Riggins with little brother Charlie and little sister Sadie.

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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Saturday & Sunday Notes.

Well yesterday ( Sat) went by so fast I didn’t get to sit and do a post. Donna came home feeling bad early about 09:00PM Friday night from the restaurant, she took a bunch of medicine and went right to bed, Saturday I got up and she asked for some more of her medicine Theraflu in hot water, and then asked me to call Jerry at the restaurant and tell him she wouldn’t be in Sat night.

All day she stayed in bed except for a light lunch and light supper, and continued on the medication. When she woke up Sun morning she said she was feeling a lot better hope it’s one of those 24 hour bugs, I felt the same earlier in the week so maybe I Infected her. I guess she can tell everyone now I make her sick truthfully.

Saturday the kids played and my son and I went out and tackled the front axle shaft change on my truck, lesson learned, (A) it requires the shock absorber to be disconnected at the bottom and pushed to the side out the way. (B) this should be done BEFORE the axle shaft is disconnected and pulled out of the spindle. If not the bolt to the shock won’t go all the way through and fall out.

Ask us how we learned that. But after about an hour extra of cussing and jacking, we got it right and instead of an hour job it was two.

But the truck is all back together, no left over parts, and no more grinding noise, As long as I had it apart I checked the front hub and bearing and it was tight and smooth. My buddy at the Auto Zone looked that part up just in case I needed it, and on my 93 Chev truck the hub and bearing assembly was about $125.00, on the  2004 since they located the anti lock brake sensor inside the hub, it is now $350.. per side. Yep $700 bucks just for the parts if you do it yourself. Which isn’t hard if you have the jacks, a compressor and air tools, neither of these jobs is going to get done without a pretty stout impact wrench.

Surprisingly the price of the axle shaft was really low. $60.00, But again if you can’t do it at home. You would be looking at about $200-250 for the axle shaft replacement, and about $1000 to have both hub and bearings replaced, makes no sense to replace one side at a time  because when one bearing goes out usually within a short time the other side will too.

The rest of the day was playing with the kid’s, Adam’s other Grandma picked him up to take him to a party. and with Donna being sick, I joined her in bed early.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Another week goes by and it is closer to summer. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna..

15 comments:

  1. I knows ya don't want to here this after yer front axle job, but it might a save you some on the rear axles. I doo think that grinding noise all comed about cause you tackled that front axle two hard.

    Axles needs to just be a siddled up too, nice and easy. Long as you don't go tacklin' that back axle it should be okay.

    I.M.helpin' out them that needs help but don't no it.

    Me and Nilda's blog

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  2. I wish I knew how to do some auto repairs, I'm gonna have to trust someone to work on my RV when I get it.

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  3. I think you and your son get the McGuyver II and McGuyver III awards for the week!!! Nice fixin' on the family truckster!!

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  4. Glad to hear that you and Donna are both feeling better, and that your truck is feeling better, too!

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  5. Us women always - it's great to have a handyman around the house (or rv)

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  6. I really respect folks that do these things for themselves. Sometimes you have to go buy tools, but you get to keep the tools for the rest of your jobs in the future, and it still usually comes out cheaper too. And now your smarter about your truck for the future as well. As far as taking more time to learn about how it should go, as a retired fellow, that's what you have the most of, is time!
    Rod

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  7. We could do with Andy here. John says the brake thing is fixable but .... he has no intention of turning himself into a skinny contortionist to do it. Apparently this is an awkward job. I'm suggesting he takes photo and measurements, (beacuse it involves replacing a specific section), and calls on one of his sons. John is a maintenance engineer... I thought it would be a piece of cake for him but he keeps insisting he's an engineer not a mechanic. I can't see the difference. *haha*

    Glad to hear you are safe again and bith on the mend. There's some nasty bugs around.

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  8. Hope Donna continues to get better. I suspect she is someone who always tries to go to work, so she must have been feeling really, really sick.

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  9. Glad you and Donna are both feeling better. My hubby is not so handy so we would have been saddled with some expen$ive repair bills there!

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  10. Would you both hurry and get well so you can come out and play?

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  11. Sure hope Donna is back to normal soon and feeling a whole lot better.

    I really envy you guys who can work on your own trucks. I'm clueless when it comes to mechanical things.

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  12. Sorry to hear Donna wasn't feeling well. Sure hope she is feeling better now.

    Glad everything went well with your axle change.

    Kevin and Ruth
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  13. I don't have any of those mechanical smarts or patience either but luckily we have Kelly here who is able to handle some of the minor stuff. I could open a can of beans if I had to though.

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  14. I suspect Al is more mechanical minded than I am. At least he can open a can of beans. I tried to open a can of mushrooms yesterday and the snap top lid snap broke off. Uh oh... :(

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  15. Have no idea what you were talking about, but I am glad you got your truck all fixed. Hope Donna is back up and going strong. Give her our best.

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