Front Suspension rebuild couple of questions

[clarkedj]

Hey Guys,

Rebuilding the front end of my sons 78 124 and I had a couple of questions. Got new upper and lowers, ball joints the whole works, new springs, and Koni's for front and rear. The questions are in reference to the tear down.

1. How do you know the spring is compressed far enough? I have compressed the front spring and removed the stabilizer support and the tie rod attachment. Working lower ball joint but wanted to ask questions before I went any further.

2. Reading Chilton they suggest the procedure mentioned above to remove the spring, but if I am replacing all parts can't i just remove the nuts and bolts at the back of the A arms and drop the whole mechanism including the spring?

3. I was going to powder coat the the new arms but I am wondering if there is a good paint I could use to accomplish the same thing and not wait the 2 weeks for the powder coating.

Thanks

Ed Clark
404-234-7366

[4uall]

Hi Ed I too find myself asking these same questions One thing I did find was this video that might help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1akqSJE0ss

Either way I will be watching this post. Good luck

[81SPIDERMATT]

ok i will try and help.... if the spring is compressed enough you can take it out.... i never could get it compressed enough to do that though.... are you using an internal spring compressor as apposed to an external.... internal is easier to work with.... now how i did it was with an internal spring compressor as tight as i cold get it .... then i used a jack like in the video but instead of dropping the ball joint i removed just the upper control arm bolt..(playing with the jack up and down you will feel the bolt spin freely.... that is how you know the jack is at the right height and taking pressure off of the bolt)...if you ahve wheel well liners they need to come out also... as removing that long bolt it will hit them. and then lowered the whole assembly that way.... scary ... probably dangerous...and some will say too dangerous.... but it worked..... hope you understand what i am trying to say....

it is not an easy thing to do.... took me quite some time to figure out things while TRYING to not shoot a compressed spring across the garage..... but now that i have done it .... it will go so much faster and safer the next time

good luck... be safe ... and enjoy the ride... the difference in ride and handling for me was tremendous.

[focodave]

All,
I don't care what anyone on this forum says -- working with springs can be dangerous.
I just went through a complete rebuild of my front suspension, replacing all 4 control arms, and I have learned a lot by doing so.
I personally recommend getting those springs compressed so that they have NO tension on either control arm, before trying to remove the controls arm(s).
Below is a photo of the compressor I used. I bought it from O'Reilly Auto Parts and I modified it to fully compress my springs before I tried to remove the control arms.
The mod I made was to put a 5 1/2" pipe nipple on the shaft to allow the tool to actually fully compress the springs to the point where they were loose, releiving ALL spring pressure from the control arms.
Before I added the pipe nipple, the compressor would not compress the springs enough to safely remove them.
Another complication to using this tool is that I had to comletely disassemble the curved arms from the tool in order to fit the tool up into the spring.
Then I re-assembled the tool while it was in the spring.
It takes some patience, but it does work. I know. I did it.

[focodave]

Sorry,
Here is a better photo of the tool.
Had to re-size it in M-Soft Office...

[Exit98]

Dave,

Thanks for the new picture it popped up just as I was beginning a new post to ask you to clarify the purpose of the pipe. Now I think I've got it. Pretty ingenious and I agree with you about the safety issue.

[4uall]

I am picking this up tonight for $35

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/product ... Compressor

[nibbes123]

I picked mine up last year at princess auto , it was on sale for 19.99. The tool works like a charm you will like using it.

[4uall]

thanks, good to have feedback from someone who has actually used it................and of course close to home

[deftone]

3. I was going to powder coat the the new arms but I am wondering if there is a good paint I could use to accomplish the same thing and not wait the 2 weeks for the powder coating.

I am also interested in this. I was going to try powder coating them myself but the wife doesnt want me buying an oven for the garage Was thinking of chassis paint or something?

[clarkedj]

Guys,

Thanks for the responses.

Focodave not sure how the pipe extension helps the process. I also bought the spring compressor from O'Reilly but mine has a plate that looks like a pickle fork that is the bottom with 2 hooks like your s at the top.

I have the spring compressed such that it appears the bottom of the spring is lifting off the bottom arm " barely" but the spring is not loose enough to move yet. I think it may be stuck at the top. I am sure these are the orginal springs. I still have to remove the bottom ball joint nut before I try lowering the arm. I also have the arm supported from beneath with the jack

I will let you know the progress. I will also try and post some pictures tonight.

Thanks

Ed Clark
404-234-7366

[focodave]

Hello Ed,
I had to put the pipe nipple on the tool because without it, the shaft was screwing up into the upper shock tower shock mounting location and "bottoming out" on the upper shock mount before the spring was compressed.
By installing the pipe nipple, I was able to tighten the compressor until both the top and the bottom of the spring were loose and "flopping" around enough to safely remove the spring.
Dave

[clarkedj]

Foco, Thanks for the response and I think I get it. I will post a couple of pictures first of the compressed Spring. I am at maximun compression as you can see from the photo's as the top hooks are al most fluxh with the bottom bracket.








The next pictures are of the lower ball joint nut. I can not get a wrench or socket on the nut as it is being blocked by the shaft that attached to the tie rod. I tried to remove the shaft but as you can see there is a bracket securing it. It also seems that the end of the bracket are bent over the top and bottom of the nuts holding the bracket. I am wondering if Fiat did this to lock the nuts in place rather then using a lock washer. Any ideas on how to get to the lower ball joint nut or how to remove the shaft .








Thanks

Ed Clark
3032347366

[focodave]

Ed,
I know you probably don't want to hear this, but I just bit the bullet and decided to remove the steering arm (the part that connects the tie rod end to the steering knuckle/spindle assembly) so that I could get a wrench on the lower ball joint nut.
What you will have to do is to take the hub (hub, brake disc, etc) off of the spindle.
Then you can get to the bolt heads that attach the steering arm to the knuckle.
Once I removed the steering arm, I had sufficient clearance to get a 7/8" comination wrench on the ball joint nut to get it loose.
It was such a pleasure to have done this as it gave me plenty of room to wrench on the lower ball joint nut.
At first, I didn't want to disassemble all of that stuff, but it was well worth it on the long run.
It's just part of the job.
Dave

[focodave]

God, I wish we had a spell checker on this forum engine.
I type fast and I look like a complete idiot when I go back and read what I have typed (mistakes and all).