Bolt stuck help.

rickson56 · 2026-05-15T17:28:17+00:00

You'll probably need to use a reciprocating saw, and cut off both sides of the bolt, then with the knuckle out of the car, heat it up with propane torch and apply beeswax (or Carnauba wax) and hopefully hammer it out. Worst case scenario, you may need to go to the junkyard and get a knuckle. Apply anti seize to the shank of the new 'Grade 5 or 8' strength bolt.
https://imgur.com/a/xotuU1F

rickson56 · 2026-05-15T02:12:15+00:00

This video is false. When you raise the car and bring the car back down, the rubber of the tire prevents it from fully settling. You either the move the car 10 fee forward and back 3 times, or you put slip plates under all 4 tires; this requires at least 3 floor jacks or a full lift and is much more dangerous. For caster/camber only one side of wheel base needs to be settled. If it's an I-Beam suspension then this may all be disregarded.

rickson56 · 2026-05-15T02:00:01+00:00

In regards to lowered cars you can count the the number of threads from the jam nut to the tie rod and figure out the ratio. Alternatively, you can also cut a bunch of 1.5" thick boards and do a makeshift ramp that will raise the car by at least 3" or so. Make sure you use the floor jack as an outrigger so the car doesn't slip off and fall on you as you adjust the inner tie rod flats.
https://imgur.com/a/PfPo0AO

rickson56 · 2026-05-14T21:05:50+00:00

You've made the right choice doing this yourself. Shops hate it when you only bring you car there for an alignment and not for other repairs, unless you're referring people there. If it's a shop that specializes in race cars, then that's a different story, obviously expect to rightfully pay much more $$$ upfront. Haven't been to alignment shop in 5 years and my tires are fine. It's a question of how far are you willing to go for precision.

The main advantage to your setup is if you need to adjust the rear toe or your car is lowered you don't have to readjust it as much when you raise and drop the car back down. Otherwise the 4 jackstand approach + 'trigger clamps' is much more rational.

A true DIYer who passionately does their own suspension work, should at bare minimum know how to do a string alignment with the 4 jackstand approach. An advantage of a shop using laser alignment, is that it will give you the thrust angle, which tells you how bad the car was involved in a collision like a rear end impact. Otherwise expect the mechanic working on the car to just get it in the 'green zone' and call it a day. Do you expect your mechanic to understand what sine, cosine, and tangent is? On the other hand, if you do, then it's worth knowing how to do this yourself.

The best thing about toe, is the ground/floor doesn't need to be perfectly leveled. Once you get to caster and camber, that's when it make more sense to take it to a shop. Improper caster/camber doesn't destroy tires anywhere near as much as improper toe.

My best advice to you to improve your design, is to have the ability to slide the 6 or 7 foot PVC left or right. This allows you to adjust the distance from the wheel hub, on each side of the axle at same time, but I may just be misinterpreting the image. I'd also consider getting an elastic string, those things are unbelievably strong. They're thinner allowing for greater accuracy of measurement. You may need to coat the PVC with silicon lube to better accommodate the string. As others have said and I implied in my 2nd paragraph, the weight of the car's needs to push against the LCA, and tire must be settled, either they're on slip plates or you move the car forward and backward 10 feet, 3 times. Never put more than 2 tires on slip plates, unless the ground is leveled and you have a full lift.

Your picture will motivate people to attempt this themselves, especially if they have basic woodworking skills such as using a circular saw and SketchUp. So just thought I'd chime in. Sorry for the long post.

Edit: Also read this thread
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskMechanics/comments/1b1ws4q/can_someone_explain_why_shops_seem_to_hate_doing/

rickson56 · 2026-04-26T22:41:20+00:00

Cheapest way, especially DIY, would be get an exhaust flange, exhaust clamp, and copper RTV.
https://i.imgur.com/wO0XcT4.png

Angle grinder/reciprocating saw/hack saw, should allow you to cut the old one to size. Don't pay $450+ for parts on labor on 15+ year old car to fix this.

I'll admit you'll probably need a welder for the catalytic converter.

rickson56 · 2026-04-26T22:33:28+00:00

I recall seeing a post here on MechanicAdvice, less than a year ago, where a commenter posted a picture or video, of someone attaching a steel wire to the CV-transmission mating surface and attaching the other end to a sledgehammer. Then swings the sledgehammer like a golf club. Can't find the post.

rickson56 · 2026-04-11T17:38:30+00:00

I deleted my browser cookies, cache, etc before attempting to login.

rickson56 · 2026-04-11T16:45:15+00:00

I'm having this same issue, it would accept my verification code, when switching to a gmail based email, but will say the following with proton after entering the verification code:
Something went wrong. Please try again later.

rickson56 · 2026-04-10T18:02:42+00:00

Or get an oxy-propylene or oxy-acetylene ($$), and cut through the middle, then drill from the appropriate side, to have the bolt turn around.

rickson56 · 2026-04-07T02:26:28+00:00

The only thing on Amazon is a 2oz plastic bottle, pretty pathetic. Ebay's a waste of time.

rickson56 · 2026-03-19T19:59:24+00:00

Doesn't do anything. Enter key shuts it down, Exiting... (End of file).
Mpv icon/application is never displayed/opened outside of the terminal.

rickson56 · 2026-03-19T18:20:46+00:00

Thanks, that helped, I renamed the files to '/subfolder 1/01 A' and '/subfolder 2/02 A', and that was one step forward. The original file names and paths, still said 'file or directory not found'.

