Cars

[SciFiFisher]

Do you have cinder blocks? Nothing says "shade tree mechanic" quite like putting your car up on cinder blocks so you can work on it.

[Thumper]

Cinder blocks, railroad ties, or you just take the wheels off and cram them under the frame...

I still vote for jack stands.

[geonuc]

I happened to be at the auto parts store today to get new wipers so I picked up a new stud and lugnut, thinking I'd give it a shot. Unfortunately, I no longer have jackstands for my cars after living in Atlanta without a garage and with a great nearby mechanic. So after I jacked up the Pathfinder and removed the wheel, the brake drum didn't want to come off easily and I hesitated to do much to encourage it with only the one hydraulic jack under the car, and that one sitting on top of a 4x4 wood scrap. So I gave up. I'll let a mechanic do it when I need new brakes.

Speaking of wipers, those things are getting expensive! Almost $50 for a pair. Granted, they are top of the line wipers, but still. Also, I continue to be annoyed at the demise of replacement blade inserts. Throwing away the entire wiper assemble seems wrong.

I agree that it seems wasteful to throw away the entire wiper arm every time you need a new blade. A NAPA guy explained it to me that you need the new arm because the old one wears out and part of your wiper problem is the worn arm doesn't keep the blade flat and hard against the windshield. I'm not buying it. (Well actually I do have to buy new arms, I just think it's a crock.)
Another expensive item is replacement headlight bulbs. I burned out a bulb in the Outback, so I bought a pair: $55 bucks, that's just the bulbs. I had to replace the entire headlight assembly in the GMC recently. Something like $30 bucks for the lens assembly, frame mount, adjusters and 2 included bulbs. What gives?

Probably prudent that you didn't mess with the wheel assembly without proper jack stands. Waiting for a brake job is probably fine. Maybe you'll make friends with a neighbor back yard mechanic with a nice garage shop and a killer tool set!

Yeah, don't get me started on headlight assemblies!

I still have all my tools from my days working on cars. Just no jack stands.

[geonuc]

Do you have cinder blocks? Nothing says "shade tree mechanic" quite like putting your car up on cinder blocks so you can work on it.

Lol. I'm sure I could rig up something to hold the vehicle securely. It just isn't worth the trouble.

[geonuc]

So I couldn't let this go and went out and bought a couple of jack stands. And I still couldn't get the damn drum off! Hit it with a big hammer, heated it with a propane torch and tried putting bolts through the two holes that are there specifically to loosen the drum. That last bit should work but as the bolts tightened, I became worried that I would snap one of them off.

Sigh. Well, at least I now have jack stands.

[Thumper]

Is there an access hole on the back plate where you can access the adjuster and back the shoes off? Many drum assemblies have them and if the shoes have been on a long time and worn a groove or lip into the drum. You can't pull it off until you back the adjusters way down.

Shows the adjuster with the drum off.
https://youtu.be/vPiJHIMWvIA

Explains it nicely
https://youtu.be/eV-HDkGaTKM

[geonuc]

Yes, I know about that but I didn't want to mess with the brakes if I didn't have to. This vehicle is scheduled for a road trip real soon.

[Thumper]

I get it. That drum ain't gonna come off until the adjusters are loosened, backing the shoes off. Have the lug stud replaced when you do a brake job.
Make sure the other nuts are torqued. And remember, no aggressive driving.

[SciFiFisher]

It's been a few years but I have never been able to get the drum off without "loosening" the brake shoes/pads. They usually weren't too terrible to re-adjust/tighten after I put the drum back on.

[geonuc]

I get it. That drum ain't gonna come off until the adjusters are loosened, backing the shoes off. Have the lug stud replaced when you do a brake job.
Make sure the other nuts are torqued. And remember, no aggressive driving.

Maybe so but I'm not convinced it's the brake shoes holding it on. The drum is frozen to the axle and the axle has a bit of wiggle through the rear differential (the hand brake was off).

[SciFiFisher]

I get it. That drum ain't gonna come off until the adjusters are loosened, backing the shoes off. Have the lug stud replaced when you do a brake job.
Make sure the other nuts are torqued. And remember, no aggressive driving.

