Sperry,
They have built 4 subaru motors for a friend of mine and they turned out great..good luck man sorry your car is down..

P.s when i say 4 motors it was 2 that where blown up twice by the person who owns the car fault not AIMS...FYI

Well, I got the shortblock built by AIMS, and they cleaned/lashed my heads, and everything looks fine to me. I'm not worried much about their work. Like I said earlier, I'm much more worried about the rest of the assembly that I'm doing myself, since I've never assembled a motor from the ground up like this.

Then again, I have been around these motors for like 7 years now, so I've done pretty much everything short of the work AIMS did, just not all at once. So unless I'm a total idiot, I should have gotten everything together right. At least I don't have a big pile of parts left over or anything. :lol:

a small pile?

There is a small pile... in it are all the parts I'm knowingly not putting back on, like the heater-core hoses, the old oil pan, etc. But there's no "um, where does that thing go" pile. :lol:

That is always good.

Screw you ball-joints!

Okay, how the hell do I bust the ball joint loose from the LCA? I pulled the pin, took off the castle nut, and pounded the living crap out of the LCA's to get the ball joint to come loose. Are those things pressed in there (the FSM doesn't seem to think so)? Do I need some special extractor tool?

WTH! I really wanted to have my whiteline roll-center kit installed today when I put my steering rack back in. But I'm stuck trying to get these damn balls to drop! *snicker*

Scott you are such a n00b. Use a pry bar.

This is not motor related, please make another thread. :)

Go buy a pickle fork at Harbor Freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38649

If you have an air chisel, they make a version that plugs into those as well.

Pickle forks work. What works better (no shit) is whacking the side of the control arm with a mallet while prying it a bit. I was skeptical too, until I did it. The impact pops the ball joint right out.

Of course I was doing it on steel Legacy LCA's, not aluminum ones.

I'm pretty sure that if I can bend a set of 8" ChannelLocks prying on the ball joint, a $3 paperclip isn't going to do shit.

Also, my 2' pry-bar can't get enough leverage on it. Plus hitting it with a mallet, hammer, or 2x4 didn't seem to work either.

And Aaron, I've got steel LCA's too. Those and my front endlinks are probably the only thing left on the suspension that's still from the original car.

No idea, then. I was doing a strike witha brass mallet at about a 45 degree angle up and it pops right out, which is tough at the height you've got the car.

Pickle fork is the right tool. It's wedge shape driven by a hammer will put more separating force on a ball joint than any prybar or channel locks IMHO. I have one you can borrow (I think).

You don't pry with a pickle fork! You wedge it apart by hammering the wedge shaped fork between the two sides.

I had exactly the same problem you do with the Stealth, bought the pickle forks and poof, had them off in minutes.

Use the right tool for the job. :P

Or go buy the $90 air hammer version if it makes you happier. :P :P

Another trick is if you have an extra castle nut screw the sacrificial nut onto the threads to protect them and beat the shit out of it with a hammer.

If even the pickle fork doesn't work, use one of these:

http://www.international-auto.com/in...?fa=p&pid=2720

On one of my cars, I tried banging on the side of the arm, tried a pickle fork, no luck. Used this thing, and popped the fucker off with no drama. I don't know if you'll have room for it on the Subaru though.

If you don't want to buy, I have one, but probably won't be able to get to it for a week or so...

The ball joint stem has a self-locking taper. When wedged into the matching tapered receiver it locks together like a hard press fit.

But... re. the "FSM"... perhaps you should don full pirate regalia and pray to the FSM to use His divine noodly appendages to pry apart your suspension. :lol:

http://clade.acnatsci.org/mussel/gra...ti_monster.gif

Huh? FSM = Factory Service Manual. At least on a car message board. :P

As far as those forks are concerned... I'm still lost as to where they'll wedge to pop that bitch out. Unless they're like 2" thick... there's not really a lip between the LCA and the lower ball half of the joint that you can wedge apart as far as I could see. That extractor Steve linked to looks more like what I'll need.

And Matt, I did beat the shit out of the ball joint... no thread protection needed. Those ball joints are toast, and I've got a set of brand new whiteline extended length ones that are going in. If I had a plasma torch, I would have just cut the damn joints off last night. They're going in the trash.

Go to the gym for three months then try again.

:lol: I'll miss the start of the season with that plan!

Blasphemy! You are such a spaghnostic.

:lol: "Spaghnostic" sounds like some sort of lung condition.

Speaking of lung conditions, how's that welding going on that MAF bung? You get an ETA yet on getting those pipes fabbed up?

The lung pipes are not yet machined, so I cannot have them lung conditioned (aka "welded") yet. I'm swinging by there today, so I'll check on 'em. I'm sure it will all be done by next week though.

Bigger pry bar. I usually end up doing pull-ups on my 3 1/2 foot bar to get those suckers out.

^See Scott. It only takes 76 pounds of down force.

I think you misunderstand the way a lever works. ;)

Speaking of MAF bungs (and thread tangents), I got the 08+ MAF *Flanges* in the other day. They sho' are purty.

Oooh... shiny machined parts.

Put a "1" in front of that, then multiply by the amount of leverage given with a 3.5' pry bar.

