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Cool sounds like a plan. Any thoughts on at least cleaning up the cylinder with a hone, cleaning/painting the outside, and storing it in cosmoline (or similar) rust inhibitor?
Hey all, sorry for not getting back sooner, things have been busy having moved recently. I was able to rekey the whole car (ignition, front doors, and trunk lid). I used the new keys and pinning from the replacement dorman ignition cylinder (though I noted the original key code when I took my original door locks apart). I bought new door locks (they came in a pair for $25. They were easy to open up and re-key, but installing them into the car was harder then the re-pinning itself. The replacement tumblers were hard to track down at a reasonable price. Strattec makes them, but does not sell to the general public. I found the necessary part numbers for each tumbler height, and ordered them in sealed bags of 100 for cheap on ebay.
The trunk lid was a little more tricky. The trunk lock cannot be purchased as an aftermarket part, and the cap is not easily removed. The cap on the trunk lock was crimped on, and not easily removed with basic tools without destroying the cap (which Strattec makes, but are much harder to get a hold of then the tumblers). I found a special pair of pliers that could take care of removal and re-crimping, but they were $200. I like buying tools, but I’m not spending that much on a pair of pliers… This is where China steps in.
Turns out there is a chinese copy of this tool. I was able to order it with the cheapest shipping option to my doorstep for less then $40. There is a moderate learning curve to using this tool (I almost mangled the cap when I tried re-crimping it). I was able to re-key the trunk lock easily (after I got it open. After disassembly, I sprayed some brakekleen in the cylinder and case an I found lots of goo and metal shavings inside the lock. After drying the reusable bits, I lubed it up with some spray silicone (I can’t find my silicon paste). Everything cleaned up well, and I was able to re-crimp it shut without destroying the lock or cap.
As for why I decided to re-key, the original key was worn beyond replacement. It was my only “good” key and all of the copies I tried to have made failed to work reliably. I was able to have a new key cut to code, but it turns out the tumblers were also worn out. Since I needed to replace the ignition cylinder and switch anyway, I decided to “go all the way” and do it right. 😉 I still have my original locks, so when I get some time I may put together a video tutorial for cleaning up and re-keying these Chrysler door locks.
Hey all,
The dodge stratus front suspension replacement continues…
I couldn’t get quick struts for the front, since they have upper control arms/ball joints/lots of other factory only parts dressed on them. Given that I don’t have much daylight in the winter, I decided to get junkyard strut assemblies ($40 a piece), disassemble them for all of the (expensive) reusable parts I needed, and assemble with some new components I ordered. I ordered new moog problem solver upper control arms/ball joints, new moog coil springs, and gabriel struts. Disassembly took longer than it should have, since everything was a little rusty and spring compressors are a little challenging to position when you have to work around a control arm/ball joint getting in your way…
I had typical disassembly issues: spinning studs on the shock stud, frozen bolts, etc. Once I had them broken down, re-assembly wen’t much quicker. I ran into a strange issue with one of the moog control arms though. One of the ball joints was not fully seated in the control arm (the whole thing spun when I tried installing the grease fitting and also rattled in it’s hole). I got out my ball joint press and went to press it back in. I forgot to press on the outside edge of the ball joint, and slightly mashed in the soft center brass disc (what the grease fitting threads into). This made the joint very tight, though hitting the stud with a BFG helped to push it back out. The grease fitting hole was still too small, so I got out my tap and die set to fix that. Then, my entire tap and die set fell out of my tool box drawer and onto the floor… After stepping back for 15 minutes, I picked it all up (didn’t loose any taps/dies), and proceeded to ream out the hole. I eventually got the hole big enough that I could thread the zerk into place.
