Repack

I was a little off in the pricing. $46 was retail price for each rod with NOTHING else. Each nut, bolt, bushing etc has its own part number. The dealership didn't have the busing kit or the bolts that anchor the rod to the LCA. I can re-use the bolts that I have. They are still in very good shape. The good news is that the guy at the parts counter seems to have given me the repair shop price. When he told me that $105 worth of parts were going to cost me $78 I didn't ask any questions! I got the arms for $34 each and the nyloc end nuts for about $3. I found the bushing kit on advanced auto part's website for $20 per side. So all told I have spent about $130 and have all parts needed either on hand or on order. FYI: If you try to order the bushings, Advanced (same as Parts America) had the bushings listed under "strut rod assembley" (or something close) so they can be a little tricky to find on the site. They were not listed with the LCA bushings. Only the fronts came up when I searched under LCA.

The first dealership I called today has them: $46.85 each, including bushings. I wouldn't bother going to a junk yard. It would be like putting on a used tie rod, but even more dangerous. Unless you get lucky and find a low-mileage Pathy (is there such a thing??? Mine is at 190K) they will be too worn to be of any use. You'll snap the rod trying to get the end nut off. A friend of mine has a parts Pathy in his back yard (he's owned ~4 over the years). When I went to salvage a tension rod, it had worn down from about 1" dia down to about 3/8". It snapped while trying to remove it, which is what I expected.

Wow, I'll have to check that out. $90 would be a bargain comparred to what I was bracing myself for. Thanks!

The compression rod on the driver side lca of my '95 cracked (common problem). I've been told the the broken piece (a bolt on) is no longer made and that I will need to buy an entire lower control arm through the dealership. Anyone know where I might be able to find a replacement rod or two? I'm assuming that the mount on the other side is about to break. Many thanks

Thanks for the info. Time to start doing some homework!

All this axle talk is making me drool. The fornt of my '95 has developed a fair amount of play and I keep thinking that I should just go for the SAS. Fell free to flame me for being lazy and not looking for informaiton that I am sure is readily available all over this site, but if I wanted a D44, what is the best vehicle to pull it from? There is a very nice/large JY <1 mile form my house that has an "all you can cary for $50 sale" sometime soon and I am thinking about pulling one just to have it. Not sure how much it will weigh but even if I need to take 2 or 3 trips $100-$150 wouldn't be bad at all.

Glad to hear that you are OK. Any word on the lady that caused it? Ladder frame + steel bumper = battering ram. I rear-ended a lady a few years ago in my '95. I swerved as I realized I was going to hit her so the impact was the left 1/3 of the bumper. The bumper levered off the frame rail and pushed everything back about 6" into the tire. A little bashing and I drove it home. $20 for new head and running lights at the junk yard and it passed inspection. Not bad considering that my insurance company gave me almost a grand! If I hit her square my truck would have been fine but the compact I hit would have been destroyed. A word on Insurance: I live in Mass and last year a friend had his car totalled when he was rear-ended. The insurance company offered him $3500 if he wanted to keep his car or $4500 if it was totalled. He took the $ and bought a truck. And if he had kept it he would have needed a special title showing that it had been wrecked. He never got an explanation why.

It sounds like you have a refrigerant leak. The compressor will not turn on if there is not enough presure in the A/C system. But I'm afraid that your heater core may be done. I had the same problem in my '95. When I recharged the system the A/C worked like new, but after about 45 minutes the heater core would start to leak (its behind the glove compartment, along with the blower motor). The funny thing is that it would only leak on left-hand turns. I'm still not sure if the leak and the core are related. The core hasn't failed yet. I'll deal with it then. Luckily I live very close to a very large "used parts" yard. If you want to check for a leak, buy the refrigerant with the neon dye. Leaks will show up under a black light.

My tweets in front are blown and I am looking for recomendations. I did a very quick search of Crutchfield and found some that started at $50. I was mainly curious about price. Any recomendations, or should I just look for some at the "used parts yard"?

My dad bled the brakes on his car a few weeks ago with racing fluid and has some left over that I am thinking about putting in the disc brakes of my downhill mountain bike. What I am wondering is how long it takes for an opened bottle of fluid to draw in water. I think that I am just going to try it since bleeding them is simple but wanted to know if there was any sort of general rule of thumb or whatever. Thanks

I sleep like a baby in my truck. I have a Thermarest that I wrap in a padded moving blanket to keep from getting punctured by the D-rings. A few pillows, a flanel lined sleeping bag... Not a bad place to pass out after an evening of festivities. Its like the worlds greatest dome tent. A little OT, but my friends Explorer is large enough in back to fit a full-sized mattress and the seats of the Xtera and JGC lift right out.

Drill out the hinge pins and replace them with bolts and wing nuts. WIth the seats slid forward you get almost 7' of space. Makes a nice bed. The metal is very soft and easy to drill. If that is what you are talking about.

Typical Mercedes. I do not know if their cars have gone on a diet or if there are more speed rated tires but a couple of years ago tires were the limiting factor in how fast their cars could go.

I agree. I am more of an on again/off again poster b/c I (fortunately) haven't had many probloems with my truck but (unfortunately) don't have the $ to do much work to it. Not having the working email reply feature kept me away. I do not look forward to sifting through threads looking for/trying to remember what I replied to so didn't look here much while the feature was down.

We aren't *that* white. The color is kind of blown. The guy in the pic has a pool that he spent most of the summer by. He's pretty dark.