The Long Road Back

[chiefmg]

Only if we're trading up.

I think we both know the odds of that happening...

[—Bryan—]

Going to have to wait until after I get back from a Labor Day trip to Texas to get things buttoned back up.

Bought a new family hauler over the weekend:



Kind of a tight fit...

[— kung fu jesus —]

That Ody lapping Road Atlanta was the decider? ;)

[—Bryan—]

That Ody lapping Road Atlanta was the decider? ;)

Happy coincidence. As was the fact that a friend of mine bought one in the exact package I eventually did (only a week before I bought mine). We had been planning to replace my wife's Altima with something more capable than our Mazda5 (which I now have gotten back) for some time. My son's old enough that we might be taking friends places, and it'd be nice when we visit my family to not have to take two cars everywhere because the third row in the Mz5 is a total joke.

[— kung fu jesus —]

I expect a name for that car after the weekend family road trip. ;)

[—Bryan—]

I expect a name for that car after the weekend family road trip. ;)

We flew out at 6.45am this morning, which meant I had to get up at 4am...

Doubt this one will have a nickname any time soon other than the boat anchor I just signed away five years of my life for

[— kung fu jesus —]

The Albatross

[—Bryan—]

The Albatross

I'm hoping it won't come to that. I'm just in the buyer's remorse phase at the moment. In all fairness, this is the largest, heaviest, newest, and most expensive vehicle I've ever bought. Not to mention that I haven't had a car payment since 2011

[—Martin—]

We are on our second Odyssey and we've been very happy with them

[—Bryan—]

Well, I never did get things buttoned up

Might as well put it up on jack stands. Honestly kind of scared to fire it up again because of the sheared mount. Also never solved the heavy vibrations once the engine warmed up (that I blame on the mounts). I've managed to talk myself out of it for almost a month now...

I think I also need to replace the bushings in the steering rack, the upper A-Arms, and maybe even the RB bar's bushings. I suspect one of them may be the source of this stupid clunk. Also need to take the front and rear shocks off and put some tape on the shock bodies to keep the sleeves from rattling.

[HarryB]

Go on and do it. I postpone tasks all the time afraid they need a lot of effort or specialized knowledge, only to find out they were not as bad as I thought afterwards. If needed, ask a few people to assist, but please jump on it ;)

[—Bryan—]

Those of you that have aftermarket sway bars (Racing Beat, specifically): how often do you replace sway bar bushings?

One thing this job is teaching me: just buy the new stuff the first time, because you're probably going to sooner than you think!

[— kung fu jesus —]

I've never had to replace them. The MSM rear bar I bought used, I purchased new bushings (PU) from a vendor before I installed it. The used front FM sway bar had bushings that were still in excellent condition, so I re-used them.

The RB FSB I had on my NA I installed new, never replaced the bushings.

[—Bryan—]

I've never had to replace them. The MSM rear bar I bought used, I purchased new bushings (PU) from a vendor before I installed it. The used front FM sway bar had bushings that were still in excellent condition, so I re-used them.

The RB FSB I had on my NA I installed new, never replaced the bushings.

OK...I'm just trying to knock out likely failure points. Given that I had to replace the lower A-Arm bushings (I ended up replacing the arms instead with new arms with new bushings already installed) and hadn't replaced the uppers, they were my next port of call. I started thinking about other bushings up front, and remembered that the steering rack and FSB both have bushings of their own.

[—Bryan—]

Holy Cow...it's been a long time since I updated!

Long story short, the RB bar had basically bound in its bushings. I can't swing it by hand. I pulled the endlinks from both front and rear sways, and am going to sell the RB (keeping the blocks). I'm honestly a little worried that either the accident or the clunky bar didn't tweak the sway bar mount on the driver's side.

Funny thing: the car drives well enough without sways that for a split second, I considered just going without them.

Oh yeah? Did I say drive?

I DID.

​As of last week (and shout outs to Mike aka chiefmg), The Tick is back on the road! Still have some buttoning up to do, but it's running fine