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Dang...here lately (since she's got here) I work harder on my days off than I do when I'm making a living! She heard I'd have a 3-day weekend, so she tore up here truck. Had to trailer her motorcycle to her Thursday night so she could get home after work & finally got it towed to the house today. Get to do the upper & lower ball joints & front wheel bearings on both sides of her pickup tomorrow & Monday. Fun.

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When approaching a 4-way stop, the vehicle with the biggest tires has the right of way!

Dang...here lately (since she's got here) I work harder on my days off than I do when I'm making a living! She heard I'd have a 3-day weekend, so she tore up here truck. Had to trailer her motorcycle to her Thursday night so she could get home after work & finally got it towed to the house today. Get to do the upper & lower ball joints & front wheel bearings on both sides of her pickup tomorrow & Monday. Fun.

When approaching a 4-way stop, the vehicle with the biggest tires has the right of way!

Dang...here lately (since she's got here) I work harder on my days off than I do when I'm making a living! She heard I'd have a 3-day weekend, so she tore up here truck. Had to trailer her motorcycle to her Thursday night so she could get home after work & finally got it towed to the house today. Get to do the upper & lower ball joints & front wheel bearings on both sides of her pickup tomorrow & Monday. Fun.

When approaching a 4-way stop, the vehicle with the biggest tires has the right of way!

Yeah, Damn cell phone triple-posted for me. Anyway, teardown went easy enough...Being in Texas for the past 250K+ miles means it is pretty much rust free. Lower ball joints on both sides are junk. Front right wheel bearing is noisy, and the left has a little end play...both will be replaced since the nut holding 'em on says "do not reuse" so inspection & repacking is pretty much a no-go since I'd have to buy parts anyway...may as well put new bearings in & be done with it. Calipers had to be pried off the rotors because whoever the knucklehead was who did the brakes for her in Texas (before she came up) JUST replaced the pads...didn't touch the rotors. They had quite a lip on 'em and if they can't be turned, they'll have to be replaced. Don't know why that wasn't done with the pads, since once the wheel is off and the caliper unbolted (all necessary to replace the pads) the rotor just slips off like a brake drum. First time I've seen that, as all of my other trucks (if I remember correctly) the studs are pressed into the rotor and it's all held in place by the axle nut. Anyway, the shop had said something about rivets holding something to the chassis being worn out, but everything is either welded or bolted in except for where the upper part of each ball joint attaches to the A-arm...but those all look to be intact. They'll have to be ground off to replace 'em, and I'm wondering if that is what the shop meant and it just got lost in translation when it made it's journey from the girl's ears, through her brain, and out of her mouth. Anyway, tomorrow we get to try to find a parts store that is open to get the L&R upper & lower ball joints, L&R front wheel bearings, and get the rotors turned (or replaced). Hopefully it won't be TOO terribly expensive. Shop wanted $800+ to do the job, and they didn't make any mention of the rotors...so final cost there PROBABLY would have been pushing $1K by the time they finished up. I'm HOPING to get it done for around 1/4 of that. Heck, I did the ball joints on both sides of my F250 for 1/2 what a shop wanted for just 1 side...and that was using OEM parts. I'd PREFER using Mopar parts on her Dodge, but since the dealer probably won't be open tomorrow, it'll probably be put back together with Auto Zone, O'Reillys, or Advanced parts. Doubt Napa or Federated will be open. I'd say "Damn holiday" but if it weren't for the holiday, it'd be next weekend before I'd get it put back together. Good thing she's got her motorcycle...and I've got a spare truck or two if it rains. Speaking of her motorcycle, it handles better than I would have expected. I've always ridden sportier bikes that accelerate & brake quickly and corner superbly well. She's got a HD 1200 Sportster with the forward controls. Freaked her out when I dragged the pegs in a curve on a particularly fun road last night...which caused her to squirm & shift her weight to the outside, which freaked me out because the bike started to wobble as she wiggled around and her weight shift meant I had to lean the bike MORE to hold my line & keep it on the road. Yeah, we had a little discussion about that, and how shifting her weight like she did was the wrong thing to do and I explained WHY...so HOPEFULLY we won't have an incident like that the next time I drag a peg. Put the brakes to the test, too, on a couple occasions when deer appeared in the headlights. For all of the bad things I've heard about Harleys from the sport bikers I usually ride with, they really aren't all that bad. Sure, they aren't as quick...and they start dragging parts at much lower lean angles...but they are just as much fun to ride. I should probably trade in my 1100 Kawasaki for a Fat Bob or Street Glide...less likely to earn me a big high-dollar driving award, but not as capable of hitting a twisty section of road fast enough to escape said driving award, either. Oh well...until I hit the jackpot & have $15-20K burning a hole in my pocket, I suppose I'll just keep what I've got...it's paid for.

When approaching a 4-way stop, the vehicle with the biggest tires has the right of way!

Ok...so I can't just change the wheel bearings...comes as a complete hub assembly. Easier that way, I guess as I don't have to mess with stubbornly stuck races or packing grease into the new bearings...but on what planet does it make sense that all of the auto parts stores in town carry the hub assembly in stock...but the spindle nuts (which are stamped "DO NOT REUSE" are not included with the hub assemblies and are not kept in stock? Special order only...they can have 'em by Thursday. Well, Thursday just won't work...truck is going back together today. You'd think they'd stock as many spindle nuts as they keep hub assemblies, but then that would just make too much sense.

When approaching a 4-way stop, the vehicle with the biggest tires has the right of way!

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