[targa911man]

Thanks to Jim Richards for all the help with my turbo tie rods on Sat. Jim and I had great difficulty getting the old rod off on the left side, but managed to get it off with three improvised tools. Then on the right side the old rod refused to move for an hour, until I hit the brass fitting (the wheel-shaped one the rack boot attaches to) on the rack end of the rod with a drift, loosening it and enabling the rod to be screwed off by hand. Did any of you know that the brass fitting is a locknut? Four sets of instructions (the ones that came with the kit, 101 Projects, Bentleys, Haynes) and a search of Pelican did not reveal this fact, which cost us five extra hours on the job. Although Wayne's book describes this as a four-hour job, we could have done it in two if we had known about the locknut. So that's the first tip. If any of you knew already, curses on you. Either Jim or I will post a picture of the fitting on Pelican.
The second tip deals with another little aggravation that makes what should be an easy job into a PITA. As Andy Rooney would say, don't you just hate when that hose on the hand pump keeps curling out of the SWEPCO when you're trying to pump it into the tranny? Cut the bottom off a metal coat hanger, dip one end in the SWEPCO, and then run it up the hose. Problem solved.