Vacation - Pt. 3

So after I got that strut cartridge housing out of my strut tube section I had to try and salvage the tube housing. After being heated and hammered on in a vise for several days I expected the part to be out of round and badly damaged.

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As you can see the walls are scored and the inner lip got pretty beat from hammering nails into it.

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Determined to solve this problem while putting forth as little effort as possible, I came up with a plan.

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I call it the "Jack Sander". lol.

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All you do is take a threaded rod and wrap sandpaper around one end of it.
And then stuff it in the tube and jack it up and down furiously until the inside is clean as a whistle!

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Works great!

I was very happy to see that after removing the rust and burrs from the walls of the tube, my Tokico Illumina strut cartridge was able to slide freely in without hangup.

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It appears to have been measured and cut perfectly! (Thank god) More info on that process later.



Moving on to the steering rack. As some of you might remember I pulled the steering rack out of the car with the outer tie rods still connected. My silly little propane hobby torch couldn't heat the nuts enough to get them to break free.

Well the end all resolution to that appears to be my new friend Mapp Gas!

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I loaded my steering rack and the tie rods into my vise and heated it until it was smoking.

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This little nut didn't stand a chance.

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Flip and repeat. Make sure that you remember that one side is reverse threaded.
The steering rack threads out and upward away from the tie rod.

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After checking my steering rack out I wasn't able to find anything wrong with it at all. Just needs a new pair of boots, a cleanup, and some new grease and she'll be up and running.

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Into the bush for these guys.

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