Ball joint splitters and back seat shenanigans

[Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>]

Best way I've found to take apart a recalcitrant tie rod end is to loosen
but not quite remove the nut, then apply and tighten - firmly but not
excessively - a two-jaw universal puller. Take your propane or acetylene
torch and heat the area the tapered pin of the ball joint goes into. Go away.

Very shortly, the heat will penetrate the joint, the tie rod will POP!
right out, and the puller falls off onto the ground with a clang. You left
the nut on to keep the tie rod from flailing around when the end let go.


Best story I've EVER heard about fooling around in/on/under cars was in a
book claiming to be the autobiography of some porn queen. If indeed she
really did write this (and if it really happened), she's wasting her time
on the silver screen - this is Pulitzer Prize material.

Seems she was fooling around one chilly night at the local lover's lane,
and the vehicle in question was a pickup truck, so no back seat. Engine
running for heat, they are wiggling around trying to get comfortable and
"stay connected" and someone's behind bumps the gearshift into drive. Truck
moves forward, front wheels fall off edge of road, they wind up all tangled
up in the gearshift, someone's leg through the steering wheel, seat belts,
horn blaring, mostly naked, totally freaked, and they are STUCK - just like
one of those puzzles made out of two bent nails which won't disentangle no
matter how you twist them . . .

She claims that the many people who showed up to "rescue" them had to first
study the situation at great length in order to figure out what to do next
to help.

The rest of the book was downright dull, but it was worth slogging through
just for the two or three pages above. I laughed so hard my sides hurt.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman