1/28/08

Well, since you didn’t get a rant on Friday, obviously my springs arrived and I skipped work. Here’s the story. I got home Thursday evening to find a box of springs in the entryway hall. I called Jeff and asked if he were still available to cover for me. He was so we set 0800 h as our meeting time at my desk. I called John to set our plans and we decided to meet at the Nissan dealer at 0900 h. I was a bit concerned about the weather but there was no way around it if we wanted Darth Versa ready for the car show on Saturday. At some point in the evening Kevin called to see what was up and I asked if they might have a lift available on Friday. He said they probably would and that I should call him when I was ready to get to work on the car. I said I would. I got up Friday morning and headed towards the office at around 0715 h so I could take my time in case the bridges were icy. They weren’t but I did get caught behind a sanding truck on the Lake Worth Bridge. That pissed me off. I got to the office and settled in to check some e-mails, shut down the laptop, and print out a list of duties (tee hee, I said doodies!) for Jeff. Jeff showed up around 0800 h and we went over the stuff. He rode with me to the credit onion, the one on campus not mine, and I withdrew the money to pay him. I dropped him off and headed to the Nissan dealer. I got there right around 0900 h and cruised through the side lot looking for a Versa for mom. They had one in a color I thought she'd like and went in to ask about it. It was not loaded enough and had the regular automatic transmission. The real reason I want to show one to her is so I can see how the CVT drives. I'll never own one but I'd still like to know. John arrives and sets the dealer to work on his car. He needed his oil changed, some tint replaced, and some tires mounted. We took off to the shop. We discussed stopping off for Fifi just in case we got stuck while Darth Versa was in the air and needed to go to the store for something. We decided against it. We also discussed grabbing the wheels and taking them to Kevin’s to do the installation but decided to make that a shop call. At the shop we looked around and I decided to call Kevin. He didn’t answer so we got to work. We rolled Marty out into the cold rain and pulled the nose of Darth Versa into the bay. I jacked up the nose and set it on stands while John painted the spare grille. I pulled the stock grille out and removed the air inlet duct with the noise cancelling muffler thingy. John set the grille aside and got to work on the suspension by removing the wheels. He had me put a wheel on and see if it would spin. I did but it didn’t. The valve stem hit the caliper. We tried it with a spacer and it worked. We removed the wheel and John got back to work removing the suspension. I replaced the air filter and cover with the K&N filter and Swiss-cheesed cover from Matilda. John got one side’s suspension off while I looked for the spring compressor thingies. They have vanished. We called Marty Smith to see if a) he was home and 2) he had one available. He was in Ithaca New York on, get this, vacation! Vacation in Ithaca New York? Ok, so it is his home town, but still. Sorry, I don’t mean to diss Ithaca New York, but still. Anyhoo, we decided to try and do the springs the dangerous way. I held the spring while John hit the nut with the impact wrench. Dat-dat-dat-dat whiiiiiiirr SPROING! It came apart and shot the strut across the shop, just like we expected. I cut the bump stops and we reassembled with the new spring. John leaned on the top hat to compress it and I started the nut. He hit it with the impact and began the install. We got the strut back in and tightened up and the wheel on. John moved to the other side and got to work on it. I'm not sure what all I did during this time. He got it out and we did the disassembly dance again. Dat-dat-dat-dat whiiiiiiirr SPROING! For some reason this strut wouldn’t say up and we fought for a while trying to get the new spring compressed and the nut started. I don’t remember what we finally did but we did get it on. John reassembled the suspension and put on the wheel, with a spacer. “Hey,” he said, “I've got tons of room on this side between the caliper and valve stem. What gives?” He tried it without the spacer and it cleared. I had a look and noticed that the valve stem on the interference side was bent out a little. We tried another wheel and it fit fine. The bent stem went on the rear where there are no caliper issues. We jacked the car off the stands and had a look. The spacers would have been a big mistake. The wheels fill out the wheel wells and actually poke out just a tad. They aren’t what we used to call “Jig” but the tires are visible from the front or top. I can live with it. I pulled the car out to turn around and heard a horrible metallic clinking sound when attempting to steer. It sounded just like the little spring steel tab that rides against the back of the steering wheel to make the horn button work had caught in the locking tabs and gotten bent the wrong way. I worried me. I drove around the building to settle the suspension, listen for scraping or clunking, and to see if the ne noise was going to lock up the steering wheel. I backed in to the bay so we could do the rear and told John about the noise. I assured him it was in the wheel and not the suspension and that I'd have the dealer look at it when we picked up his car. I jacked up the rear and he got cracking on the wheel removal. I pulled the “Versa” and the “SL” off the hatch but left the Nissan “hamburger” in place. John got the shock loose and asked me to pry down on the suspension arm to release the spring. He got it out and I handed him the new one. I pried down again and he plopped the spring in place. He reinstalled the shock and moved to the other side. Shock off, pry down, spring out, pry down, spring in, and shock on. Easy peasy. We installed the wheels and jacked the car back onto the ground. It looks so much better! The grille still wasn’t dry enough to install so we put it in the back seat and cranked up the heater. We cleaned up and headed back to the dealer. The noise worried me the whole time. We pulled into the service bay and found a service writer. When I ‘splained the noise to him he snapped his fingers and took off into the back. I looked at John and shrugged. He came back with another dude and they listened to the noise. Dude 2 stuck his head under the dash and rooted around for a bit. He yanked out a little spring steel retaining clip from the dash and asked me to try the steering wheel again. No noise! He ‘splained that there is a little assembly clip that pops loose occasionally and gets caught in the steering shaft. John asked if he could expect it to happen to his car. I don’t remember if the answer was “maybe” or “if it hasn’t happened in the year you’ve been driving it…” We headed to Don Pablo’s for lunch. We ate and then installed the grille in the parking lot. The black grille with chrome Nissan “hamburger” looks so damned sexy I can hardly stand it. John took off to do his own rat-killing and I forewent going to the courthouse to see about that replacement title. Instead, I went back to the railroad to pick up my dingleberry and keys from Jeff. I stopped off and showed the car to Kevin and to ‘splain why we didn’t use his shop. Remember, he didn’t answer the phone when I called? He liked the lowering and wheels and grille. So do I. I got my stuff from Jeff and went home. I found two more boxes on the porch when I got there. They were the strut tower brace and the Stillen zorst! It was too late, and too butt-assed butt-butt cold, to install them Friday night so I put them off until Saturday morning before we headed to Houston. I'll tell y'all about Saturday’s events tomorrow. Have a day.