{"id":27462,"date":"2020-01-28T01:00:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=27462"},"modified":"2020-01-27T21:46:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T07:46:34","slug":"vehicle-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=27462","title":{"rendered":"Vehicle Maintenance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Given the rather high cost of auto service in the islands I tend to do the basic and easy stuff myself.   Oil changes, brake pads, even the <a href=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=22774\">occasional wheel bearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=27466\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CJ94-69-20025-DC-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"The vehicle up on axle stands while replacing the sway bar links\" class=\"wp-image-27466\"\/><\/a><figcaption>The vehicle up on axle stands while replacing the sway bar links<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>When I did that bearing I noted the brakes were just fine and the new brake pads ordered at the same time had remained sitting on the shelf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There the pads have sat for over two years. So a week ago I inspect the brakes again and find out the brakes are fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sway bar links?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Two of my sway bar links had failed, the rubber pad at the end missing and the link loose.  The other two are in poor shape but still there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The links do not look too hard to replace, quite easy actually. Yet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lZOaMgqh5d0\">another YouTube video<\/a> confirms this&#8230; Easy to do, no special tools, just a few metric sockets and a torque wrench. I have everything I need on-hand except the parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=27467\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CJ94-74-20025-DC-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"New sway bar links in the vehicle\" class=\"wp-image-27467\"\/><\/a><figcaption>New sway bar links in the vehicle, properly installed&#8230; I think<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Next surprise? Sway bar links are cheap, about $12-15 each for the good ones. They will be here before next weekend without paying for premium shipping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it is as easy as the video makes it look. Actually easier&#8230; In one video the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5MzMZVsra94\"> mechanic has to struggle<\/a> to get the old link out. He pounds away with a hammer and punch to remove a rusted link from the sleeve, then uses a pair of really big vice-grip pliers to get it the last bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I take the top nut off and it falls on the ground&#8230;  That was easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One hour for the first one while figuring out what I was doing. A half hour for each of the remaining three. One of the remaining ones did take a few blows with a hammer and punch to get free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Done. Now on to that sticky EGR valve. The new valve was in the box with the sway bar links and is awaiting install.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Given the rather high cost of auto service in the islands I tend to do the basic and easy stuff myself. Oil changes, brake pads, even the occasional wheel bearing. When I did that bearing I noted the brakes were just fine and the new brake pads ordered at the same time had remained sitting &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=27462\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Vehicle Maintenance&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[612,2497,421,1905],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/CJ94-69-20025-DC.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27462"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27475,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27462\/revisions\/27475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}