Well I finally got the car to the shop for inspection. Not as bad as I thought but worse at the same time. I expected both rear wheel bearings to be bad and the cat bad as well.
I took it to my local Meineke shop where they always treat me right and are insanely honest. Turns out I only need a right/rear wheel bearing and the cat was not bad. It had a crack in front of it that needed to be repaired. I had them repair the exaust leak by cutting the cat flange off where it meets the pipe heading back and welded it together bypassing the knuckle at the end of the cat. This avoided future problems as it was going to fail eventually. They then cut the sections between the pre-cats and the cat and bent and welded new pipes between them. I now have a one piece welded unit going from the headers to the muffler. Exaust taken care of. I will admit I was hoping to find that I needed it all replaced as it would have been a great excuse to go with a Flowmaster muffler.
The surprise came when I checked things out form under the lift. My left front half-shaft needs to be replaced. The outer CV boot is ripped completely and has thrown grease all over the suspension there. I need to replace the half-shaft with a reman unit. If I get the new shaft they will slap it in for $50. Sounds like a fair deal to me. I found that I can get a reman half-shaft for $69.99 locally from Advanced Auto with only a $40 core charge. Way less than I expected and I do not have to pay any shipping. Woohoo!
As for wheel bearings, I only need the one side replaced and found BCA bearings for 64.28 at Advanced auto (again no shipping fees) and seals for only $5.39 & $6.49. Not a bad deal for a good bearing.
Here is where the call for assistance comes in. Money is super tight right now with me being out of work for the past 2 weeks due to a back injury (as some of you may recall). The wife's Taurus is in need of a new tranny to make things worse for me. I am hoping that one or more of the local members would feel generous enough to help me with the strenuous parts of the wheel bearing replacement so I can save some money on the repair. You can come to me or I will drive to you (your call) and I will do all I can like cleaning and repacking the bearing, etc. I need someone to help with the lug nuts, lifting and tough wrenching in hunched over positions. I will supply the pizza and beer. If any other locals would care to join for a little mini meet as well, the more the merrier.
I have John (svx_commuter) in mind for this since he has expressed willingness to assist me with this in the past but hesitate to ask directly since it now involves a majority of the grunt work as well (before I only wanted advice, moral support and use of bearing puller). Let me know if you can, John, and I will gladly drive to your place if you want. Maybe Matt & Kelli (along with others of the Warren group) could join us for the festivities. If anyone else in the eastern PA/Western NJ area is interested please let me know. Feel free to PM me or respond here and we can arrange a time for it all.
Take care!