While cleaning up some in the garage today, I found one of my grandfather's old crescent wrenches; this wrench was quite literally as long as my arm. Since my shop had to put the job off a few days, I decided to try once more to replace my rack gaiters.
With my girlfriend there for moral support (and subsequently to lean against the bumper so I didn't pull the car over myself), I put the big wrench to work on the locknuts. After several mighty pushes and pulls, they each finally saw the error of their ways...and I'm feeling the muscle pain /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.
After finally slackening the nuts, I tightened them back so I could mark their positions then release them again. The rest of the job was pretty textbook. Thread and turn count on each of the rod ends, tape marks on each tire to measure with and checking/rechecking. Everything went pretty smoothly from there on out.
The old boots were something of a chore to get off; I ended up just cutting away what was left. All that I need to do now is get some lube into the rack (I've got a friend with a needle fitting for a grease gun, so I'll borrow that and use it).
My shop isn't out anything though...I ordered new tires from them. They didn't come in yesterday as they were supposed to, which prompted me to retry this job myself. I'm glad I did!
Thanks for all the help in my previous thread!
With my girlfriend there for moral support (and subsequently to lean against the bumper so I didn't pull the car over myself), I put the big wrench to work on the locknuts. After several mighty pushes and pulls, they each finally saw the error of their ways...and I'm feeling the muscle pain /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.
After finally slackening the nuts, I tightened them back so I could mark their positions then release them again. The rest of the job was pretty textbook. Thread and turn count on each of the rod ends, tape marks on each tire to measure with and checking/rechecking. Everything went pretty smoothly from there on out.
The old boots were something of a chore to get off; I ended up just cutting away what was left. All that I need to do now is get some lube into the rack (I've got a friend with a needle fitting for a grease gun, so I'll borrow that and use it).
My shop isn't out anything though...I ordered new tires from them. They didn't come in yesterday as they were supposed to, which prompted me to retry this job myself. I'm glad I did!
Thanks for all the help in my previous thread!