Blazinqwickly's F23A1 ,Happy wife, Happy Life Build.

[Blazinqwickly]

Well I had a very eventful day working on "Anna Belle" as we now call her, ran in to a few snags and had to come up with a solution to get the car back together before dark because we have possible bad weather coming our way today.

So first thing is first, I started noticing a really ruff noise from the CV joint on the passenger side, I could not see any damage to the shaft or CV boot right away, but upon further inspection I noticed grease had been slung every where in the wheel well in a 360* fashion.



So I started by disassembling the ABS lines and getting them tucked safely out of the way



Then removed the caliper itself and propped it up so there was of course no stress on the brake line and turned the wheel in order to allow more room and to see what the heck you are working on.



The next thing I started removing the lower strut fork in order to have clearance to get the axles CV joint out as if will not fit threw the fork in any fashion , but no problem, only 2 little bolts holding it in place.





This is the part where I knocked the upper control arm ball joint lose, thankfully not hard as I have replaced this not long ago so it had no chance to seize up on me.



Now this is where things got a little frustrating, I have have had some stubborn ball joints, but this ball joint had a love story with the lower control arm and would not let go.
I never recommend a pickle fork unless you are positive the lower ball joint is trash any ways and in which that case it does not even matter if you use it obviously cause it's getting replaced like this one was.
I spent 35 min hammering and using P.B. blaster and then putting a jack stand under the control arm to allow enough pressure and it finally let go.



More hammering, I'm sure the neighbors loved that crap for as long as it went on yesterday.



So finally the lower arm finally separated from it's love story with the lower ball joint.



Next after making sure I had drained the transmission fluid, I then removed the axel from the car.





I then took the front knuckle over to the work bench and checked for a snap ring which there was not, so I proceeded to let my sludge hammer and ball joint talk out their differences till they parted ways.



Sorry old O.E. ball joint but this is where your love story with the lower control arm ends.



So the new relationship with lower control arm begins with the Problem Solver ball joint from Moog, I have had great luck with these in the past so I always stick with what has good success with daily abuse.



Now here is where I am going to give some of you guys out there a good tip who don't have enough money to rent or afford to buy a proper ball joint press kit.
As many of you know, those kits can be pricey and over half the time you fight the kit trying to make it fit and I'm too old and crotchety for dealing with that crap anymore
My solution, grab a 32mm forged socket and mate it flat on the outer race of the ball joint and with the knuckle firmly in the vice you can start hammering it in nice and slow for a even but true result of driving it home properly.


You too good for your home ball joint? Naaahhh your cool look at you resting in there all peacefully now lol.



Then after reassuring everything was good to go the snap ring was installed and brought back to it's proper resting place in the wheel well.

I thought after that I would start taking apart the other side cause I like to replace everything in pairs when doing jobs on the car.
That was not the case yesterday, the last time I had the Accord apart I let my wife button up the other side by putting on the wheel and tightening the lugs and I guess when she was tightening down the wheel lugs she cross threaded them.

When I went to remove the lugs to start the job on that side, I already could tell what had happen, a bit stressful , but I do realize cars are still some what new to my wife and I realize accidents do happen.
So with perfect timing my friend and his wife show up and this is now a perfect time to send the girls to the parts store to grab some new wheel lugs and new wheel studs while me and my buddy fought on getting the wheel studs out of the hub itself.

For those of you who have not done this, there is two options you can do in this case... You can either buy a new well hub bearing with the studs already pressed into it and do a crap ton more work. Or.. You can use a cutting wheel to trim the quarter inch of dust shield and cut a relief in the stud itself and then it can be hammered out safely clearing everything.

The new studs will need a tiny relief cut on the flat face of the stud itself to clear everything easily and not cause damage to the hubs race while pushing them threw.
I wish I had pictures of this, but the girls were sent on errands as my buddy and I finished the job because we were starting to cut our day light hours short after struggling to get the old studs lose.

Now, I do not recommend hammering them back in as this can do damage to the wheel bearing, what I would recommend is finding a open faced nut and then tightening that down once the new stud is in place and it will pull the stud threw and seat it onto the hub.
Saving you precious money in the long run if your wheel bearing has not crapped the bed too, if the wheel bearing had play in it, then plan on spending a few more hours doing that job and replacing it all together.

So anyways that was all the fun I had time for yesterday, after we get a new set of tires on the car soon I will go ahead and do the inner and outer tie rods then and take it to the alignment shop for the most accurate reading I can get to bring all the geometry back into spec properly.

 

[Connie]

Damn dude, sounds like you had a busy day.
Lots of good progress though!
That's how she goes sometimes with the ****ty ball joint and the lug-nut oopsie.
It'll take you way less time than you think to do the other side; that's how it always goes for me when the first side is a nightmare!
Good luck, and thanks for the sweet writeup.
I'm about to swap a front hub in Midnight, as it's a little noisy.
Now I have this to go by lol.

 

[Rusty Accord]

Sounds like you and your buddy were busy getting work done. Isn't it strange how something so simple can cause so much greif. You'd think that your wife would have noticed it being tight way too soon, or at least asked if what she was running into is normal. I realize that she's new, ans wants to learn, but sometimes a quick question would have saved a ton of work a month or 2 later. A better thought would have been if she had had a flat. How would she have gotten that tire off and the spare on. Or even you driving with her in the car and the same as above applied.

