Well, the suspension really is finished. Aligned, brakes bled, and even new tires (the tires are another story coming up...)
She taught me humility. She taught me she is a strong willed lady who will assert her own will. I had made an appointment for a 1:30 appointment on Monday July 5th for an alignment with the shop Centerline referred. I had the passenger side suspension to put back on the car, but after how quickly the driver's side reassembled, I wasn't worried. I got cocky, and the Alfa gods taught me a valuable lesson.
I was going to replace the passenger side inner bearings, since they were the only ones that seemed to have any issues, and it was a minor catch when turned by hand. But, had the part figured it was best to replace it. The day before I had removed the old race and seated the new one. That morning I put the hub together, with the packed bearings on their races, and placed it on the spindle. It went most of the way down and stopped. No going up, no going down, just stuck in place. I struggled with it for awhile, and was pretty much at my wits end, when I my friend came by. He was going to follow me up to the alignment appointment. This is the guy who has a lot of car knowledge, and he took a look at the hub assembly. He was pretty baffled too, but he was able to help me pound it off. Then we realized the issue. The bearings were just too small, and had gotten stuck higher on the spindle than it should have. Packed the old bearings, reassembled the hub, thought, ok, here was the setback, but I'm still ok for time.
Nothing seemed to go right, and I was getting more and more frustrated. Finally had to call and see if I could push back the appointment. I was able to reschedule for 3:30. Great, plenty of time, really just have to put the spring back on and torque the nuts... The driver's side spring pan had gone right up, lined up, and I had it assembled in a half hour, figured the passenger side would be the same... Right... It didn't want to move up the threaded rods smoothly, and then once I got the pan up, the bolt holes didn't line up quite right. With some prodding, and yes, some hammering, finally got them lined up and the pan assembled... 3:00. No way to get the nuts torqued and up the appointment. Had to call and cancel, and got a deserved lecture on making appointments without being ready.
She beat me.
I did give the suspension a few good downward pushes to get everything settled, and the passengers side seemed really bouncy. Then I saw I hadn't attached the sway bar an the drivers side, so thought, well, maybe that's it? Cleaning up later, I was putting tools away, tossing the old parts... hey, isn't that a shock? Isn't that supposed to be on the car? Ok, explains why it is bouncy!!
Normally I would have walked away when I got that frustrated, but I was desperately trying to keep the appointment, because I did know it was bad to keep cancelling. But, I learned some more lessons. No matter how much I think I have it down, use the book. Assume it will take twice as long, if it takes less it's a bonus. And never get cocky when working on an Alfa Romeo!! :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment