Sometimes I do other type of work, in my spare time, not related to the ship directly. Such as this weekend I replaced the front suspension on my wife's 1998 Sable wagon. Strut assembly, lower control arms, outer tie rods and ball joints. First time is always a learning experience and so this took me about 8 hours over two days. The HORNET comes into the picture when the ball joint press, I rented, didn't fit my application. There is an adapter, I did't know about, and the clerk also didn't know about. So down to the machine shop at 8am Sunday morning and I know Tom is there.
He takes a look and I describe what the press was but why it didn't work. So we need to make a receiver for the ball joint to slide into. Tom measures width and diameter, goes to our stock, and finds the correct pipe. Cut it and then put it on the lathe to square up the edges and Tom chamfers the edge. Next find a correct diameter socket and slip the whole thing into the bench vise. The first joint had me bracing my legs against the work bench legs and pulling for all it was worth to get it to move. This is a large vise with a 2 foot long arm to close it. The second ball joint come out smoothly. Putting them in was the work of a large clamp. None of this would have worked with the puny looking ball joint press. I knew with Tom there would be no issues. Growing up on a ranch, then the Seabees and last the Santa Cruz Fire Dept. I have yet to find any mechanical issues he can't solve.
He takes a look and I describe what the press was but why it didn't work. So we need to make a receiver for the ball joint to slide into. Tom measures width and diameter, goes to our stock, and finds the correct pipe. Cut it and then put it on the lathe to square up the edges and Tom chamfers the edge. Next find a correct diameter socket and slip the whole thing into the bench vise. The first joint had me bracing my legs against the work bench legs and pulling for all it was worth to get it to move. This is a large vise with a 2 foot long arm to close it. The second ball joint come out smoothly. Putting them in was the work of a large clamp. None of this would have worked with the puny looking ball joint press. I knew with Tom there would be no issues. Growing up on a ranch, then the Seabees and last the Santa Cruz Fire Dept. I have yet to find any mechanical issues he can't solve.
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