Maybe so but I'm not convinced it's the brake shoes holding it on. The drum is frozen to the axle and the axle has a bit of wiggle through the rear differential (the hand brake was off).

We need a 4th opinion.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I get it. That drum ain't gonna come off until the adjusters are loosened, backing the shoes off. Have the lug stud replaced when you do a brake job.
Make sure the other nuts are torqued. And remember, no aggressive driving.

Maybe so but I'm not convinced it's the brake shoes holding it on. The drum is frozen to the axle and the axle has a bit of wiggle through the rear differential (the hand brake was off).

We need a 4th opinion.

Wanna 4th opinion? upgrade your firmware. And make sure all your OS is at the latest patch level

[geonuc]

I get it. That drum ain't gonna come off until the adjusters are loosened, backing the shoes off. Have the lug stud replaced when you do a brake job.
Make sure the other nuts are torqued. And remember, no aggressive driving.

Maybe so but I'm not convinced it's the brake shoes holding it on. The drum is frozen to the axle and the axle has a bit of wiggle through the rear differential (the hand brake was off).

We need a 4th opinion.

Wanna 4th opinion? upgrade your firmware. And make sure all your OS is at the latest patch level

Yer not helping.

[Thumper]

Any updates to this story? It was enthralling.

[geonuc]

Any updates to this story? It was enthralling.

Enthralling, eh? Lol

I gave up on replacing the stud and decided to let a mechanic do it the next time it was in the shop. Which will be next week to investigate and correct the side-to-side 'wallowing' tendency the thing has developed. For that, I replaced the rear shocks which seemed to help a hopping problem on washboard roads but not the wallowing. The front has mcpherson struts, which I'm not prepared to replace myself. And the rest of the suspension (bushings, etc) is also not something I'm going to take apart. So, I have an appointment with a local mechanic.

I did buy an electric jack. In all the years we've owned the Pathfinder, we've never had to change a tire on the road so I had forgotten where the jack points were.* While under the vehicle for the other issues, I made a point of locating them and seeing how the OEM bottle jack fit the points. Seems that Nissan provided nice flat, disc-shaped jack points in the front, making it relatively easy to achieve a stable lift. But on the rear, you're supposed to place the jack at a point on the rear axle that frankly, is a little hard to precisely identify. And it's far enough under the vehicle that operating the jack handle (up/down movement) was difficult. I figured that if I had to jack this beast up while on an uneven dirt surface, that could be aggravating and possibly unsafe. Not sure why Nissan didn't weld on a couple of jack points on the rear, too. So, rather than use the bottle jack, I can now use the electric jack and stand a better chance of achieving a stable lift.

* I attribute our luck in this regard to Murphy's law. A number of years ago, I spent $400 to buy a second full-size spare wheel that rides on the roof rack, thinking that given we drive on some very tire-unfriendly roads, the chance of having two blowouts was high. So, of course, we've not had even one blowout.

[Thumper]

Redundancy is good, if it doesn't crowd or complicate things too much. I never had good luck with the jack points on Mrs. T's old Rogue. Every time I'd jack it up I'd guess where the best points were. I mean I had two good points to place the jack, I just didn't like the 4 points where I would place the stands. The manual was of little help as there was none. I agree that sometimes paying the shop is worth avoiding the inconvenience of doing it yourself. Ohio's pothole and uneven joint filled winter has beat my Outback up pretty bad. It's developed some knocks and rattles. Most likely bad sway bar links. I'm pretty sure I won't feel like changing those out myself. I'll either break bolts off, or won't be able to get them out at all, or break an adjacent part and have to stop and order more parts.

Still thinking about replacing the beast?

[geonuc]

Still thinking about replacing the beast?

That was the short-term plan. It's becoming the long-term plan.

[Thumper]

I have lists that the items constantly move from short term to long term...

[geonuc]

Continuing saga of the Pathfinder, a twenty-two year old vehicle I've had since new.

The wallowing has been corrected. The mechanic found several of the front suspension joints severely crapped out (he saved them to show me). After replacement, the vehicle handles like new.

