to bolt. I want to trim the bolting stems/branches as they're becoming unruly.

 

Norm - I'm glad my SIL will get to see what's involved in replacing the battery in case he ends up buying it.

Glad you're not having too bad a reaction to the Flu shot. I've got my Annual Physical coming up on the 19th of this month, and I'm due for a Covid booster. I know my Doc will want me to get the Flu shot and will offer the Covid booster. Last time I got both at the same time (one in each arm) I had a little bit of a negative reaction in the form of some minor chills and feeling poorly later that day. I'll have to make a decision before I go in whether I want to risk that again?

 

I did both the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) & influenza vaccines in separate arms same day last year.

 

Norm - Good for you on the vaccines!

Your post about needing to get your **** outside to trim the shrubs reminded me I needed to get mine out to mow/trim. Wasn't really feeling it knowing I need to get my lifting workout done later too, but if I didn't mow first I'd probably find myself wanting to put it off.

Things are not looking promising for being able to leave out early for a car show in the morning. The weatherman is now calling for multiple periods of rain overnight. Ugh!!!

 

Mexican lunch today - Enchiladas Supreme w/ an Horchata. This place makes the best Horchata. Heck, they may be the only restaurant around here who makes a Horchata.

 

Norm - Enchildas sound great! I've never had a Horchata, and I had to refresh my memory on what one was. I have to admit, it doesn't sound all that tasty from the description of how they're made, but hell, alot of things fit into that category. I'd try just about anything once!

 

Horchata = Delicious

 

Hi guys,

I've kept busy all day. Went out and mowed/trimmed this morning. Did my lifting workout this afternoon. Loaded the 4-4-2 so I'm ready to leave for a Car Show sometime tomorrow morning if the weather cooperates. It's supposed to rain overnight and if it does I'm not going to head out until the roads dry out, if they do in time before registration ends. While I was messing with the car I did some maintenance. When I saw the guy at a Show a couple weekends ago that had worked on my bad wheel bearing last summer, he looked around my engine bay and he told me there was a bolt in one of my front steering components that wasn't as tight as it should be. I don't know the proper name for the component or I would identify it. I'll take a pic the next time I'm out there I will. In any case he was right, it wasn't very snug. He also warned me not to over tighten it because I might tear the rubber bushing between the 2 pieces. It's done for now but I'll keep an eye on it.

KC Chiefs play their season opener in Brazil tonight against the Chargers. Weird TV scenario, the game is only being broadcast on YouTube, and supposedly anyone should be able to access it. I'm definitely going to be watching.

 

Chris - Viewing the engine bay from top down, the 1st thing which comes to mind is the "rag joint" (steering coupler). The remainder (most) of the steering components are viewed from the under carriage (as opposed from the top in the engine bay).

Does it look like this?

 

Norm - No it's not the Rag Joint. The loose bolts (primarily the rear one) were the two bolts on the inward side of the Upper A-Arm on the passenger side of the car. On my car both bolts were accessible from the top passenger side of the engine bay, although I had to tighten the rear bolt in very small increments due to interference from a header pipe and a brake line.


EDIT: My friend easily could tell the rear bolt was not tight enough by the degree of compression of the rear bushing vs. the front.

 

Chirs - Gotchya. It's the upper control arm shaft of the suspension rather than a steering component.

 

Yes. See my added statement.

 

Upper control arm shaft nuts have a torque value which should be listed in your CSM. They're often ~100 Ft. Lbs.

 

Norm - Thanks! I have the CSM and will verify. I'm sure I didn't tighten the rear to 100 ft/lbs. I do have a Torque Wrench, whether I can get it in there and the socket on the bolt from the Top is another question?

 

Last count, I think I have six torque wrenches of varying sizes (1/4" drive, 3/8" drive, 1/2" drive) + adapters. Understand about the close quarters getting to the nuts might present a challenge. If you can't get a torque wrench on one or both, at least knowing the torque value will provide some form of indication the amount force required to secure them. If you dislocate your elbow you've gone too far.

