A productive day off

[annoying_salman]

Today we’re having a day off to celebrate Islamic new year. The new year was actually yesterday, but our government moved the holiday so that people won’t take a day off on Monday.

I don’t want to waste this day, so last week I decided that I’ll change the anti sway bar rubber bushing on my car, among other things, today. Changing the rubber bushing is relatively straightforward to do, and I think to myself, how hard can it be? Well, it’s not as easy as I thought it would be.

But before that, I wanted to ride my bike around the campus first. I forced my wife to wake up early to accompany me, as she’s always told me that she wanted to do some exercise.

After we arrived back home, I grabbed my tool bag and the stabilizer kit that I ordered a few days go. The kit consists of:

1. bushings for the end of the anti sway bar
2. rubbers for the shackles that connect to the chassis
3. rubbers for the shackles that connect to the anti sway bar
4. rubbers for the end of the drag link
5. bushing for the panhard rod, which curiously is only one even though I need two of them (one that’s connected to the chassis, and the other is connected to the axle)

Those red parts will give my car at least 5 unit of your preferred measurement unit of torque, right?

Today I only installed part number 2 and 3, as I don’t have the tool for installing the bushings to their respective place. I plan to just pay mechanics to install them, along with bushings for the front leaf springs in the near future. Dismantling the shackles was relatively easy. After they were removed, I sanded them down and paint them in black.




Assembling them back together was the difficult part. First, apparently the red rubbers installed on the anti sway bar are slightly thicker than the currently installed, so the U-shaped piece of metal that hold them in place couldn’t be installed easily. I had to use a rubber mallet so it can hold the rubber securely in place.



The second obstacle I encountered was installing the nut that locks the anti sway bar’s shackle to the chassis at the driver’s side. It’s slightly bent because of a head on collision with a motorcyclist back in November 2015 (the anti sway bar was slightly bent upwards too). Here’s a comparison between the left and right piece:



I spent at least an hour and a half just to install the damn shackles while muttering curse words from time to time. It was almost 4.30 PM when I brought my tool bag inside the house. There’s still time to do a test drive, so I started my car and drove around the campus, enjoying the beautiful golden hour.



Right now my hands are tired, there are dirts underneath several of my nails, and my feet are sore from sitting at a short stool when installing the anti sway bar. At least now I have the peace of mind that some of the rubber bushings for the front stabilizer are new, and I don’t have to do this again soon. Hopefully.

[trivet]

@annoying_salman

Great job! It's always satisfying to fix something with your own 2 hands

[pip bip]

@annoying_salman you'll get there slowly but surely

[Shop-Teacher]

@annoying_salman Good work!

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@annoying_salman Great work! The improvement in ride quality and noise by replacing old rubber bushings is incredible. It'll give you motivation to replace more worn rubber parts.