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Took the little truck in for a front end alignment this morning & 'they' said it couldn't be aligned because in part because of bad components, and even if they did realign it, it wouldn't stay aligned.
So.. time to replace some parts. Having problems figuring out what they're called to order new ones so help appreciated please & thank you!!!
Those are strut rod bushings.
The long rod is called a strut rod.
yay thank you for clearing that up for me! will put that on the list as a for sure not a maybe now. sorry for hte dumb question I guess it seems kind of odd... my other mitsubishi has 270k something on it and I never had to deal with the suspension myself before so... I'm new again & trying to get the 'right' bushings & etc. Thank you :)
That's not a dumb question.
A dumb question is something like: "Has anyone ever swapped a 4g63 in their MM?"
Instead of a new thread, here's a little follow-up.
It seems basically all the rubber bushings need to be replaced under the truck (but ya'll new that I bet, haha). When I read the words 'front end' on the do this stuff to your truck first thread, it didn't click in my head that it meant bushings -oops.
So I got all the bushings that seem to affect alignment delivered as of last week & caved in & set an appt at a long time family-owned local shop that apparently specializes in stuff under trucks/cars. Went it last week & asked about them installing the "box of parts" because sadly I'm too scared to either:
A) deal with the springs myself
OR
B) confess to my kid that I'm scared of the springs just to have him dive in & do the job (since he's at that wonderful age of no hesitation to do any job in the world) & have to drive to the 911 room w/ a spring stickin' out of his body somewhere...
Strut Rod Bushing
Control Arm Bushing
Stabilizer Bar Bushing
stabilizer Bar Link
Control Arm Shaft Kit
~~~ and ONE upper ball joint to go into the upper control arm on the driver's side because the "new" upper control arm we got from a local junkyard had a seriously decayed ball joint that MUST be replaced.
overdramatic , yeah. but springs? No thanks. Not this time at least. I think if all the bolts & pieces weren't rusted & carroded to high hell then it could be do-able w/the extra jacks & such by the lower control arms, etc. but the way we've (he, not me) been having to bang the heck out off parts just to break them loose even with spray &soak lubes, the jack situation is too scary for me.
The "little lady" who is apparently the wife of the main guy there asked him if the shocks were needed for the alignment job to stay aligned & luckily he didn't try to bs & said no. Though in true businessman spirit he said since we're doing all that we might as well. Hm, okay, honest so far. Didn't tell them I'd rather put out $ for new gaskets it needs to stop the little leaks it has developed but its a non-issue for them at this point.
I'm sort of wondering what if anything I should be ready for them to try & tell me/sell me. This is my first time taking the truck to anyone else for work, and my first time using this shop for anything at all, though it came highly recommended by the tire guy I've been going to for 2 decades.
"my" mechanic that was 100% perfect & honest & beyond goodly talented retired many years ago & since then I've been doing all I can myself. So I'm sort of stuck between the fear of springs & the pending probable upsell attempt :(
I'll update the thread ... in the meantime any tips greatly appreciated .
Oh and I didn't ask how much to install all the stuff, since it doesn't matter, it's got to be done. Going through tires like hotcakes. The alignment itself will be $60. No clue what their hourly shop time rate is... yet.
It will probably cost a pretty penny. When I had the lower control arm bushing going bad after buying my truck, the place I took it for an alignment (Les Schwab) wanted $600 to replace $12 worth of bushings. I politely declined their offer. It took me all day to get the deed done and released the springs with a long piece of all thread and some really big washers. The way I saw it was I was making $60 bucks an hour to do a 10 hour job. Maybe I'm still in that fearless stage as I have never personally had any bad experiences with springs. Maybe a few beads of sweat from them but nothing too dangerous.
Yeah I agree thats how I look at fixing the truck/car, too. Money per hour. It takes me a lot longer than most but still not out the cash when I'm able. Was really disappointed to find the spring involved when I was reading the instructions in the book! Frustrated really made me mad because that's the one thing that I can think of that I'm too scared to do. GOOD job doing it yourself!!! I'll update when they finally call me... they've had it all day & no news yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Spence
500 bucks later & I'll take pics in the daylight to see 'how' they did... though the truck stays straight AND it doesn't squeak like a ton of mice singing aerosmith songs anymore when I lean on it/get in/out, go over bumps, come to a stop, etc.
All that dang greasing I was doing wasn't helping all that much since the bearings were so shot.
