Damn cheap tools!
This morning Luisa helped me put the new wheels on my car. She helped by taking a long morning nap. She went down about 8:00, so I got dressed, went to the garage, and filled up the tires with air. They were pretty low on pressure. (I’ve got to say I love my air compressor. Thanks Dad. )I also figured out which wheels needed to go on which side (since the tires on them are directional) and decided which should go on front and back (two tires had somewhat more wear than the other two).
After filling the tires, I pulled the 900 into the garage to begin the tire change process. I used my torque wrench with 19mm socket and 3 inch extension to loosen the lug nuts on the driver side of the car. Then I got my Papa’s ancient hydraulic jack out but sadly the car sits too low to the ground for that jack to fit underneath. So I had to dig the emergency jack out of the trunk; I raised the front of the car first and changed the wheel. Then I was able to put the hydraulic jack under the back of the car (since it was already higher off the ground due to the front being jacked) and changed the back wheel. Tightened with the torque wrench to 90 ft-lb, and let the car down.
Next I took my setup to the other side of the car. I loosened the first lug bolt on the rear tire without problem. When I went to the next nut, it was really tight. Suddenly I felt it give… but wait. That wasn’t the bolt turning. It was the extension I had on my socket, shearing off inside of the socket due to the stress. Hmm. Thank you, Discount Tire Company in Lynwood for tightening the bolt so tight. No problem, I’ve got another socket set I can dig the extension out of. So I do, and I try to loosen the bolt again. And… damn. This one began to shear as well. So I stopped.
Now I’ve never really known how good or poor my socket sets were. The metric kit I keep in the car I inherited from my Papa when I was the first one to lay claim to some of his tools after he passed. It was made by a company in Lincolnwood, Illinois, probably back in the 1960s. I know where it came from because the Lifetime Limited Warranty card was still in the case. He never filled it out. I’ll bet I can’t claim it now, but if I could I’d go after them for replacement of the 12 mm socked that broke last week too. I don’t think my Papa used that metric socket set too much, it looked brand new.
My other socket set, which was actually my first, was a birthday present from my parents. My brother got one just like it. Came in a blue metal case, with metric sizes up to 17 mm and imperial sizes. As I’ve had it a long time, some pieces (like the screwdriver handle) are broken, and the sockets are always out of order. We got those for that birthday so we would be able to work on our bikes, and on our ’79 Toyota truck. The set always worked just fine for that purpose. But having broken two parts in the last week, I’m learning that it was perhaps not the highest quality.
I ended up digging the Saab lug wrench tool out of the trunk to loosen the rest of the bolts on that side of the car. I literally had to jump up and down on the end of that tool to loosen the bolts. Not cool, Discount Tire Company. But they loosened, and the rest of the wheel swap was uneventful. I used the torque wrench with a 6 inch extension to tighten the bolts.
So here’s the car with the 2nd set of wheels on it. It looks like I need to lower the car a bit now, there’s a lot of air between the tires and the wheel arches.
Below is a photo of James’ 900 with the same wheels on (he’s the guy who sold me the wheels).
I had to find space for the sunburst rims with Azenis mounted to keep in the garage. I did find one, in front of the Volvo. The garage is a huge mess. I need to get out there and organize. Now that there is our new crawlspace to keep stuff in, I’d like to move some of the things from the garage to that space.
I don’t know when the next autocross practice is, but I can tell by looking at the tread on the Azenis tires that I don’t want to do a lot of driving in the rain with them. So until the autocross season really gets going, I’ll probably keep the 2nd set of wheels/tires on the car for daily use. When the season is going, I’ll probably just keep the Azenis on the car all summer.
