Hey crew. I know I am normally silent with the blogs. Drivernumber3 mentioned an issue starting a new thread, so to see if I had problems, figured I'd kick off the blog.

I'll share something I am working on.... Some unplanned Monte work, and I need to finish by May 11th!!! May 11th is the MMCC Spring Meet and I have it in plans to be there, pending I get everything done. Basically, my hand was forced due to an alignment problem that has my tires in a condition that I will NOT make a 4 hour drive to Michigan.
- Need an alignment and tires, check.
- Tired of the rusty strut bearing plates on the front struts, going to replace the bearing plates (struts/springs are fine), check.
- Big stupid vertical bushings on the control arms tearing, service control arms, <sigh>, check.

So the Monte sits, no control arms and no front struts. I was going to just buy nice, new, pre-assembled control arms..... But I found that stupid vertical bushing that is ripping (a design I feel is just a bad plan and I fail to understand why it is not a horizontal set up like the other bushing.... Well, MOOG is the only vendor to offer a unique replacement bushing. Instead of being a rubber bushing, it is a cap and socket design (think of it like a ball joint with out a stud on it and allows a bolt to pass through). I did a lot of asking around, only a couple people using it, but no complaints, so I'm going to give it a go. The ONLY reason I am rebuilding these arms.
Sad, at least when I did this on my Grand Am, I upgraded to aluminum arms (no stamped steel).

I am desperately hoping I can get the car back together this weekend. My tire guy already has the tires waiting for me. So, if it's together this weekend, I will get the car to him during next week and hopefully that will be the end.

 

Good afternoon guys.

Jason, thanks for starting the Blog. I've been busy as hell and kinda forgot it's a new month - I've been posting in last month's Blog as of yesterday still. And you better be at the Meet! I have faith that it'll work out for you. Good luck! This weekend I should finally be able to get some miles on mine with the new exhaust since it looks dry til Monday afternoon. In the mean time I've been detailing and have started wiping down the depths of the engine compartment - specifically the transmission case since it's a little more accessible and visible with the new header kit. Didn't realize how dirty it is and how much sand/debris is sitting in all the little crevasses down in there.

We currently have 20 Montes registered for our Spring Meet next Saturday and I'm expecting more that have not yet registered - a little over 1/4 of those who have already registered are actually not current Club members. I picked up the awards and dash plaques yesterday so I'm starting to get everything ready.

A little rain overnight. The Southfield Fwy finally reopened last night at 10 pm after being submerged under 14' of water from the heavy rain on Tuesday night.

 

Well, work for my Monte continues! What a mess! I am scraping my original control arms. When popping the bushing out of the one, it really jacked up the opening for it. I want a matched pair of arms and what a pain! End result, I drove an hour to SUmmit Racing and picked upa lair of Dorman arms. I will say, these appear good and sturdy! And it looks like Dorman re-enforced the opening for the vertical bushing with 4 welds. Because I have these fancy MOOG bushings (the horizontal ones appear to be poly and the MOOG vertical bushing is like a ball joint and I already have the MOOG ball joints), as crazy as it sounds, I popped the bushings and ball joints off the Dorman arms to install MOOG stuff. There were other options, but time getting the parts was the factor. Sunday, I have a few things I need to do, but I am hoping to get the Monte back together. After that, give me a nice week day to get my ties addressed and after that, give us a great weather Saturday! I'm hustling to make sure the car is ready for the road trip to Michigan on time!

 

Good Morning Monte Maniacs. Happy Cinco de Mayo. Hope you all have a great day. It's finally a sunny dry day here. Been getting way too much rain lately. Putting a damper on any car activities locally.

 

Took mine for a drive,2nd time.Plan on driving it to work tommorrow

 

Good morning all, how's everyone doing? We had great weather in Michigan this weekend! The Wife and I busted our butts and wrapped up our yard work yesterday - flowers planted, new perennials planted, existing hostas divided and transplanted, vegetable garden planted, mulch turned over, grass seed laid down and underground sprinklers turned back on and one head moved. Feels good to have it done!

Michigan's Spring Meet is THIS Saturday! I'm getting all the event materials ready and will then need to wash the car toward the end of the week since it's covered with a thin layer of dust from being at the shop. Took mine out for a drive on Friday and that new exhaust is rowdy. Jason, I hope your work on the Monte has been going well.

Spring Meet info > https://montecarloforum.com/forum/me...14/#post717305

Spring Meet 2017

 

Mapquest says it is 751 miles one way for me.I would probably need to leave on Thursday if I was going to go. Don't count on me showing up. Lol
But I hope you have a great turn out for this event and the weather to be fantastic.

 

The Monte is back together! Felt like a longer night than it needed to be (a small and stupid mistake on my part, probably burned 20 minutes jacking around to correct it). So far, here is what I have:
- New front strut bear mount plates (the old ones were fine except seeing the rusted plates when I would pop the hood). I painted the new plated gloss black.
- New Dorman lower control arms (small mishap with the original arms)
- New MOOG ball joints
- New MOOG vertical bushing - it's NOT rubber, it's like a ball joint. So far, kinda neat.

I took the Monte just around the block a couple of times, all feels good. Steering feels a bit better/responsive than before. When I messed with the factory original ball joints, one seemed pretty stiff, sure that was not doing any favors for the suspension.

Next, I need to make it to my tire guy to get new tires on and an alignment. I really do not want to run the monte to the tire shop in the rain.... Trying to keep it clean for my drive Saturday! And hoping the weather is awesome (dry) for Saturday.

Lots of work (unplanned/unexpected), in a tight time frame.

 

Good morning guys.

Just two days til the Michigan Meet! Jason, glad to hear you got yours finished. I just need to wash mine and will do some detailing once I'm at the park - me and our one VP plan be at the Park at 8 am. I haven't even had much drive time in mine since the exhaust work so that drive out to the Meet and back will be good. I almost have our packets all put together for the first 20 registered.

We were in the 30s yesterday morning. High of 75 degrees today with scattered thunderstorms later. Lots of lake shore flooding happening along the Michigan shore of Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie and the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers due to high water levels and high winds - highest it's been in 30 years. They've been dealing with the high and rising water for a couple months now, the high on-shore winds are just pushing it in even worse right now.