Fast forward to today. I was able to remove the old strut assemblies pretty quickly. I was still dealing with rusty stuck bolts, but nothing the torch couldn’t handle. I’m glad I decided to use the parts from the junkyard units. The ones on the car were pretty crusty.. Upon getting everything back in the car and getting it back on the ground (and greased up), I found that the ride height rose by around 3 inches or more in the front! It was sagging that much! Also, the steering is much less scary with tight upper ball joints and the handling is much improved. Installation took around 3 hours (on the ground with no lift). Hopefully this is it for front suspension work on this car for a long time!
I finally got around to replacing the rear struts. They were the factory units, and were sagging a bit. I was able to snipe a pair of Gabriel quick struts off of amazon on black friday for $55 each, so on they went. The repair was uneventful, until I saw the condition of the shocks when I got them out:
I thought I heard some clunking coming from the rear, but didn’t expect that to be the reason… Good thing I swapped them out!
On a related note, the rear subframe is starting to rust out a little. It’s not all rust holes the size of my fist, but there are small thin spots scattered across the bottom of it (I’ll try to get a picture of it when I change out the lateral links). Since It will continue rusting (I am in the northeast after all), should I remove it at some point in the future and remove the rust/weld the holes or just replace the whole subframe (which can still be bought from the OEM online for around $200)?
Thanks again!
Ok, I finally got the right front side fixed yesterday. The highlight of of that ordeal was me breaking one of the two sway bar bracket bolts on that side. Otherwise things went smoothly. Worth noting, replacing all of these parts fixed my front end camber (which is not adjustable and was out of spec on the left side). Replacing the steering knuckles seemed to fix it.
In the process of replacing all of these parts (front sway bar links, lower ball joints/control arms, steering knuckles, etc) I made the upper ball joints very loose. I had to put vicegrips on the stud to keep it from spinning to break the nylock nuts on the studs free. I actually broke a pair of name brand vicegrips doing this yesterday… That said, it looks like I’ll also be replacing front struts, control arms, and ball joints in the near future (Since they need to be pulled as an assembly anyway, might as well replace them all). At least by the end of this I’ll have an almost completely new front end suspension with greasable fittings.
I like the stant tester and adapters, but it seems impossible to find a complete set of adapters to cover as many vehicles as possible. I think I’m going to go with the Astro Pneumatic set I posted about, but that’s a few weeks off right now.
Thank you for the opinions!
Thank you for the reply Eric.
My wife works at a car dealership and had her oil changed in their own service department (where she purchased the car). I’ve made a video of the bubbles in the oil and the noise (with date and time, etc). We have all of our receipts, and she’s bringing it into the service dept. at work tomorrow for them to take a look. She’s had to keep driving it (it’s her only form of transportation), but it still seems to drive fine, it’s not throwing any codes, and the noise seems intermittent now. Not sure about the bubbles since I don’t have my hands on her car too often. I know that the oil doesn’t look frothy though (like a ton of air is being whipped up). Only one or two tiny bubbles on the end of the dipstick, and only when the car is running. Nothing but oil on the dipstick immediately after it’s turned off. I know my stratus doesn’t do that, but then again my stratus takes 5 quarts of oil (and the Versa 3 quarts). I’ll keep you guys posted of what we find out tomorrow.
Thank you!
I seriously doubt a headgasket issue. The oil quality looks fine. I need to get it on a level surface to get a correct reading on the level, but I know the bubbles (literally 1 or 2 tiny ones) disappear off of the dipstick immediately after the car is turned off. I’m starting to think the ticking might be an exhaust leak or a loose/rattling heat shield. I was a really tired when I noticed the noise. We left WNY at 1:30AM on the Friday after thanksgiving to get back to Long Island by 8:30/9am, so I might have been thinking the worst of the little oil bubbles and ticking noise..
I’ll keep you guys updated as I find out more
Ok, half of this repair is done. The entire left front side is finished, and no part of this job was easy.
Yesterday I replaced the steering knuckle (with one from the salvage yard), sway bar link, wheel bearing/hub, and lower control arm/ball joint.
It took so long to get the left side finished that I didn’t have enough daylight to do the other side. The only easy part was lifting/supporting the vehicle and taking off the wheels/loosening the axle nuts. The wheel bearing/hubs were so rusty that they wouldn’t come out of the hub (even with a puller installed on the back once removed from the vehicle). The salvage yard unit was the same exact parts number that was on my car, so I know it was comparable.
Other issues included spun upper ball joint and end link studs, a stripped center to the upper ball joint stud (which required locking vice-grips and heat just to get the nylock nut off), none of my ball joint pullers wanted to fit onto the lower ball joint, and the cotter pin was stuck in the lower ball joint stud (and I had to use an impact to force it off). Also, getting the lower control arms off was a challenge. Thank you Chrysler for not welding nuts onto the sub-frame, so that I have to fish a long 18mm into the top of it right next to brake lines (while impacting the bolt from underneath! And the new control arm was harder to install then it was to remove!
In the end, the bad bearing vibrations and howling is all gone (and the car has never felt more solid. I sprung a little extra $$ for moog problem-solver control arms (which are greasable) and timkin wheel bearings. Safe to say I used a lot of anti-seize when I installed the hub (and used a quality bearing so it hopefully won’t need replacing again!). I didn’t have time to take pictures this time, but I will when I do the other side and post my results!
Thanks for the advice!
Permatex makes an oil safe thread sealant that may stop your leak. Just remove the fitting, put a small amount on the threads, and tighten appropriately. I like to avoid teflon tape because there is always a risk it might be sucked off of the fitting and into the line if it starts to deteriorate.
http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-80632-Thread-Sealant-PTFE/dp/B000HBNTGY/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1447623005&sr=1-1&keywords=thread+sealant+with+ptfe
Hope this helps!
Ok, I’m making some progress.
I finally got the bad bearing out of my junkyard steering knuckles. Heat didn’t work. Soaking in PB blaster by itself didn’t work either. I didn’t have a shop press, so I had to improvise…
I purchased this puller set. I needed the 8 inch model, but for the price of 1 I could buy a 4 piece set, so that’s what I did:
http://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-5702-Gear-Puller-4-Piece/dp/B000NPUKB6
I soaked the knuckle/bearing assembly in pb blaster for 12 hours before I tried to pull it (I was waiting for my puller to come in the mail, and I used it literally as soon as it showed up on my doorstep). I set it up on the rusty knuckle with a receiver cup from my otc ball joint service set, and spaced one of the arms with a bad lug nut. When it came loose, it exploded with a pretty loud bang:
This is the bearing out of the knuckle:
Now I’m ready to clean up the knuckles and install the new bearings.
But I have a question, the knuckles I received came off of a Chrysler sebring (2002 and 2006 for left and right respectively). The Chrysler parts number on the castings do not match the comparable numbers listed for my car, but the knuckles look identical from what I remember. If they are indeed identical, should I use the junkyard parts? I was told the cars these parts came off of are compatible with mine (suspension-wise), but I dunno if I should trust them on it. Also, should I have my alignment checked after replacing the knuckles?
Thank you!
Thank you for the videos, but it doesn’t really help. I disassembled everything down to the hub, removed the hub bolts, and the hub/bearing wouldn’t move! It was just frozen in there with rust!
I put the car back together so I could drive home last night, but I dropped by the salvage yard and picked up a set of steering knuckles ($75 for both). I still need to remove the bearings from these replacements so that I can install the new ones, but it should be easier to heat them up since it’s off of the car. I already got one bearing out without heat, but the other will require some further persuasion.
I’ll keep you all posted.
Take a look at this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-jMUkK9TSQ
Adding a thrust bearing to the Hub Grappler kit can sometimes help on stubborn bearings/hubs.
This is the tool I used to remove the inners once cut:
http://www.amazon.com/Mayhew-29910-Speedy-Universal-Inner/dp/B005I5GLCS
It’s expensive, but it worked flawlessly on my tie rods (which are machined round with no wrench flats).
Thanks!