So the time came for me to change the left rear wheel bearing on my 2000 fwd

I took all the right steps, fought some over torqued bolts, beat the discs brains out until it came off and ta da! there was the way over shot wheel bearing

after some persuasion with a rubber mallet i loosed the bearing, and pulled it with a pulling tool...and to much dismay, the inner most race got stuck on the axle and broke off the bearing assembly entirely.

Heck i figured no big deal i can pull that off too...everything from heat, pullling tool sets and even a chisle would not get that S.O.B off the axle

So, and this is my biggest lifetime mistake, i decided out of anger to take a metal ball-peen hammer to it.

one strike, all i saw were sparks and my my eye started to water...BAD!

So i ran inside holding my eye open, went to the mirror and noticed a shard of metal in the corner of my eye, that had floated out of the center of my eye

Went to the hospital and sure enough the chip of metal had hit me right in the lower left hand side of my retna, puncturing through the corneia and embedding into the retna. It came out of course by the time i had made it to the bathroom mirror.

At first i thought it was just a minor scrape on my eye, but given the fact that i couldn't see out of my left eye i started to fear the worst.

3 hours in the ER and after an eye specialists review i went into surgery that night (nov 1....my 22 birthday by the way!!!) 2 hours in the bed i woke up with 3 sitches in my eyeball expected to make full recovery.

Its been almost a week now, and i stillcant sleep, it feels like the eyelash from hell in my eye, i just cant manage to keep my eyeball closed for any amount of time without there being overwhelming pain.

Long story short, always wear your saftey glasses kids, i do.....welll with the exception for this one time[&:]

but hey, the new bearing feels good. dad managed to get it on the next day in about an hour![X(]

oh and does anyone know the process for changing the tranny oil in a 2000 tt fwd 5spd? any filters, special wrenches needed? im going to go with royal purple fluid, i read a bunch of posts on here and it just seemed to be the best option

cheers from maine
matt

 

Wow, feel better guy!!

 

Sorry to hear about that; you make a very good point about wearing safety glasses.
I've beena safety consultant for almost twenty years, seen my share of bad accidents and I'm sometimes guilty of ditching glasses (this will only take a second..)Had a few near misses with grinders and Dremel myself.

A few pointers
[ul][*]It only takes an instant to get hurt[*]Buy quality, top brands (they meet all ANSI specs and better polycarbonate lenses don't disort)[*]Be selective, try several on, some designs fit you better (less fogging and better comfort)[*]Keep 'em in good shape and clean (nobody wants to, or will wear ratty, scratched-up glasses from the bottom of a tool box)[/ul]
Anyway, enough soap-box...be safe

 

Good for you.

And... if you do a lot of grass cutting like on a riding mower, use ear protection so your not saying "huh?" "what?" like my 80 year old mom is who worked in a factory for years without using anything. I bought a whole box of ear plugs for this. I worked in the navy around jets and always used hearing protection so my ears are great, I can still even pick up the mesquito ring tone at mid-life lol.

I usually wearsafety glassesfor chainsaw work toobecause I wear contacts and the slightest dust spec on those makes for intensive eye irritation.

Protect it or lose it.

 

tip your waitress

 

thanks for the heads up on the eye pain thing. they stuck a contact in the wounded eye to cover the wound...and man does it hurt like every morning when i wake up...thank god the doc is taking that out tommorow


so ive researched alot into tranny oil....can i really go wrong with this royal purple stuff? which weight should i buy for my 5spd? so many choices!!!!

 

man! That is horrible. I couldnt stand hurting my eye. One of my worst fears. Hope ya feel better.

 

pics seem to be gone, but here is a how to

 

3 stitches... Sounds like an awfully large shard of metal!
I hope you are up to date on your tetanus shot. Everybody should have one every 10 years.

 

aren't we lucky to have a nurse in our forums!