850R - Axle Removal and CV Boots Halt Progress

Today we were able to finally get all the bolts removed that we needed to continue on the passenger side. After removing the axle and cutting the old, ripped CV boot off we began to remove all of the axle grease. Unfortunately the clip that holds the end of the axle on (near the hub) that we are unable to reach with our tools. This means that the boots will need to be installed by a professional shop after the weekend. Hopefully once this is done we can continue progress of rebuilding the passenger side suspension (tie rods, sway bar end links, control arms, etc.) Overall the cost of the rebuild will not be that high, and NAPA carriers re-manufactured axles for $50, a steal!

Old and new tie rod ends. They were completely worn on the drivers side as well and most likely contributed to the bad pull we had when braking.

By the end of next week the new brake lines and brake discs from FCP Euro should arrive and allow us to button up the entire front end. After this our plan is to drop the exhaust and take a look at the mysterious oil around the turbo. With any luck it will be a leaky gasket, however worst case we rebuilt the turbo with Steve's plan of a 20 blade turbine.

850R - Air Tool Woes and Broken Brakes

As any shade-tree mechanic knows, there is nothing worse than an over torqued nut in a hard to reach place. Unfortunately, as we have continued to progress on the 850Rs front steering and suspension components we have run into issues of over-torqued bolts, most likely done with airguns by incompetent service techs. We ran into this issue on the lower strut tower bolts (first pictured), and the upper bolt for the sway bar end links (also pictured). Thankfully due to their location we were able to cut the nuts off the bolt and hammer them out. In the case of the sway bar end link, the thread was part of the linkage, however they would be replaced anyway. The bolt that was cut from the strut tower was easily replaced, Steve and I found a few 850s and a donor S70 in our local LKQ Pick-A-Part, which also allowed us to get the second piece that we had broken yesterday, the drivers side brake caliper.

The bolt that needed to be cut from the strut tower. This bolt also prevented the brake caliper bolt from being removed which posed quiet an issue when using the Dremel cutting wheels.

The end of the sway bar linkage that needed to be cut for the linkage to be removed for replacement.

Unfortunately in our haste to break the castle nut off the passenger side of the car, we neglected to affix any disk inside of the drivers side caliper that was sitting off the car on a bucket. By compressing the brakes, the drivers side caliper ended up shearing the rubber seals on the piston, effectively ruining the caliper. Now because we were already at the pick-n-pull for the bolt, we snagged the (somewhat) newer caliper off of the S70 we were working on. Now for the tune of $25 we were able to fix our mistake without any major setback.

Additionally we found two tan trim pieces that we needed that were originally missing from the rear hatch. The 850 that we found in the yard also had much clearer, newer, tail lights that we will most likely take in the coming weeks. By the end of the week, we should have the all new control arm, tie rod, and sway bar end links installed on the passenger side, along with the new CV boots which Steve and I will be doing a seperate write up on.