 

Food for thought. When you're done w/ a torque wrench, a torque wrench should be set to zero (0) during storage. This reduces unwarranted compression on the internal spring of a torque wrench & keeps it more accurate for future use.

 

Just a couple of pics form the Labor Day show. There were an estimated 650 cars there, but I spent so much time talking with friends, co workers who showed up, and people who just wanted to talk about our cars, that I just didn't get around to taking more pics.. We were there over five hours. We had my car, my buddy's '70 442 and '79 T/A, and his nephews '96 LT4 Vette, which I call the screaming banana. https://photos.app.goo.gl/H8YoaSz5jP49wE2r8

 

Dan - I see one car - the black Chevy, no more.

 

They have gals dressed up as 1940's pin up girls. One was named Vivian Von Vroom.

 

I still cannot view any pictures other than one black Chevy.

 

Dan - This is the only car on the link you provided:

 

I see one car, too.

Fortunately that pinup girl is not fat. So many women think girls in the 40s were "curvy", and, maybe they were, but that means they think they can dress up like them, and, to me, a fat woman dressing up like she's modelling a time where women were thin would be like me putting on blackface.

I burned the weeds. The drip torch is interesting. Works well.

 

I was involved in several controlled burns working for the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Jamestown, ND - performing controlled burns in ND, Manitoba & Saskatchewan provinces. I carried a drip torch. Hopefully, as you might likely suspect, burning organic ground litter releases bound nutrients & vegetative regrowth will flourish when it rebounds from new growth - with a vengeance.

 

Chris one thing you might consider if you tighten those bolts is that they could affect your alignment. Sometimes there are eccentrics on that shaft that move the wheels around when turned. Don't know if your car is like that but I wouldn't want to see you change something inadvertently.

John that's a lot of fire up close to the house. Looks kind of cool though. I might try a little yard work tomorrow. But not with fire, this time.

Well Dan did say he didn't have time to take a lot of pictures...

Okay off to bed. Have a good night everyone.

 

Mike - Tightening either of the two end nuts securing the upper control arm shaft will not influence alignment characteristics. But, you mention a valid point in case he has aftermarket control arms w/ an offset eccentric; yet, in both cases those nuts won't influence alignment characteristics.

 

The upper control arm shaft (itself) is mounted/secured to the body frame via two shaft studs (and nuts). Alignment is provided via shims (if required) inserted onto the shaft studs also providing the ability to adjust both castor & camber. The upper control arm shaft end nuts do nothing more than secure (crush) the bushing retainer onto the bushing of the control arm shaft.

 

A very nice video demonstrating castor/camber on a classic vehicle.

NOTE: In particular look at the triangle this person creates with his hands demonstrating alignment of castor/camber (2:57 on the video):

 

Good morning everyone.

Dare I say I've turned a corner? I slept pretty well last night. My shower this morning was not as torturous as it has been. I was able to start some laundry, stand at the sink and do some dishes, and put away a couple things without shedding tears or screaming bloody hell. And it's a beautiful day out and I woke up breathing. What more could one ask for.

It was just a thought Norm. Maybe the bolts were tight and then the bushing deteriorated and the bolts became loose. Maybe whoever installed them used anti-seize on them. Maybe another car(like a Chrysler?) uses A arm bolts for alignment and that's what I was thinking. Hm. I should go out to see what the Valiant does.

At any rate Chris whenever you do -anything- to the front end keep an eye on tire wear.

Remember the yellow Suburban Norm posted that was parked at the Awful house? I know those people and after lunch today I'm going with them to their storage units(they have 5) to see if we can consolidate anything and maybe get rid of one or more of the units. They used to own a Collectibles store and then closed, and brought all their stuff to their house. The house, carport, garage, three truck body storage boxes, and a huge metal building are slap full of all that stuff. You can't even walk hardly in the house, it has little trails to get from room to room. It's frightening. He says he calls people to come look at stuff to sell and she says he doesn't. He uses the fact that he's had a stroke and can't use one arm as an excuse as to why their lives are in shambles. From what I've seen it's all garage sale stuff and they'd be money ahead if they'd throw it all in a dumpster and haul it to the landfill. But that's just me. I'm going to try to help them because they are my friends. Wish me luck. He's a tad hard-headed and she's bewildered and overwhelmed.

