What I did today.....and penny for your thoughts

[silver]

THANKS TO SPANKY for coming over today and helping me out....I had long been wanting to perform some of the safety upgrades on my car and also get a little education about my car so that I could become more informed as to what to look for.

Updates/Upgrades performed.
Added safety washers to the back uprights and re-did safety wire.
So I learned how to correctly tie safety wire and what the reasoning was behind the safety washers....will do fronts soon but needed bolts for that.

Added Plastic (or some sort) of washers to the upper rear shock mount to help reduce the turning of the shock body under loand and unloading of the shock...hopefully will reduce the wear and tear and might reduce the knocking sound.
We didn't place washers down on the lower shock mount because it reduces the actual functionality of the shock's eye-lit and we didn't want to creat any problems.

While we were in there we inspected the pads (which I have never done before) to find that my pads are fine probably 50% used in 6000 miles so somewhere between 8000 and 10000 I'll look again and this time I'll know how to change them when that's necesary.

We also inspected for the rear upright spacer problem and bearing problems, there was no lubricant visible anywhere which supports the bearing in my car is not leaking on any of the 4 corners, and my rotor assembly and axles have 0 play in them showing the spacer must be uncrushed thus far...which kind of makes sense because I haven't tracked the car very much or put slicks on it.

We also checked the aftercooler coolant level and there was none visible in the filler neck.....I added coolant and there was not much to fill beyond the filler neck but I had never checked this since I got the car so I guess mine hasn't pushed too much out of the system since it was new....so that's a good thing.

We inspected the front brakes and found approximately the same wear.

We inspected the little area at the bottom of the A -arms on all four corners showing rust (it's basically a little bathtub that water will collect in and cause rust.  So we added a little oil for future protection, now that I know this is an issue I'll be able to monitor it anytime the car gets wet in the future I'll dry out that section before leaving the car for the night.

I've really been wanting to understand this stuff for a while now but until you do it, reading all these posts do not truely sink in............so now that I have a much better understanding of what Positron has tried to teach me about the overflow bottle and why it's beneficial which I didn't really grasp until today.

I also understand that unless I have IAT2 temp data there's no reason to do any further mods to my car b/c it's highly likely that since my water injection is tunable that it probably needs to be tuned to be at maximum effeciency.  Spanky has an interceptor guage and we're going to take the car out and get some real data to see how I need to tune the water injection and how well it works....I'm very excited to do this soon.

Thanks for reading this thread which has given me the idea of making a Sticky Thread who's contents are all the links to the threads for the Brammo Atom upgrades and safety changes that Owner's should know about and by having that thread easy to find like the Parts thread and torque thread would allow these old threads that are buried be easily digested by new users and old users alike.

Anybody want me to do that>>>>>>cuz I will if you want me to but I won't if you don't.

[maverick1]

Good job silver.
I kind of did the same, a few weeks ago.
I checked my brake pads, the aftercooler fluid level, cleaned out and replaced the fuel tank gaskets, changed the fuel filter, cleaned the air filter, finished off my LED shift light, replaced my brake pressure switch, changed my brake light housings, and today changed out my brake light bulbs to LED.
Todo list:replace my rear uprights and most of the rod ends. Send out my defective shocks, then reinstall and set up the ride height correctly with the rod ends, and finally an alignment.
cheers

[positron]

There 'ya go.. Click and Clack.. co-presenters for maintenance topic(s) at AF09.. 

I nominate Mav for most improved skills..