11.18.2003

I managed to get the Mopar 8 3/4" rear out of the gray Javelin tonite.

First I removed the tires, then I had to remove the Competition Engineering traction bars. This was made a little more difficult because the J-bolts that hold them in place were kinda tweaked from the years of abuse. Even after removing all the nuts, the washers were so bent out of shape that I needed a BFH to get the bolts loose.

Normally, once the rear was unbolted from the springs -oh, make sure to support the FRAME on jackstands, if you support the REAR the leaf springs will still be under load - upon loosening the traction bars, the rear WILL shoot up into the air and very likely off the jack stands, potentially crushing you! No, this did not happen to me... THIS time...

So, normally once the rear was unbolted from the springs (your removal order may differ), I'd unbolt the brake line & the driveshaft. BUT, since the driveshaft decided it wanted to seperate itself from the rear & so convieniently sever the brake line as well, I can skip that step! The last thing that needed to come apart was the parking brake cables. The cables are held in place by two cotter pins, just remove them and the cable ends slide out of the housing. Then the cables themselves must be removed from their bracket. They are held on by little clips, which were -of course- rusted to said bracket, so a little WD-40 along with a flat screwdriver & BFH eased the removal of the clips.

Once there was nothing to keep the rear from coming out, I jacked it up by the centersection, positioning the jack so I could easily pull the rear to the driver's side. Once the rear was far enough to the D.S., I pushed the passenger's side brake drum down below the leaf spring. Of course, this unbalanced the rear and brought it down a little faster that I wanted it to! I then repositioned the jack between the center and the P.S. brake drum and pushed the D.S. brake drum in to clear the D.S. leaf spring & (YAY!) the rear was out!

While the rear was out, I decided that it was a good time to take the entire exhaust out of the car. Simply unbolting the exhaust at the headers and then the 4 mounting U-bolts and it dropped right out... right on top of me!

With the exhaust out, I was finally able to actually inspect the job done about 4 years ago. I discovered a few holes in the welds & confirmed the fact that the piping not only narrows down terribly where the press bends are, but also that whatever diameter tubing they used was smaller than 2 1/2" because the tube is definately smaller than the muffler tubing... so much so that they had to noticably build up the area with the weld. I think I might buy some mandrel bends and see if I can fab up a better exhaust system.

That's all for tonite!

Painting the Super Stock leaf springs:

11.23.2003

I knew a good thing can't last for long.

I got my new saw - headed over to the garage - managed to make short work of the one front spring bolt. It wasn't easy, but I managed to get both sides of the bolt cut in about 20 minutes.

Jumped over to the other side, hacked off the outer side of the bolt - this gave me a little more trouble - managed to break off one of my new sawblades, luckily I bought two.

Then I went to hack through the inner side of the bolt. I must've sawed away for a half hour. Tried it from the bottom, tried it from the top. Checked the blade & it was totally dull! So I hacked that portion of the blade off and went back to work. Still barely getting thru.

Then I broke that last blade.

So out come the pry bars. I had hoped I cut enough of the bolt that I could move it back and forth and snap off the rest - worked for the other side.

First the pry bar slipped and I ended up punching myself in the face - threw my glasses up into the air and back down to the ground. Out of blind instinct I stuck my foot off and saved them from breaking.

Second I tried to spin the bolt to try to free it from the (melted) housing - the 3/4" socket slipped and I took it right in the mouth. So now I've got a fat lip and I'm spitting blood. At least I didn't lose any teeth.

Then I managed to gouge my back on the inner fenderwell while trying to hammer the spring from the top.

So I called it a night. What started off as unbridled enthusiasm with a new tool ended up as frustration and me looking like a tool.

Gonna get some more blades & try again, tomorrow's another day. Hopefully, with a fresh blade I can slice through that last bolt quickly.

I should have known that, as easy as everything was going for me, there had to be repercussions at some point. I guess the Karma Tornado decided that today was my BAD day. No biggie, I'll just swallow the blood and move on.

Here's to tomorrow!

02.26.2004

The Further Adventures of STUPER-FRAN!!!

Armed with his trusty Sawzall, SuperFran focuses all his powers on the one remaining bolt! Mightily, he loads the Sawzall with a shining blade. He attacks the evil (pronounced EEEE-Vile) bolt from above, then below. The stench of burning rubber fills the air as the Sawzall saws all!

Then, suddenly, our hero finds that he has once again managed to dull the shining blade! Quickly our hero dashes to the workbench & fires up the Cavernous Compressor! With one fell swipe, the Cantankerous Cut-Off Wheel cleaves the dull portion of the blade and he just as quickly redoubles his efforts to vanquish that evil (see pronounciation above) bolt!

But, lo and behold, our dimwitted hero is armed with a blade too short! Within in minutes, the mighty blade lies broken at his feet! But never fear, faithful readers, Superfran, using his not-so-super-speed, replaces it with an even mightier blade!

This time there is nowhere for the bolt to run, no allies to help the evil (you know how to say it now) bolt, this mega-mighty blade slices through the evil-ness (yeah, that's a word) and the ancient leaf spring falls free!

Our hero stands above his vanquished foe, arms upraised thanking whatever gods might hear his trumphant call! Let this be a warning to all bolts everywhere. Evil (c'mon, say it with me now) never sleeps & Superfran is at the ready, with his trusty Sawzall in hand!

02.26.2004

Dave Stahl was kind enough to make me up some Uber-Trick custom rear shackles! I painted them with an aluminum-look enamel and got all new hardware as well.

03.23.2004

I replaced the old Mopar lines, which had the rear brake tee on the driver's side with the AMC lines which put the tee back in the original position (passenger's side). I had the rear line left over from the brake kit I purchased for the gray car a couple years ago, but the short line I had used for the Line Lock install, so I had to go out and buy a 15" generic line and bend it up. With the brake line routed in the original location, it makes for a much cleaner look than how I had it on the gray car. I also painted the brake drums with Hi-Temp paint to get rid of the rusty, crusty look.

The centering pin on the new leaf springs was too big to fit in the hole provided for the spring perches, so I had to get new bolts and grind down the heads to fit. I do not plan to use the Competition Engineering traction bars shown in the photos, but I didn't have the Mopar spring plates, so I'm going to use these until I can find some plates. With the SS springs, I shouldn't need any traction bars - which again would provide a cleaner look.

The final hurdle to be overcome was that the centering hole in the perch was about a 1/4" off - towards the "outside" of the car. I had to remove the driver's side shackle, move the spring into the centering hole and then bolt the shackle back up into place. In the future (maybe?), I may slot the centering hole for ease of removal of the rear.