Okay! Laundry is almost done and I've got some more little things to do around the house. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

Mike - Good to hear you're feeling better, today. Hope it continues.

I recall the yellow Suburban. Sounds like a free for all w/ those storage units & tiny trails from room-to-room in the house.

 

In the middle of a bunch of yard work yesterday, I thought I'd better get moving along on the Indian starter R&R. Strapped the bike onto the motorcycle lift, hoisted the bike & then stripped the hex head oil drain plug. This/These bike(s) are notorious for this issue - it's happened to me once previously some years ago. A royal PITA to resolve the issue. Very little room to negotiate a remedy. Thankfully, I have a 90° pneumatic ratchet. I'm not sure I have a couple drill bits in good enough condition to bore a starter hole into the drain plug to get an Easy Out embedded deep enough to extract the plug. Just another annoyance trying to fix stuff. Yikes.

 

What the hell Mel! https://photos.app.goo.gl/vWALpPGHV8etkSBM7

 

Did the one with the pin up girl show up? Too cold out, and with black clouds to the south, I changed my mind on todays car show.

 

One Easy Out with a broken tip now embedded in the drain plug. Scrambling for bits & a solution. Never enough fun!

 

Success. My wrists, forearms, biceps, shoulders & back will be destroyed in the morning. Holding a 90° pneumatic wrench drilling upwards into a drain plug made of hardened steel for nearly four hours. I should have had the primary cover & clutch cover removed, the jack-shaft unlocked & the clutch pack removed by now.

 

I can see them now. Don't see many AJS (Stevens) motorcycles in the states. Old British company. Yeah, can see the pin up girl. Thanks for sharing, Dan.

 

The afternoon with the folks was a bust. He wanted to brainstorm, on what I'm now not sure, she wanted ideas on how to get rid of the storage places. We weren't there five minutes before he launched into his tired story about the guy who wanted to pick and choose vinyl records and leave him with crap. I said isn't selling something better than nothing? He said they were worth a lot of money. Everything he pointed out was worth a lot of money. The decades old National Geographics were worth a lot of money because they had Coca Cola ads on the back. Hundreds of books were worth a lot of money because they were old. Tshirts with shitty sayings on them, the off-character little action figures from one of the many Star Wars movies, stuffed animals like what you'd win at the fair, all worth a lot of money. I can tell you it was all garage sale stuff. He isn't going to sell anything. She is afraid to say anything because he will fly off the handle and she thinks he'll have a(nother) stroke. After this afternoon I can see that he's just a jerk. It's okay for him to make money but not anyone else. Eh, I'm done with them. We'll just have to talk about something else at lunch on Saturdays.

Norm an easy out is the most mis-named item on the planet. I've broken them before and used a dremel-type tool to grind them out. Then I think, gee, I could have just used this tool and ground off the head in the first place. Glad you were victorious.

Must have been a good car show, we haven't heard from Chris all day. Hope he had a good time.

Gonna hit the sack soon. Sleep in again tomorrow before Walmart. Then end early because I'm going in for 8 over on Monday. Have a good evening everyone.

 

Mike - The oil drain plug has no head - it’s a recessed hex. That was a miserable affair. Thankfully successful. I’m going to sleep like a rock.🤘

Those people sound very odd.

 

Mike - Thanks for thinking of me, I did have a nice day. Beautiful weather and well run Show. The two pics of the Show field are of both directions from where my car was parked. By the time registration closed there were additional cars parked in between the 2 rows seen in the pics, parked parallel to the Row. It was what I'd call a medium sized Show, 162 entrants. It was held at a Shriner's Hall and for Charity. I won the "President's Choice" for his favorite. A nice basket full of car supplies came with the Award. After the Show ended they were having a live Cruise through the Main Street in Bonne Terre where the Show was located. We made one pass through town and then headed for home. It was a really nice day!

 

That's the only one I see too!