 

[Blazinqwickly]

Sounds like you and your buddy were busy getting work done. Isn't it strange how something so simple can cause so much greif. You'd think that your wife would have noticed it being tight way too soon, or at least asked if what she was running into is normal. I realize that she's new, ans wants to learn, but sometimes a quick question would have saved a ton of work a month or 2 later. A better thought would have been if she had had a flat. How would she have gotten that tire off and the spare on. Or even you driving with her in the car and the same as above applied.

Man you are not kidding, we actually talked about the "What if's" after I found what she had done, but she was already upset at herself for doing it so I just decided to let it go cause my frustration was not helping the situation.
There is plenty that could have happen and been put in a bad situation there is no doubt about that, thankfully I caught it when I did and got it all ironed out after sending the girls part hunting for a while.

I have a saying "Don't take life too seriously, no one gets out alive anyways".
I am not a saint to always live up to it by any means, but sometimes it reminds me to just take life with a grain of salt. Easier said then done though when you are so passionate with your jobs like so many of us are here I am sure.

But be that as it may haha

 

[Blazinqwickly]

Damn dude, sounds like you had a busy day.
Lots of good progress though!
That's how she goes sometimes with the ****ty ball joint and the lug-nut oopsie.
It'll take you way less time than you think to do the other side; that's how it always goes for me when the first side is a nightmare!
Good luck, and thanks for the sweet writeup.
I'm about to swap a front hub in Midnight, as it's a little noisy.
Now I have this to go by lol.

Thank you !

It was good progress no doubt about it, even with a lil set back it still all worked out for the best for the most part.

Yeah it's weird how if one side gives you hell the other side can sometimes just be a saint hahaha.
I will take every bit of good luck anyone sends my way cause we can use that no doubt about it lol.

Your front hub making some noise sounds like a possible wheel bearing, have you tried jacking that front hub up and moving it in the 12 & 6" O clock along with the 3 & 9 "O clock to see if there was any play ?

I have a feeling that is going to be a job I have to tackle later this year and it's deff a little time consuming considering it takes a little attention to detail or you end up back in there doing it again.

As far as a write up I had not really planned on it turning out that way since there are already so many videos people can just turn on you tube and in a few min find the same exact thing I am sure.
But maybe it will give a quick "Walk threw" of what maybe some new members might encounter and give another option for a plan of attack.

Every little bit helps right?

 

[Connie]

Thank you !

It was good progress no doubt about it, even with a lil set back it still all worked out for the best for the most part.

Yeah it's weird how if one side gives you hell the other side can sometimes just be a saint hahaha.
I will take every bit of good luck anyone sends my way cause we can use that no doubt about it lol.

Your front hub making some noise sounds like a possible wheel bearing, have you tried jacking that front hub up and moving it in the 12 & 6" O clock along with the 3 & 9 "O clock to see if there was any play ?

I have a feeling that is going to be a job I have to tackle later this year and it's deff a little time consuming considering it takes a little attention to detail or you end up back in there doing it again.

As far as a write up I had not really planned on it turning out that way since there are already so many videos people can just turn on you tube and in a few min find the same exact thing I am sure.
But maybe it will give a quick "Walk threw" of what maybe some new members might encounter and give another option for a plan of attack.

Every little bit helps right?

I'm 99.999% certain that's exactly what it is. It's not really that bad, but I've gone through enough wheel bearings on these 6g accords to know that soon it will be bad. I have several spare hubs lying around, so I can probably find one that the bearing is still good in and just swap the whole knuckle, which will save hours as well as the cost of a new bearing. I have to do a rear bearing in Connie too, so this coming weekend is probably going to be like musical chairs with knuckles and parts cars lol.

The more walkthroughs the better! There's always many different approaches to the same job, and other ways to do it are great to know. Especially if you get rust-stuck, which happens to me a lot.

 

[Blazinqwickly]

Man, they should just sell the knuckles with the hub, bearing already press together, probably would be pricey but like you said it would save hours of work and the possibility of early failures due to it being installed & 100% true from the company making it.

There are different approaches to many jobs for sure, fingers crossed you have stock in penetrating lubricant lol.

 

[Connie]

Man, they should just sell the knuckles with the hub, bearing already press together, probably would be pricey but like you said it would save hours of work and the possibility of early failures due to it being installed & 100% true from the company making it.

There are different approaches to many jobs for sure, fingers crossed you have stock in penetrating lubricant lol.

Lol on the penetrant shares; I totally should.

There's an importer in Toronto that imports low mileage OEM Honda parts from Japan; the whole knuckle including sensor, caliper, brake pads and everything goes for about $250 through them and usually their stuff has between 50 and 70k km. That's where I found my JDM J30 with only 38,000km on it 4 years ago.

Not having to press bearings in and out is awesome; parts cars/complete knuckle assemblies FTW!

 

[Blazinqwickly]

Haha, just remember if you get shares in penetrant to let Rusty go in with you on that deal so you both are winning lol.

That is good there is a importer where you are at, sometimes that can make things a lil bit easier so long as the parts you are getting are in legit condition.
If they are then I say go for it and have a easy breezy job and time/money saved if it can be done reliably, just look for play in it and if not then proceed.

I need to expand the garage so I can have a stable of Hondas to walk out every morning and to feed healthy greens coming straight from the wallet itself.

 

[Connie]

HAHAHAHA!
Rusty should copyright his username before the people at liquid wrench see this.

When I check bearings first I check for play.
If there is no noticeable play, I then check for grease. If you spin the bearing and it stops right away (like 1 or 2 turns max after you let go), that means there is still adequate grease in it. If it keeps spinning and spinning, usually that is a sign of low or no grease, and imminent failure.