Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Rear subframe assembly failure

At some point today, I decided to tackle installing the spring plates on the subframe.  I cleaned the wax off of the bushings, added some talc and went about installing the first one.

A bit of trial and error ensued as I aligned both spring plates to the same angle but I eventually got it right.
Then came the time to install the cover and this is where the wheels came off the wagon, so to speak.  The covers don't align with the bolt holes.  As in 'none' of them align with an open bolt hole.  I wrapped a ratchet strap around the torsion tube and attempted to 'lift' it enough to align the holes - finding nothing but failure.  To my credit (or ignorance), I've never replaced these bushings on a subframe that's not mounted to the car.  I'm starting to think that I will have to mount this to the body and have another 'go'.  If that doesn't work - I may have to wait until the engine and transmission arrive so I can install those, then install the spring plates.  I was hoping to be able to assemble the whole thing outside of the car and then roll it back under the body as one unit but that might not be possible.  I'm not really crunched for time but my patience are wearing a bit thin because I have yet to complete this task and I've, so far, found about five ways to NOT get this done.  Giving in and installing it back in the car might be failure number 6 or it might be the win I've been searching for all along.  At this point, it certainly can't hurt to try...

I did, however, have one almost win today:  The 4 way flashers work!  The only residual problem with them is that the flasher relay clicks when nothing is happening.  I am going to try a different flasher and see if I got a bad one or if there's some wiring issue I need to chase down.  I also need to clean up the wiring a bit now that I've got the route figured out.

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