OH, and just 'cause you're fat doesn't mean I'm too skinny... :P

I misunderstand how a lever works? This is coming from the guy who can't bust the ball joint loose from the LCA.:rolleyes:

I just remembered my ball joint puller is not buried in storage like I thought. If you need it I'll be in Reno all weekend and can bring it with me.

Pastafarians unite!

OK, Scott I have two sizes of pickle forks if you still need to use it. Or just go borrow the tools from Autozone or equal.

This is the way we did it on the Mustangs to remove ball joints or tie rod ends, but we didn't even bother prying. Go get the biggest goddamned sledgehammer you can find, guzzle an energy drink & a protein bar, and hit the BJ receiver/steering arm on the spindle like you're trying to break it. The impacts knock the joint loose within a few hits.

I was just gonna say you could bring it over her so you could put it on the lift to get a better angle at it.

Then I realized why that wouldn't work :lol:

Actually, at this rate, it'll be faster to get a big battery for the winch on the trailer than it will be to get the car running.

I didn't get anything done this weekend on the car... I was too busy acid etching and epoxy sealing the new garage floor. :cool:

Isn't that a blast.

i love the smell of acid etching in the morning.

:lol:

I will *never* epoxy another garage floor.

Yesterday, after washing it (aka scrubbing 700sqft with a broom 3 times over), then etching it (aka scrubbing 700sqft with a broom 3 times over, again), then realizing that there's still a fuckton of acid still coming up when I hose the garage off (aka scrubbing 700sqft with a broom 3 times over, a third time)... and still seeing the acid again (aka scrubbing 700sqft with a broom 3 times over, for the fourth time), I finally gave up and figured, either the stuff will stick or it won't and I went to bed.

Today I painted that stuff and sprinkled my sprinkles (never mind the midday trip to 3 Home Depots to find the last garage floor epoxy kit in Reno after realizing part-way through I was going to run a gallon short). It took a long time, but wasn't nearly as tiring as the scrubbing was.

All I know is, I'm into this floor for like $500 in materials (epoxy kits are $99 each, I needed three of them, plus the concrete cleaner, the acid, the buckets, rollers, brushes, tape, and one SRIC hoodie that may need to be relegated to garage use only now). Compared to $3000 for the cost of having the pros do it with the high grade industrial stuff. I'm paying the extra $2500 next time. Especially since if the floor starts coming up when I park sticky race tires on it, they'll warranty it.

It sounds like you did a good job of it. It took that many scrubs to get the acid out? damn we did it once and had no acid. What kind of brook were you using? I used a real corse one designed for etching type stuff and it made it a lot easier. I gave my friend who helped me the regular shop broom and he constantly complained about it.

Not to go off topic or anything. :lol:

Ha! I spent the weekend doing the exact same thing in our new house. Didn't have that bad of a time with the acid either. Was it the citric acid that came with the kit? How could you tell the acid was still there? Mine seemed to rinse out with about two passes with hose and broom.

I just put down tiles, lol.
Evening of work, and done :D

Tiles cost twice as much as epoxy, and don't protect the floor from oil and water... it just leaks through the tiles.

I use the Rustoleum Professional garage floor epoxy kit (the acetone based stuff, not the water based one). It didn't come with any cleaner or acid, just the two part epoxy mixture.

I used Behr concrete cleaner/degreaser on my first washing, then Behr concrete etcher and rust remover on the second pass. The etcher is phosphoric acid. I wanted muriatic acid, but you can't even buy that stuff in NV anymore I guess. Stupid EPA.

I'm an asshole, I got tiles for free. Egan was tearing down a datacenter so I have a garage floor made of black non-skid antistatic 2x2 grids. Works well, cleans up well, and the seams are tight enough that there's not much of a liquid problem. I'll probably raise up a strip every few months and let it breathe just in case, though. I like 'em becuase I don't have to worry about tires pulling them up. Mops up nicely.

http://www.hooptywagon.com/img/garage/IMG_3513.JPG




I'm just glad to hear you have your garage going :D

Ahh! I used the water based stuff. Now waiting for it to harden.

OK I'll stop clogging your thread with OT stuff now.

The Ball Joint remover offer still stands if you need it.

How's your garage looking? Mine looks lumpy and kinda flaky. I'm worried that it's been too cold to properly cure... I hope it doesn't take like 15 days to harden! I need to move my shit in there!

As far as the ball joint extractor, I think I could use it. When are you free? Can I come by and pick it up sometime?

Scott, sent you a PM with contact info.

when you get the ball joint tool try putting the castle nut partialy on then jack it up a bit with a bottle jack before hitting the bjt with a bfh. if that does'nt work try some heat on the lca and repeat.

Well, after 4 hours of dry humping, I finally got that g-damn input shaft to slam home in the clutch. It's not exactly bolted in all the way yet, but there's a fucking motor in my car as of 1:45 am today.

Also, I think I broke my previous record of using the F-word while working on my car tonight. At least I have all my fingers still.

Hey Van, do you want that engine lift back any time soon? Or if you'd rather not deal with it, I'll buy it off you for whatever you paid for it. Not that I plan to use it again anytime soon, but I figure you loaned it to me for so long, you might not have a space for it in your garage any longer. If you want it back, let me know what you want for letting me borrow it for 9 months! (Dear god, this motor took as long as a baby!?)

You will probably break you record of using the F-word when you try to install an actual baby... But in a good way.:lol:

Troof.

a motir doesnt make u type 1 handed.