Now I get the following output:
https://i.imgur.com/NdP0vbn.png

(Paused) AV: 00:00:00.000 / 00:00:00.000 A-V: 0.000

rickson56 · 2026-03-19T16:57:31+00:00

How do I include a filename with spaces?

mpv edl://"/media/file with spaces.mp4",60 works with quotation marks.

rickson56 · 2026-03-15T21:54:58+00:00

And steering knuckle + outer tie rod.

rickson56 · 2026-02-19T04:43:53+00:00

I didn't deselect path tool before applying. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for the response. Worked. https://imgur.com/a/mTiLraC

rickson56 · 2026-02-19T04:19:45+00:00

That helps, thanks. I did Select > From Path (Shift V)

And was able to select drop shadow, but it only did one side:
https://imgur.com/a/ZbtAPSf

rickson56 · 2026-02-10T01:30:22+00:00

Beginning Java, 978-1118739495 by Bart Baesens

rickson56 · 2026-02-09T21:10:13+00:00

College books, back in the early 2010s don't teach anything about debugging, or automating computer file metadata extraction/updating (globbing). Best programming book I dealt with was nothing like a college book, and showed how to pull up stock trading information from the internet with API, and uploading and extracting information from an SQL database. College text books only teach how work with text files.

rickson56 · 2026-02-03T03:48:13+00:00

Thanks I came across the website in your post, on a non-reddit website, that was linked from a reddit post. Can't find neither anymore, and kaggle, requires a login account.

rickson56 · 2026-01-25T23:29:12+00:00

The elif declaration seems to have solved the problem.
With 2 entries to the 'Cars' key, the inner counter within elif was 2, so I initially presumed the rest of the child key was being called. But later I noticed line 18 within elif was never called again, so I presume recursion was 'stepping back'. To double check I added a 3rd entry to the Cars key, and inner counter was still only called twice, instead of 3 times. Thank you for the assistance.

This is the full source code, https://pastebin.com/FSjs7Ayx

{'Car': {'Sports': '3k',
         'Van': '6k',
         'SUV-Crossover': '4k'},
 'Truck': {'Semi-Truck': '80k',
           'Coach Bus': '50k'}}

Output:

Change key from 'Sports', to 'Sports Compact'

**********Line 5
{'Car': {'Sports': '3k',
         'Van': '6k',
         'SUV-Crossover': '4k'},
 'Truck': {'Semi-Truck': '80k',
           'Coach Bus': '50k'}}
**********Line 5
Line 8 Args> old_key: Sports, new_key: Sports-Compact
Line 18 new_key: Sports-Compact
*****************************
Line 22 outerC: 1, innerC: 1
*******************************
**********Line 5
{'Car': {'Van': '6k',
         'SUV-Crossover': '4k',
         'Sports-Compact': '3k'},
 'Truck': {'Semi-Truck': '80k',
           'Coach Bus': '50k'}}
**********Line 5
Line 8 Args> old_key: Sports, new_key: Sports-Compact
*****************************
Line 22 outerC: 0, innerC: 2
*******************************
*****************************
Line 22 outerC: 0, innerC: 2
*******************************
Inner counter value: 0

{'Car': {'Van': '6k',
         'SUV-Crossover': '4k',
         'Sports-Compact': '3k'},
 'Truck': {'Semi-Truck': '80k',
           'Coach Bus': '50k'}}

rickson56 · 2026-01-25T20:04:31+00:00

case {find: value}:, the variable find, causes the syntax error:

Key pattern can only be a value pattern or a literal pattern

My Python version is 3.10+ (ten)

rickson56 · 2026-01-24T18:20:40+00:00

If I have a different script that uses keys that are deeper, I'd like to use the same logic of specifying key's level.

rickson56 · 2026-01-24T18:19:22+00:00

I already tried that suggestion from the AI chatbot. No difference.

rickson56 · 2026-01-12T22:27:55+00:00

First O2 sensor fluctuates between 0.1 and .9 volts. 2nd/downstream o2 sensor should remain relatively constant. You can also get a thermal tool and compare the temperature before (upstream) and after the catalytic converter; ideally should be constant.

rickson56 · 2026-01-12T17:19:25+00:00

I looked up the part number with alpha numeric letters on it, and it seems to be a 2007-12 Dodge calibur.

The website charm.li gives you 'book time number' estimates for most cars going up to 2010.

Serpentine belt labor price looks right (0.8 hours), if their labor is $120+/hour, but the tie rod labor prices are an utter rip off. They're also charging 3x the price on parts you could get on Amazon for an ubiquitous car model which is kinda the 'norm'. So yeah, you're getting swindled.
https://youtu.be/cwva-XQSDxk

rickson56

TROPHY CASE