[MDarius]

Hey! I'll sponsor moose ribs, dutch oven Elk roast, and beverages for a birf party in the next couple/few months at someone else's garage along the Wasatch front. Any interest?

[mot]

I'd be all over it if I were there, my wife's folks live right down the street, well sort of... in Brigham City.

Sounds like fun!

Mot

[Sighthound]

Unfortunately I can't provide the location. I'd be interested to come down, hand tools out, watch and learn.

[MDarius]

Yeah, kind of like I helped my buddy do his tile floor before installing mine?? ''Oooh! That looks like crud! Good thing it's in YOUR bathroom! I'll never see it! ''

[Sighthound]

Yeah I know the type. No, I am what you would call a if that. Trust me when I say you would rather have me watching and learning than trying to keep up with everyone else while doing my own.

[M-80]

I hope to be there in June. Unfortunately, I cannot supply a garage, and I have to do mine BEFORE I can drive the 1473 miles to Roy!!! And I will be just up the road from where Mot's in-laws live in Tremonton.

[Big Red 64]

My son and I both have 80's and would be interested. We're in Park City. He has a 3 car garage. Are you thinking of a commercial type garage where several guys can work at the same time? Any proposed dates yet?

[blarsen]

If you need a place to work on your rig I have a garage, air tools and have rebuilt many toyota axles, and live in Pleasant Grove, Utah.. Let me know..
later Bret

[monteburns]

I live in Alpine, but I don't have a garage. My 94 could definitely use the rebuild.
Keep me posted.

[Moody]

I could work something out to utilize my parents place in Sandy. Limited floor jacks and jackstands though

[MDarius]

You guys are all awesome! I appreciate the offers! Projektdotnet has a shop not far from my house in West Haven (Ogden near 12th street and the freeway), I think I'll take him up on that one. I am going to place my order with CDan this week, and since April 7 is Easter weekend, I'll shoot for the 14th if his shop is available on that weekend. If anyone else is interested in this location or this weekend, or some other weekend in April, say so and I'll make sure you're in the plans.

Thanks again to everyone, and I look forward to meeting you on the trails!

Matt

[MDarius]

Well, it's done. I ended up paying to have it done because I'm taking my son camping / wheeling on the 11th of May and I have no time between now and then to get it done. My employer took over my weekends.

Local Firestone charged me just under $500 for the job. They won't make that mistake twice though! It took them 7-9 hours for the seals, birfs, replace calipers, pads, and rotors. They stuck by their original quote though and it looks like they did a good job. They contacted the local Toy dealer to make sure they had the correct fluids / grease and for technical advice. It was worth it to me. Maybe in 5 years when I roll another 60,000 miles on the LC I'll have a garage and won't feel like I'm being a nuisance to people and can do this myself. Thanks again for all your offers!

[Trunk Monkey]

$500 for that is smokin' deal, I just hope they got all the torque specs correct and didn't leave anything out. If it's a shop you trust then you should be fine, if not I might take an hour and check things out yourself. I think it was Jiffy Lube that was busted a couple years ago charging people for work that they never did.

[PHAEDRUS]

second cory on this one,
a the very least re troque the upper and lower control arm bolts, Then pull of teh outer caps and retorque the wheel bearings, Chances are they used a chisel to tighten them up and did nto follwo teh proper procedure. I would volunteer my place But I am moving to OHIO in the next few weeks.
Dave

[Elijah]

I don't mean to 'burst the bubble' but...... I'd never have a tire shop do my front axle rebuild unless you know for sure that the tech doing it KNOWS his stuff when it comes to Toyota solid front axles. Like others have said, lots of different torque specs, etc. Just my .02

[MDarius]

On the positive side, I have been doing business with these guys for a couple of years and they have always done right by me. I've only had my Cruiser for one year, but I have given them print outs from mud which they appear to have read, they have called the dealer for advice and help, and have even turned away work they were not qualified for in the past.

Eating a little humble pie here: I hear what you're saying, but I'm not a great mechanic, I definitely have less experience than their guys, don't have a good work area or tools. I don't know much but I know when to ask for help. I asked them three different times to verify the fluids, I didn't mention torques. I don't have a good torque wrench to even check that they did it to specs.

When I priced the tools I'd need to do the job, looked at my available time in the next month, and how much hassle I was going to cause someone else using their stuff, I opted for the trusted mechanic. I need the skills and tools, I'll just have to build them at a more convenient time.

[Trunk Monkey]

One easy thing you can do is use the OEM bottle jack and jack up each front tire off the ground. Grab the tire at 12 and 6 and wiggle. If there's much play, the nuts on the spindle and wheel bearings are loose and would need to be tightened.

My primary concern about having shops like that do that kind of work isn't that they won't do it, it's that they won't do it correctly. I've had several tire shops put tires on with an air hammer set on the highest torque setting. Once the nuts stop turning, that's the correct torque.

[MDarius]

I hear you. I ran 3 "test" vehicles through this shop for a couple years before trusting the cruiser to them. So far so good though. If something goes wrong on this repair, I guarantee you'll hear about it here!