1BIGMOFO

I tried installing my lakewood traction bars and my lakewood upper control arms tonite... after 5 hours of crap work.. two of the worst things ever happned to me.... 1) lakewood shorted me 2 parts, the tops that hold the adjustment to the axle so that project went unfinished. called summit its going to take 3-4 days for the rest of the parts. next, i try to get the stock upper control arm bushing out (axle side) wont come out, so i use my air hammer and destroy it just to find out that my $350.00 energy suspension master kit requires you to reuse the metal sleeve on the outside of the bushing...... summit dont sell it and told me to call ford direct... anyone have any suggestions? also will my lowering springs work with the lakewood traction bars?

sandcracker21

that SUCKS

i feel ur pain tho, when me and my buddy were puttin in my springs last week we ran in
to an INSANE amount of turbulance

everything went wrong and it ended up takin like 12 -15 hours of work

Deannostang

That is why it is sometimes better to leave certain jobs up to the experienced shops. $230 and less than two hours later I had all new springs, struts, shocks and quads installed in my car. No hassle, never a problem.

kartracer55

Air hammers should be a last resort. You can serious hack things up with them if you do not use the right attatchment for the job as well.

This is for driving bushings

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....re&dir=catalog

Air tools are fun though

Jim

1BIGMOFO

thanks i might get one of those.. appreciate all your help!

kartracer55

Yup... Who makes your air hammer? You will need to make sure that the shank size for your hammer and the shank on the snap on driver is the same... usually .401? Like I said, air hammers can hack up work, sometimes hand tools are better than air., Hell, Ive got an IR thunder gun, fastest 1/2 gun in the world, and Its powerful enough to make you giggle but If im not careful it will just snap studs and bolts

Also, see if you can get one from somewhere besides snap on... If your not a pro wrench its hard to justify the cost for the stuff. Hell a 12pc set of 3/8 drive shallow sockets will run you about 120$ Top notch stuff, but top notch price too

1BIGMOFO

i am a tractor trailor mechanic for ge during the week so all my tools are ir and snap on.. but i have been leaning alot tword craftsman hand tools... cheper and warrantied...

kartracer55

I have a good bit of craftsman stuff. Some of its durable, others you want to stay away from. Case and point craftsmans standard ratchets. Not exactly Snap on, but they are much cheaper. Thier Pro line of wrenches are actually very nice. I like them more than my snap ons because the handles on my snap on wrenches has a tendancy to dig into my hand quite a bit.

Ever use proto tools? Id throw these up against snap on anyday, and they are slightly less expensive (although still sort of pricey) They are marketed as an "industrial" line of hand tools, so socket walls are a little thicker than most others, wrenches are a bit thicker. I think its excellent stuff. I have a few sockets, a few wrenches, a torque wrench and one of thier higher end ratchets. The torque wrench calibration certificate says accurate to 1% even though its sold as 3%, which is pretty damn impressive. Thier "big dawg" ratchet is fine tooth and is strong as hell, I have beaten the living you know what out of that thing, Nothin broke. I have broken a snap on in the past.

If your a Pro wrench looking to buy some tools or equipment, I HIGHLY recommend checking out www.garagejunkies.net Its all about shops, equipment and a HUGE amount of tool discussion, recomendations and reviews. I think you will find it benificial if you are lookign to make a purchase. There are engineers, mechanics, fabricators and backyard mechanics. Good stuff, use the same user name so I know who ya are!

Jim

thebossman

aw that bs man, sucks. Hopefully the rest of the parts come soon.

1BIGMOFO

kartracer thanks alot for the great tip.I am deffinitley going to try that out.... Bad News.. I dont thing the new bushings from advance auto are going to come with the metal sleeve I need..I will find out tomorrow!