Progress! Almost ready... (and done)

I've put a sort of deadline countdown on myself, since I have a buddy's wedding coming up (edit: it's here) and it involves some traveling a few hours away. Why not take the wagon? So, I need it in road-worthy condition, especially since I'm carpooling some other chums to the party.

It's always been my goal to bring every maintenance item and wearable part back to square-1 condition. I don't know what has been done and what hasn't in the past 28 years, so this is just peace of mind and, I think, pride of ownership factors that make me toss possibly good old parts in favor of new ones. I've worked on the brakes, suspension, alignment, cleaning up the interior, fluid changes, greasing and regreasing parts, and especially all the under the hood parts I've replaced with new components. Luckily, or coincidentally, 95% of the parts that I've worked on have been used, beaten, and definitely worth replacing.

Lately, I repacked, and actually replaced the wheel bearings and races on the front hubs. These bearings are actually part of and attached to the wheel studs and the brake disc rotor. Since these rotors are pretty chewy, I might have saved myself some grief by simply buying new rotors. But instead, I decided to replace the bearings and races.

The outer races were the really tricky bit to bang out of the hubs. I tried all varieties of pullers and grapplers, but what eventually worked was an impact socket on an impact extension through the hub and a long screwdriver. The driver was braced on the ground and a woodblock for leverage against the edge of the bearing race underside the rotor, then the socket went through the hub from the top and rested on the screwdriver shaft. Some vigorous pounding from a BFH and a couple rotations of the rotor finally unseated the races. I mean, really vigorous pounding. As in, hit it with a hammer like you hate it and everyone it knows.

Then I had to hand-pack the bearings themselves. It was straightforward, but it was definitely messy. I think the only messier thing I've done is the transmission fluid change, and that was only because my drip pan wasn't big enough... Once the bearings and my hands were thoroughly coated with high temp grease, I installed the new races with a borrowed race driver tool from papa O'Reilly.

With the wheels mounted back on and the bearing seated, I was basically ready to go. However, there were a couple things I still wanted to take care of: the transmission fluid level was still bugging me because I couldn't seem to get a consistent reading. Eventually I asked for a clue on stationwagonforums.com, where I received some great advice from another poster.

It came down to running the engine without the overdrive active in town for a few minutes to warm up. Without overdrive, it won't reach higher speeds or get on the highway, so I kept it in town and did all this late at night. I pulled over and checked the fluid level. Still low, of course. Then, I just kept adding a bit at a time, probably a pint or so. I kept doing this until the fluid level came up to the bottom of the cold mark on the dipstick. "Fluid level is predicated on, and directly proportional to, temperature." Knowing that the fluid level will rise after being driven more, I went out on the highway with the shifter back in OD. After a few minutes, I pulled off and checked the level. Success! It reached the middle of the hot marks.

Satisfied with the transmission, the last thing I needed to tackle was getting the front end aligned. Since the ball joints and tie rod ends had undoubtedly ruined the previously ruined alignment, I wanted to get it close again with the new parts on. It's not critical because the tires are basically at the end of their life, anyway.

For the alignment, I went to Midas in town. They let me know that the bearings I put in weren't tightened enough (whoops), and then they did the alignment, no problem. Car drives like a charm.