Our neighborhood worked hard in 2005 to have the area designated as historic and placed on the national registry. This has stopped the Mc mansion invasion from moving south into our area, unlike much of the M Streets which was gutted of its older homes in the late 90′s in favor of tacky, 3 story homes with little or no character.

All this hard work is finally paying dividends. This Old House has designated Junius Heights as the best family friendly neighborhood in Dallas for 2010.

Skis have also changed. I was informed that my old size of 210 or so was now more like 170. Apparently the skis are fatter at the edges so they can be shorter. I rented normal two days and expert one. I noticed quite a difference with the expert skis, they were a lot faster. I am debating whether or not to by my own skis. At $30 a day it seems like a good investment and would only take a few years to pay for itself if I ski every year. But there is a hick up. American Airlines wants $15 each way for each bag. That is a full day of rentals and means it would take a couple of years longer just to break even.  So unless I stumble across a deal I can’t pass up I doubt I’ll bother. It is just easier to rent, and I’m no expert.

Snow Basin was spectacular. I have been to several resorts in Colorado and even Park City and SB was incredible. Since the Olympics was held there, they completely upgraded everything including new lodges at the base and the top of the mountain. The runs were very well groomed and it was only a little icy. If you go over to the runs on the left side the they are in even better shape since the traffic is lower.  Driving there from my sister’s in Ogden was a treat everyday going between the mountains and by the dam.  I highly recommend this resort if you are in Utah.

This is when the work starts. I suggest you go to the auto store and buy or borrow some strut spring compressor tools. These compress the spring down so you can safely remove it from the old strut. There are a few other items to consider. The strut top mount may be bad. Mine didn’t look bad, but I replaced them anyway. They cost around $70 each at the auto store. I got them on ebay for $60/set. Under this is a ball bearing pack that comes apart with a little effort. But be very careful, there are about 20 large ball bearings in there that can fly ou and go everywhere. I suggest opening it in a bucket and cleaning it with some engine cleaner. Once that is done you will want to repack them with fresh grease. This took me about 15 minutes a side. Then then is a large plate that sits on top of the spring to keep it in place. Under this is a rubber gasket that my be worn down.
You will need to compress the spring to be able to remove the top screw that holds the strut assembly together. I ended up using an electric drill to turn a socket head to tighten the strut tool which is nothing more than a large screw with 2 hook like plates sticking out of it that fasten onto the spring and compress it.

One the compression is done you simply unscrew the top screw and take appart the unit. Then you get the new strut and reassemble the same why it came apart. Make sure you use the left strut and the right strut on the correct side. My brand was universal for the front so it was not an issue. You also need to make sure you re align the strut head to tilt inwards. Total time to remove and reassemble these was around 4 hours. Total cost was around $350 for parts. M understanding is that shops charge around a grand to do the work I did. Not a bad savings.

So I decided to tackle the power steering today and thought I would make note of a few tips to help other lost souls who run into this design nightmare, courtesy of Toyota. The first thing you notice about the power steering in these cars ( and Camrys) is that the power steering is located under the Engine near the firewall on the passenger side. So removing it from above is impossible which leaves underneath. The framing under the car is quite extensive, which is good for safety but bad for maintenance. Log story short you have to remove the passenger front tire as well as the well skirting inside to gain access to the power steering. This is where the nightmare begins.

One would think that once the skirting is removed there would be plenty of room to remove the pump. One would be wrong. Once you remove everything you have a space about the size of a large coffee can to work with. In this space is the pump which is barely visible since it sits up about 4″ out of your view. The first thing to do is loosen the lower 12mm bolt and remove the belt. This loosens up the pump so it can be moved around. There are then 2 low pressure supply hoses that come from the resevior that are clamped on. These need to unclamped and moved up out of the way after they have drained. There is also an electrical sensor that has to be unplugged. The challenge then begins. The pump has 2 exiting pressurized lines laving the pump and they are located on the top of the pump and almost impossible to get at. The large one is 22mm and you will need a short extension and a long exentsion to get at it from above. My short ext has a flexible socket head on it which allowed the socket to angle in towards the bolt. Not to difficult if you don’t have to make 2 trips to the auto store just to get a 22mm socket. The last remaining pressurized line is a 17mm nut that can only be loosened from the bottom with an open faced wrench. And no ordinary wrench will do, you will need a short wrench to fit in the space to loosen this bolt up. This was trip #3 to the auto store for me. The real challenge though is getting the wrench in placein this small space and getting enough force to loosen the hose. It only took me 1/2 hour to get it done.

Once this is off, the unit dropped right down and came right out. Total time for me to go through all of this mess was about 4 hours. Reinstalling it only took 1 hour. Learning curve, priceless.

There is a 12mm bolt on the bottom and one on the top holding the pump in place. To remove the top