Sometimes Anger Helps!

A couple of weekends ago I set out to do a couple things in the garage. First I wanted to finally try and get the old steering box off the BatBerry.  This meant both getting the pitman arm off the steering box and the disconnecting it from the steering rack ball joint.  I hadn’t been very successful on my prior 2 attempts.

The second thing I wanted to do, was weld up some pre-existing holes on the trunk of my Subaru.  These were holes that I had previously filled using fiberglass when I didn’t have any welding skills.  Seemed simple enough.

First the steering box was just not budging at all.  I was smacking the crap out of the ball joint with the pickle fork, and also trying to get the nut off the bottom of the pitman arm.  I decided that I was way too frustrated to continue and I would turn my attention to the trunk.

The trunk started off well. I cut a couple pieces of steel to fill in the holes and welded them up.

This was about the time when all hell broke lose 😦

I finished re-installing the trunk lid after filling up the trunk with a bunch of “stuff” for safe keeping and closed the trunk.  Little did I know that I had flipped the cancel switch on the latch so that it couldn’t be popped using the interior release.  Of course one of the holes I filled in was the key hole!

Now you might say, not a big deal Tim, just remove the back seat and  flip the release from inside the trunk.  That was my first reaction too until I realized that I had too much stereo equipment and other “stuff” piled up in my trunk to get to the latch.

So what do you do???? My solution, cut a hole in the trunk so that I could get my hand in there… Lovely 😦

So now I had a steering box that wouldn’t budge, and a big ass hole in the trunk of my car, and they were calling for rain later that day.

But it doesn’t stop there…..

My wife comes out to the garage and says “Tim, I think we have a problem”.  So I go into the house to find water dripping down through the ceiling in my finished basement… Grrrr… First thought was that the dishwasher was running and it was leaking.  Turned out to be a pinch in the plastic hose going to the fridge for the ice-maker.  Turned off the water to the fridge, mopped the floor and headed back out to the garage a tad bit “heated”.

I figured I would use this new found “angry energy” and apply it to the steering box.  I first beat the crap out of the ball joint again with no luck.  There was too much play in the steering rack.  Then I had the bright idea to use the pitman arm puller on the ball joint.  BINGO!!

I then took a big ass wrench to the nut that connects the pitman arm to the steering box and smacked the crap out of it with a hammer.  Finally success!

I have a re-manufactured steering box that I’ll be using, and I cleaned up and painted my existing pitman arm.

Of course other things have happened during these last few weeks that have kept me from the BatBerry

• Starter went on the Subaru
• A bunch of rust repair on the Subaru
• Clutch shredded and couldn’t get the Subaru out of gear which required towing the car to the shop

My mechanic thinks the Subaru is jealous of the time that I’ve been spending on the BatBerry and is acting up to get my attention.

But I’ll keep forging ahead!! 🙂