The Great Shell Swap Part 6: On The Up

[MM54]

This is a little shorter of an update than I'd like to have, but we'll get to that at the end.

Previously, I had coerced the rear control arms to be free of the spindles, and was preparing to move into actually replacing parts, not just dismantling things.

With the rear spindles freed up, I was able to move on to removing the backing plates, which serve as the caliper bracket as well as the backing plate for the parking brake's drum mechanism (inside the hat of the rotor). Why was I taking these off?

To put it briefly, when I took the hubs off I noticed on the right side, the ABS ring was rubbing on the lower shoe spring. This was weird, and shouldn't be possible. After removing the hub, the complete lack of wear told me this was a new issue, and further investigation led to the above - while this car spent a few years sitting around, it seems the layers of the backing plates decided to corrode, and the lower pads of the backing plate are completely rust jacked out.

The other side wasn't far behind. Fortunately, with a little penetrating oil and hammering, these came off. I have no idea why these failed like this (which my other, extremely rusty WRX did not) but that doesn't change that they did. (My guess is sitting means no heat to dry them, versus being driven, even in salt.) The good news is that replacements are available, and in the time since I took these pictures have been delivered to my house.

I then moved to the front spindles, removed the clamp bolt from the balljoints, and used one of my favorite tricks (see picture) to pop them right out.

It's hard to beat the slide hammer + vise grips approach when you really need to pull on something.

Anyways, at this point I decided that rather than start taking the old wheel bearings out, I'd rather... do the boots on the steering rack. Both were torn - one just barely and the other looked chewed-on.

With neither corrosion nor play (in fact both side are still tight) in the inner rod ends, I opted not to replace the one I thought might be loose (pictured) since without the weight of the outer rod end, it was able to hold position and exhibited zero play.

I did use the opportunity to clean up and re-grease the joint, though. I then did the same on the other side - fresh grease and a new boot. Technically the first new parts to go onto the car!

After that, it was Wednesday and I worked late and it was hot enough when I got home that I didn't spend any time wrenching anyways. I slept very poorly that night, the next morning woke up feeling unwell, and proceeded to test positive for the 'rona... so nothing has been done since then other than receiving a few boxes of parts in the mail.

Based on the above, it might be a little while before the next update, but we'll see. I've compiled a list of stuff I can/should do before it's time to bring the rusty shell home to start actually swapping parts over. Main highlights are the wheel bearings / hub assemblies, prepping all the suspension, changing out the brake flex lines & cleaning up calipers, and a bunch of other odds and ends.

[HoustonRunner]

@MM54 Hope it doesn't hit you too bad and you recover soon.

[orneryduck]

The perspective of the pic makes it difficult to see what is going on. Is the slide hammer threaded into the handle of the vice grips? — and the vice grips clamped ro the threads of the old balljoint? Are these pressed into a blind hole on the spindle?

[MM54]

@orneryduck Yes. The slide hammer is threaded into the adjuster screw threads on the vise grips, which are clamped onto the nut threaded onto the balljoint (it's softer and so easier to grip than the shank), which is not-really-pressed into a blind hole and secured with a cross bolt.

[MM54]

@HoustonRunner Thanks!

[Urambo Tauro]

@MM54 That slide hammer adapter is one of my favorites too! Had one in my slide hammer kit for the longest time before I finally figured out what it was for.