So we took the beast to Death Valley last week. I remounted the roof rack, the side awning thingy, tossed the second spare on top and built a new rack to hold the three 2 1/2 gallon gas cans. I also put together a tool bag with all the tools I might need if I have to do emergency road repairs. Along with the new electric jack, we're set.

Three things went wrong. First, I had mentioned that we'd never had a flat. Well, after driving on a very long, super tricky, tire-killing road to get to a remote valley we'd never been to, one of the rears blew out. Can't say for sure, but I think one of those tire-killing rocks damaged the sidewall just enough that we managed to drive out of the canyon onto the main dirt side road running through Death Valley before it blew. Which was fortunate because it happened on a nice level, albeit dirt, road, The bad news is that because that road is washboard, my wife didn't recognize that the tire had blown immediately and we ended up completely shredding the thing. It probably couldn't have been patched anyway. Sidewall damage is fatal. The other bad news is that the wheel itself appears to be dented on the rim. I'm not sure if that's fatal - I'll have to take it to the tire shop to see what they say. Spare Pathfinder steel wheels aren't cheap or readily available. Anyway, the tire change went smoothly. Helps to have two people.

Second thing. The next day, while we were driving down the road out the westside into the Panamint Valley, which is a huge drop in elevation, we noticed that the vehicle had developed a severe shimmy when braking. Felt it in the brake pedal and the steering wheel. There was no evidence of this the day before. When we reached level ground, I got out and inspected the brake discs as best I could and did a shake test on each wheel. I thought maybe a wheel bearing was going out, which would be bad. The other possibility is that one of the brake discs had decided to warp a bit even though we hadn't done any significantly hard braking (I like to use engine braking a lot on steep descents). Still, something was wrong and if it was a wheel bearing, we really didn't need that to completely fail while on a back road. Thus endeth our Death Valley trip, cut short by three days. We drove to Bishop the next morning and got it into a shop. Turns out it was the front brakes although they checked the bearings while they had the wheels off. New pads and turned rotors and it's good as new. We did spend some time in the Bishop area, going to the Bristlecone National Forest and on a hike into the Sierras.

Third thing. While packing the vehicle at the motel for the ride home, the alarm went off. This was early in the morning and I'm sure the other guests appreciated that. After getting home, after unloading, the alarm goes off again. And it goes off again while I'm inside, nowhere near the vehicle. My brain finally engages and I realize that the pesky 'open door' light that had been coming on all this trip (and for a long time actually) is the trigger for the alarm system. One of the door switches is intermittent. I figured it was the rear gate and spent some time looking for it only to discover there is no switch on the rear gate. So it had to be one of the doors. So I had my wife sit in the car with the ignition on while I shook each door so she could tell me when the light flickered on and off. It's then I noticed the right front door wasn't closing snugly when latched. The door latch needs adjustment and it was allowing the door to bounce a bit on the open door switch. I also noticed I could make the light flicker if I pushed on one of the other doors but only with quite a bit more force. So I think I identified the culprit. I removed the RF door switch, disassembled it and removed the guts (preventing the switch from making up the circuit) and reinstalled it. I didn't want to just remove the switch altogether because that would leave a hole on the door frame where water could intrude, even though it's inside the weather stripping.

So, all is good. We're down to one spare tire so before we venture into Death Valley again, I'll have to see about getting the second one fixed or replaced first.

[SciFiFisher]

RE: the dent in the rim. Generally, as long as the tire can hold air a dent or ding in your rim is not the end of the game. It's cosmetically enhanced character.

[geonuc]

RE: the dent in the rim. Generally, as long as the tire can hold air a dent or ding in your rim is not the end of the game. It's cosmetically enhanced character.

Yeah, I know. But until I can get the tire off, it's impossible to know if the sealing surface is damaged.

[SciFiFisher]

RE: the dent in the rim. Generally, as long as the tire can hold air a dent or ding in your rim is not the end of the game. It's cosmetically enhanced character.

Yeah, I know. But until I can get the tire off, it's impossible to know if the sealing surface is damaged.

You'll know soon enough.