Zed Head

Ask your Mat Tech what happens to the clearance between two materials when they're heated. The clearance grows too. Since you're not working with what started as an interference fit, you'll make more space for the rust to move.

That's not true. I've had three items that I can remember specifically moving when hot, locking up when cold - a broken stud in an exhaust manifold would only turn when everything was hot, a front control arm bushing that would only move when hot (using a vice and a socket, didn't want to cut it out), and the spindle pin. Often, the worst thing that can happen to a person is to receive a title. They stop thinking and assume that their first thought must be right. Because they now have a title. The theory may be right, if you give enough time for temperatures to equilibrate. Don't do that. Try my experiment. Your time. Might be fun to prove me wrong.

No heat? People just don't understand the power of a billion molecules holding hands. Nobody's surprised when freezing water breaks a block, but the connection to other materials is just a really big jump. An experiment - put 10 or 20 tons of pressure on the press's hydraulic gauge. No movement. Heat the casting with a torch. Watch the pressure drop. No offense intended if you had a torch on the whole time. Or even if you didn't.

Are you worried about synchro durability or shifting performance? You can't use the GL-5 spec. to determine if the sychros will fail. There may be a correlation of failure to a few GL-5 fluids, but there is no proven cause-effect relationship. Many GL-5 fluids cause no problems at all with "yellow metal" synchros. The GL specs are about performance, not chemistry. The focus on GL-5 is an attempt to find a "code" that will predict behavior but it doesn't work. So that leaves actual experiences as one rational reason to choose a certain fluid. It looks like a few people here have tried a few different fluids. Many people have used Redline's MT-90. I've seen other posts about the GM/Pennzoil formula Synchromesh. Swepco 201 looks good, besides one report of synchro failure in a race car, during a race. If I were you I'd start a new thread asking what people are using and how it's working. Take a poll. Forget about GL-4 or GL-5 or GLS. Don't forget to read the label or any factory literature about fluids also. If the manufacturer is reputable and says that their fluid will work with "yellow metal" synchros, odds are good that it will. Otherwise they wouldn't be reputable.

I do remember, but you just measured both tires at 23".

In Post #48 your measurements showed that the strut tower tops were the same distance from ground and the tops of the fender wells. Everything is where it should be. Level strut tower tops, level ground, level fender well tops. But your measurements in #69 with the tires hanging show a 1" difference side-to-side, even though the extended struts are the same length, imlpyng the body is 1" different side-to-side.. So you have two sets of measurements that differ by 1". One shows everything is fine, the other shows a 1" difference. The measurements with the car on the ground will always be suspect because you're not rolling the car. Since you have the struts out, you could remove the springs and reinstall the struts. Let the car sit on the bump stops or strut tube tops if you don't have bump stops. Take a measurement with the suspension fully compressed. Again, they'll be useless if you don't roll the car first. Also, a bound up front strut can affect the opposite corner in the back. The front end will sit higher also if you don't roll the car after lifting. Just to reiterate - if you don't roll the car after lifting and setting it back down, you'll be wasting your time. Good luck. A shop might have some ideas, after all.

Well ODM, unfortunately you have left out some critical information. When you lowered the car so that the strut towers were level, did the tires touch the floor? It's not clear if the tires are hanging or if if they have some weight on them. And you didn't confirm that you rolled the car back and forth before measuring. Actually, you've never confirmed that you rolled the car back and forth before looking or measuring. If you don't do this all of your measurements with tires on the ground are wasted Post #69 23 + 4.75 = 27.75 23 + 5.75 + 28.75 From post #48 25 1/4 both sides with strut towers level

Just saw this. Looks like it could be a good project, worst case a good price for parts. It's been up for a week, might be too late. http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/5332704588.html

I haven't looked at the dent pictures but, along the same lines as the paintless dent method, you might build a jig or straps to retain the form of the good parts of the tank, and use air pressure to blow out the dented portion.

Heat guns will put out surprising BTU's. Just takes a little more time to get the parts hot. I had thought of this before, on this topic - it's the opposite of the idea of an interference fit. If you wanted to make two metal parts fit together so tightly that they wouldn't budge after assembly, you'd machine them so that the inner part was bigger than the outer, then heat the outer until the hole grew big enough to fit the inner. Fit them together, one hot, one cold, and they'll never come apart.

