Front Suspension rebuild couple of questions

[81SPIDERMATT]

spring comprressed but not all the way.... jack underneath lower arm... raise the jack until upper control arm bolt that attaches it to car spins free... take it out and lower the jack

[focodave]

Ed,

By the way -- yes the nuts that hold the steering arm to the knuckle are locked in place by the bent tabs on the metal strap that engage with the flat on the nut.
Just use a hammer and screwdriver (or a cold chisel) to bend the tab away from the nut to get a wrench on them.
As I stated in my previous post, you will likely have to remove the hub from the spindle to get to the bolt heads to keep them from turning as you try to turn the nuts to remove the steering arm.

Good luck and let us know how you make out with it.

Dave

[clarkedj]

Foco and 81,

Thanks for the advice. Did not want to bend the tabs if I was going to mess something more up. 81 is there a better part of the lower arm to have the jack under? Front, back, middle ? I am goig to get the bolts off and then try your method.

Thanks

Ed Clark
404-234-7366

[81SPIDERMATT]

i put mine between the shock tower bracket and the ball joint... dependingg on the jack it may even cover the ball joint.... if your ball joint has a zerk fitting for greasing remove it... and remove just the upper a arm bolt and leave the lower one in untill after the spring is out

[clarkedj]

ONE DOWN ONE TO GO.

Guys,

Thanks for the help. Once I got moving it actually went pretty quick



In this image the wheel knuckle arm I ws not able to seperate from the tie rod. Braced the tie rod and used rubber mallet would not come free. Bought a couple of pullers will try those tonight. I am having same problem with ball joints in the wheel buckle itself. Maybe anoth job for the pullers.



I am going to try a process on the driver side I developed during the removal of passenger. If it takes less time I will publish.

Thanks

Ed Clark

404-234-7366

[clarkedj]

Tonights progress Driver side

Nuts on this side seem more accessible maybe because I knew what I was doing, or at least the suds made me think I knew. Picture of Driver side



Here are the parts going in.





Have a real problem with ball joint removal. Used pickle fork on driver side lower ball joint. After positioning the the pickle fork had to jump on the handle to get the ball joint to release. Should have done that for the upper also. Not sure what I was thinking. Passenger side I am screwed because already out of the car. I am hoping one of you guys know how to release the ball joint from the the wheel knuckle. All ides welcome. Tried a puller but the US pullers are too big, not enough room for clearance.





Am I screwed?

I used a puller to seperate the wheel lever from the tie rod, however the bolt that comes up from the tie rod on the passenger side spins but on the driver side it is stable. Do I need to order new tie rod ends?

Here is the reason for my front end job. Just bought thes tires in March.



Thanks

Ed Clark

[81SPIDERMATT]

ONCE AROUND THE BLOCK WHEN YOU GET IT ALL BACK TOGETHER THEN RIGHT TO THE ALIGNMENT SHOP

[4uall]

Finally got my compressor and thanks to this thread I know what to expect


Coil Spring Compressor (internal) by itzebtze, on Flickr

will test on rear springs when rotors arrive from Auto Ricambi

[clarkedj]

Guys,

Finally received all the parts I needed to put the front end back together. had to have Vick's send me a new lower arm for passenger side with the ball joint already mounted. Could not get in myself with the one they originally sent. One of the guys at Vick's told me all the upper and lower arms now come with the ball joints installed because they were having returns and causing customers problems. Too bad I missed by a week.

Does anyone have a good method for getting the upper control arms in place. It seems with the new rubber inserts the fit seems very tight. Any ideas would be appreciated. I dont want to trim the rubber if I can avoid it.


Thanks

Ed Clark
404-234-7366

[81SPIDERMATT]

mine are not new ones... just rebuilt... they were tight but not to the point of wanting to trim anything... little grease and a good nudge for me.... is it the rubber on the bushing that is tight?.... are they not pressed in... i had to get my old ones pressed out and new ones pressed in.... could be that....

[clarkedj]

Completed Front end work. Looks pretty good if I say so myself.











I took it in to have it aligned and the guy told me to replace the tie rod ends to further tighten up the front end. I think it is unnecessary as I had them check 6 months ago anhd they were fine. But I did it any way. I did not have any problem with the driver side but the passenger side is a real bugger. Not much room. I decided to do both ends of the tie rods rather then ju7st the outer as he suggested. Does anyone know if I seperate the tie rod linkage from the steering buckle on the passenger side via the bottom nut am I going to have a problem trying to drop the bracket. The problem I am having on the passenger side I can remove the nut on the inner tie rod but I can't get enough room to get the puller in to seperate the inner tie rod end from steering buckle. Any suggestions are always welcome.

P.S. With the new front end I went from riding on the inside of the tire to the outside.


Thanks

Ed Clark
404-2347366

[manoa matt]

It's hard to tell from the photos, but I think I see a bare spot near the cliper wedge. The caliper paint may limit the movement of the sliding wedge and caliper. Those surfaces should be bare aluminum. The calipers can drag and cause pulling to one side.

[clarkedj]

Matt,

Thanks for the response. I made sure the surfaces were clean because I was also concerned with drag. The inside of the surface is clean and the paths for the pads are free of paint. Is there something else I should be concerned with? I drove the car to the alignment shop and did not experience any pulling, so far.

Thanks

Ed Clark
404-234-7366

[clarkedj]

Finished, took it in to have it aligned everything looks great. New tires rides lke a champ. I did speak to Vick's about some of their parts and reveived an education on upper A arms. Like the bushing does not have to be "pressed in" in the uppers as it does in the lowers. Not sure if that is correct but I went for IAP instead. I also will post a picture of a very useful tool I built with 2 screws and a sleeve to remove the ball joints without destroying them.

Thanks for all the help.

Thanks

Ed Clark
404-234-7366