How right you are.
I spent two days trying to get the right side ball joint to release, so I could change the CV axle. Rusted solid. Finally popped the stud out of the casting by using an air hammer and tapered bit on the top of the stud. The rest of the CV shaft swap was easy, except for getting the wheel off the hub/rotor. All four wheels were so rusted to the car that I needed an 8-pound sledge to knock 'em free. I was NOT happy about that. The aluminum wheels were covered in aluminum-powder that had corroded away from the main part of the wheel. Wheels have "CHINA" and the Ford Oval cast on the inside.
So, discovering that the rotors were trash, but the pads were only half worn-out, I cleaned the rust from the wheel mating surfaces, coated 'em with anti-seize, and put 'em back together using the shiity Ford lug-nuts that have a sheetmetal cover on them so they look like expensive lug nuts. Half the sheetmetal covers are gone.
I needed a slide-hammer, anger, and perspiration to get the drums off. No, the shoes had not worn into the drums. The wheel bearings had seized to the stub-axle. The wheel bearing on the right side was failing, apparently it was the cause of uneven tire wear. Car shook like it was having an 0rgasm at 70 mph. MUCH better now with a new tire and bearing. Not perfect, though, 'cause it still needs front rotors, and the other rear tire has mild uneven wear.
And we haven't even gotten to the part where someone--NOT ME--is going to have to remove the piece-of-crap plastic intake manifold to fix the four piece-of-crap plastic flapper-valves Ford recklessly crammed into the air passageways. I thought GM was on dope, casting non-moving iron ski-jumps into the ports on the TBI small-blocks, and Vortec 454s. I have a whole new attitude now that I've see how Fookhead Ford induces turbulence. I've watched some Youtube videos on the intake manifold flapper valves, and I'm gonna tell these folks that they can take THAT somewhere else. Plastic bushings, plastic flapper housings, plastic flappers, plastic actuator, and a dead-soft-steel shaft that the plastic bushings wear grooves into.
Ford couldn't make a decent oil pan drain plug in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. They couldn't make decent spark plugs in the '80s, '90s and '00s; why would anyone think they can build a decent economy car?
Varies by store, perhaps by store manager or store owner.
O'Reillys has a well-stocked loaner-tool program I really like, and lower prices than NAPA. I got hooked into NAPA because they had business hours that met my needs decades ago. Open early, open late, open Sunday. And NAPA used to have top-quality parts. But now every parts chain gets their crap from the same Chinese shipping containers.
HOW are you bleeding the brakes? Vacuum? Pump-the-pedal?
I REFUSE to vacuum-bleed brakes, because the air never stops, especially on drum brakes.
I had to gravity-bleed the Focus, I don't have an adapter that would fit the molded-plastic remote fluid reservoir. But at least I got to eat a leisurely lunch and talk to my machinist buddy for the hour-and-a-half it took to change the fluid.