I think that I understand how the puller is supposed to work and I don't think it should break that way. The puller should pull the threaded end off of the spindle pin before that happens. It looks like the inner all-thread rod was being tightened along with the outer pulling tube, causing it to bottom out on the pin shoulder. There might be a technique flaw involved in the breaking of these tools. The inner rod should be held static while the outer pulling tube is turned. I don't know if the all-thread has flats for a wrench but they might help. Anyway, too late now. I don't see a mention of heat anywhere. Might have missed it. Anybody with a stuck pin should immediately go to heat. Probably more effective than PB Blaster or Kroil or whatever. The one pin that I did manage to get out intact would only move when the strut casting was hot. It became immobile when it cooled. I've had the same thing happens with exhaust flange bolts in the exhaust manifold.

This would help. With the strut towers level, measure the tire height, the gap between the top of the tire and the top of the fender well, and the distance from the floor to the top of the fender well. Post those three numbers for each side. No discussion about what's what, or what's worn out, or bent, or anything, just six numbers, three for each side. They will tell a lot.

It looks like "after adjustment" in the FSM. So #1 should look like "before adjustment". Implying that your #2 hole is as good as you can get between hole #1 and #2 choices. Are you sure that the tight side of the chain is tight? I always have a tendency to over-rotate the engine while watching the damper pulley mark. Then if I rotate the engine backward, I have to turn the timing chain sprocket backward also, independently, to get the chain's tight side tight again.

Did you measure the tires height? Hopefully you can see how tire height + gap = fender well height. You can't have the tire heights the same on both sides, and the fender well heights the same on both sides, without having gap the same on both sides. It's impossible. Fender well height = tire height + gap.

The only way to have the same distance from the floor to the top of the fenders, AND a difference in space between the tire top and the top of the fender wells, from one side of the car to the other, is if the tires are not the same size. Everything seems to point to that. When you take the weight off of the springs they don't matter anymore. I'm not sure if you mean the two sides were "the same difference" (meaning that the gap was the same side-to-side) or if you mean the problem of 1" difference side-to-side is "the same difference"/ Sorry, but it can be read two ways.

You'll have to remove the struts to measure from top to bottom, unless you're a contortionist and can fit a measuring device up in to the inside of the tower. BUT, since you have the car up and level, you can measure from the ground up to a point on the bottom of the strut. You already know that the tops of the struts are n the same spot, assuming that you can see that the studs are fully pulled through the mounting holes at the top of the towers. Then you'll have level strut tower tops, level fender wells, and the measurement of what the wheel is mounted to. If you get the same measurement to the bottom of the strut, then all that's left is how the spring is holding up the weight. Or the 1/4" or so that a gas shock adds to height. You never said if the driver's wheel is actually hanging lower than the passenger's wheel, as it seems to in post #16. It shouldn't hang lower. Are the studs at the top of the struts fully inserted through the holes and bolted down? Same on both sides? Just checking.

The simplest thing to do first would be to measure from the top of the strut, where the three studs are, to the bottom of the strut. Whichever point you want, bottom of brake drum, hub center, whatever. If both sides are exactly the same you'll have a real mystery. The key to the measurement is that the strut tower tops are level at the same time as when you take the fender well measurements.

This is a what you wanted. A good thing. The steel-box of a body appears to be in good shape. The problem will be in a part or parts that can be unbolted and replaced.

Since MSA did not label it as a special gasket it's almost certainly between 1.0 and 1.25 mm. You won't see big difference in CR in that range.

This is what I mean. This number, both sides.

Forgot to say that the floor needs to be level also, for the fender well measurements to work.

What is the difference between the top of the fender wells on each side, with the strut towers level? We're trying to figure out if the body is square/level/copacetic with the strut towers. Have you confirmed that the tires are the same diameter? Fully inflated? Sorry, just can't see these things that are probably obvious if the car is right in front of you. Just missing a key point or two.

Post the part number of the gasket, if there is one on it or the packaging. Call MSA and ask them. Measure the fire ring thickness with some calipers to at least get a before-compression thickness. Not much to go on here. Stone head gasket from MSA.

You forgot to put the oil pan back on.

They should just call it what is - "Sand blast, inspection and powder-coating". They're not really selling the part, they're just refinishing. No core, no part. Once you know that, you can check your local powder-coating shops with your original parts and decide what premium shipping to MSA offers. They probably farm it out anyway. Of course, the consumer should always know what they're paying for. I was just illuminating.