On the other hand, the guy said he didn't have to take the springs off --- what? does this mean, I don't know! How did he do it? He said the lower control arms were good. ODD as hell, okay I'm feeling a bit dumb now but wondering what all he didn't do or what I missed, since the whole reason I took it into a shop in the first place was because I'm scared of those springs. I h-a-t-e being SUCH a dumbhead sometimes, jeez.
He said he saw brass bushings ... brass. and that he hasn't seen any like them since he worked on a 1960's car. Wondering if he's not all that experienced or if brass bushings are 'so' unusual. Maybe its a domestic vs. import thing ? I have no idea though he didn't seem to have a high opinion of imports (oh well). So long as the truck's better I guess it doesn't really matter just thought I'd mention it since HE thought it was so unusual.
He also said it needs a new pitman arm, soon but not urgently, and a transmission fluid service / maybe flush - pull the pan & look & replace the fluid. He said it studders when taking off at low speeds because the fluid looks burnt and something else about the fluid I already forgot. I'll research the forums about that & see if that's true or not. As bad of a pain in the butt the oil pan was (for me) I can't imagine doing the transmission pan oh yeah and then working all the air out when refilling IDK if that's hard or not yet. So hard to get it off without hurting denting or damaging anything in the process. patience is not one of my virtues.
Anyhow, I'll take pics in the daylight tomorrow morning and share.
You can always lift the truck off the trany, lol. That may be easier by the sound of your repairs.
Also tink, your not dumb....your just not sure about a few things. Damn truck use to make me feel that way too, but there is nothing you cannot do yourself on that truck. Try not to pay unqualified wanabee mechanics that think they know wtf they are talking about. Most the time they create more work.
I think I will open up a Mitsubishi truck repair shop close by your house soon. ;)
Well, I got disgusted and had to step away from it a bit. I hate coming to post with nothing but questions. I took pics but there's nothing obvious. Trying to find any clean shiny spot where whatever is rubbing against something else would show. Using the camera to fit into spots my head won't to try and see 'hidden' areas.
The noises it makes ... are most definitely caused by the work done and/or things touched/messed with during the job, but I got to thinking maybe some of the noise(s) are because bars & such are stiffer now & maybe rubbing in places harder than they used to, god I don't know. Not taking it back to that shop, like an ex, they're ex's for a reason.
Last night my boyfriend & I took turns pushing on the truck side to side, up & down, etc. while the other one laid down under the truck trying to pinpoint where which sound is coming from where. But he says they're coming from everywhere... GRRRR. HE also said that some of the sounds are coming from that pan that bolts up with 4bolts to cover the bottom of the engine area, so that's an easy one to take off & put back on, maybe a corner got bent the wrong way (easy fix for 1 sound).
I think I'm hearing maybe sounds come also from (OH BOY I don't know what it's called) but that metal disk cover behind the brake pad area on the inside side of the passenger front wheel. SO I'm going to have to take off that tire and make sure the spacing is even all the way around the brake area where that metal cover sort of folds around. I did have to bend that back into place previously when my kid hit a divider... or a curb, and it DID shut up and wasn't making any noises any more.
If I could just stop driving it for long enough to take things apart and solve issues!
I did notice the grease this mechanic used on the greasing nipple near the upper control arm shaft area is sort of clear looking, not that usual black grease. I'm wondering if he used the wrong kind and it's not lubricating right... but what I ALSO think is there's probably instructions to grease that WHILE he was putting it together, between the shaft itself & the pieces that fit over it... and my money's on him NOT doing that greasing. The noises are that horrid.
Anyway I have my homework cut out, and need a whole day to really investigate!
On the UPSIDE the truck just turned over it's 99999.9 mark and now has lots of shiny new 0s across the odometer. Ah, to pretend it's brand new at it's first turn over 100k.
PS: oh haha lift the truck off the tranny? Rather lift the engine out of the truck. What fun, seriously I would love to spin that thing around and go over ever last bit of it. SO easy looking compared to the 24v dohc g672 that haunts me. Yes, I know I can take care of that tranny if needed, I just know it. Saw the rebuild stuff for it I think on rockauto.com already... and looked in the book, it doesn't look THAT hard, just heavy and a little precise. But WHAT Do I drive in the meantime?!?! and it really seems fine as-is. not great, but fine ;)
^tease :lmao:Quote:
Originally Posted by BradMph