A week ago our dryer stopped working, would run all day and never heat up. Unlike my washing machine that the drum broke on, I was able to find the heating element for the dryer. So, I order the part and it arrives in a surprisingly timely manner, was in stock and not a victim of global chip shortages. Tear down the dryer and find out I also needed new roller wheels for the drum, order those parts and thanks to Amazon have them in 2 days. Now dryer is running and has heat, all of the lint vacuumed up. Good thing is the house didn’t burn down from the lint in the heating element. So just a reminder tear down and clean your dryer on a regular basis.
Well as may often happen I am waiting on parts to arrive, have had a hell of a time trying to find parking brake parts for the drum brakes. It is at a time like this that I wish I had gone down the upgrade to disk brakes route but that would have killed my budget and I still have parts to buy for the engine and the body of the truck. So I have spent weeks trying to locate the right parts and finally decided to take a chance and order a parking brake lever that may or may not be the right size. If in fact it turns out not to be the right size I may go the route of fabricating the piece from the one I do have.
On the upside I should have my spacers in for the wheels today, I went ahead and order new wheel studs. This means that hopefully this evening I will have great success in pressing out all 24 of the existing wheel studs, and pressing in the new ones. I am hoping that I will not have to turn around and shorten them for the lug nuts, but one problem at a time.
On a funny note I received a sticker and catalog from Summit Racing with my order of wheel studs, when you order from RockAuto they send refrigerator magnets with every box they ship. Catalogs seem just old school at this point and I wonder how much they could save by not shipping them out with every order. Well off I go to help hand out food to those in need, it is always important to give back to the world around you and leave it a better place than you found it.
Well I received my rims and tires, I cancelled the TireRack order due to shipment being pushed out a month as the world deals with supply chain issues related to covid and general issues in the pipeline. So, I reordered my tires from Amazon and in my haste 250/50r17 turned into 225/50r17, this was an unintentional mistake on my part that I am really happy that I made as they look great mounted.
tires mounted and balanced, ready to install
Unfortunately the inside diameter of the centers is too small 3.05 actual compared to 3.5 needed, I am left with a choice of the following. First option using a die grinder on the wheels to increase the inner diameter, would probably need to get the tires rebalanced, definitely would void the warranty. Second option using a die grinder to decrease the center section on the axles, would require tearing the differential apart as well as the front bearings, then finding someone to balance them. Third option would be to use a spacer and change out the lugs for a longer size, downside pressing out and in the new lug studs, all 24 of them. Then there is the small issue of finding a spacer, my thought is to cut them from the original drums if they are thick enough, if I go this route maybe I can get a cheap plasma cutter because you can never have enough tools.
My new favorite tool has to be nut and bolt sizer I bought, now I can check what size nut or bolt I am dealing with. In the case of the picture what size is the lug nut, turns out to be 7/16-20, makes it easy to create a list of nuts and bolts I need to purchase. Since I have decided to replace all of the old rusty bolts this makes shopping easier. Also if you are in need of Grade 8 nuts and bolts, Tractor Supply sells them by the pound so fill a bag up with what you need and not have to write down and individually bag all of your hardware.
