continuation of the one step forward thread.. finally got new hose for the pressure side of p.steering pump. Fittings are so close together you can't do much more than 1/64 turn (turn the wrench over) 1/64 turn... on a fine thread fitting... and with the headers, fuel line, oil filter, etc in the way it's just impossible. I had cut down a 7/8" open end wrench to about 3" long and it was still bad. The flat body of a 7/8" wrench is wide. (guess I could have ground it down, huh ? I decided to drop the whole rack to do this. That meant disconnecting the steering linkage and dropping tie rod ends etc... then put the rack on the bench and removed both hoses...(you have to remove one to get to the other.

The rack fittings are soft aluminum and notorious for stripping out... so bad that the rack comes with a warranty void warning about it and they will not accept return if the threads are ruined. I started the pressure hose gently by hand and in 1/2 turn I felt some resistance. I stopped and tried again, same problem. I pulled the fitting and looked at it with a magnifier and the thread crests were flat, not sharp like most threaded items.
Contacted the maker and he advised to return it for a new one. Long story short he sent new hose with crisp sharp crests that eased right into the female fitting. ( I wonder if this was a returned hose from someone else and it got shipped to me by mistake or just crappy craftsmanship)



All went back together as it should and reinstalled the rack.. attached the other end of hoses and filled the reservoir. No leaks but a 12 days wasted.

My mysterious vibration in the drive line was still there when we took another drive and pinion angles were a little high... today we removed ladder bars from the rear end (that was fun for two old fat guys rolling around on the concrete floor...NOT lots of grunting, heavy breathing and cussin) and adjusted them to get the angles more in line... lucky us, the first adjustment made all the difference and she drives as smooth as my late model suburban...we took about 3 degrees out of the angle.... a few little things to alter, fix, finish and it's ready for upholstery.... but dang... it has been tedious.

Brighter days are coming I hope !!! is it just me or do you guys have all this trouble ???
john

 

Always....not to the extremes you've had. But it is always some little thing that sets me back.

 

Oh yeah a John. LOTS & LOTS of “Are you kidding me’s”. And with this Coronavirus It’s almost impossible to just run out a pick up something. It took me almost a month to finally get my rear disc brakes plumbed like I wanted them. Something that would have been 1/2 a day, a day tops normally.

 

Glad you got it, John. Good job!!

 

John,

Yup! that sounds like "situation normal" for the way I do things. I spend so much time taking 2 steps back that I think I should be back around to where I started from sometime soon.

Bobby