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Suspension Rebuild

I knew that the suspension needed to be rebuilt sometime in the near future. The front tires had some pretty wild camber with the top of the tires pointing in toward the trunions more than they should. An incident trying to avoid a turkey in the middle of the road told me the suspension at this point was pretty dangerous. I didn't know just how dangerous until I had to replace my driveshaft. While under there I noticed the inside edges of the front tires were wearing out. Closer inspection revealed the right side tire was already down to the steel belts, and with just 2,500 miles on them!

I spent a few weeks researching different avenues of rebuilding the suspension. Calling a shop or two priced it way out of my budget. So far I've planned for the worst in my assessment, and what I've pulled off so far as been in pretty rough shape.

The left side of the suspension didn't seem to be as bad. Everything looked pretty much in place, though it did have more camber than it should.

The right side was a different story, and that's the one I stared work on first. With the tire out of the way I noticed that the top of the kingpin that attaches to the trunion had two nuts on it. The bottom nut was the original castle nut, and then it had a nylock nut on top of that. I'm still not sure why someone would have done that other than threads might have been stripped.

Getting the trunion apart was easier than I expected. It revealed however just how bad that side was. I can move the shock arm up and down with ease. The bushing for the trunion bolt disintegrated. Part of the rubber and metal sleeve is stuck to the bolt, the other part is still stuck in the trunion.

The other fun piece was getting the sway bar disconnected. It was fairly easy (I love air tools!) however the left side bracket holding the the bar and the rubber bushing to the car had been smashed. I'm not sure I'm go

With the A arm hanging down, the spring uncompressed I realized that the ball joint was still connected to the swivel axle. Crap! Now I'm going to have to get a tool to pop the ball joint off. I think there's a good bit of wear in the steering rack too, plus it got dosed with paint during the body work as you can see from the rubber gaiter. I've got another on in good condition that I'll refit.

Tie Rod Off

Pickle fork and beating the tie rod end to a pulp did not relieve it's duty from the swivel axle. Everyone in town didn't have a tie rod puller in stock, or they had a kit that was near $100! I happened into another parts place and discovered this 2 & 3 Jaw 2 Ton Puller.

It was cheaper than either the individual puller I could order and about three times less expensive than the kit. I came home and had it situated the way I wanted it. Rather than giving my wrist a work out I put the air ratchet on it. In 30 seconds the tie rod was off.

Finally making some progress I was able to remember I had a breaker rod down in the basement and was able to lever the coil spring over the a arm pan rubber stop. I could finally start working on getting the A arm off the car.

Liberal amounts of PB Blaster and air tools make this kind of work a lot easier. The only thing easier would be an air conditioned garage and possibly a lift.

Both nuts came off the A arm mounts with no problem. There was a little bit of difficulty in getting the bolts out, but brought out the breaker rod and the hammer to relieve them of their duty.

Is it any wonder why the steering and suspension was giving me fits? This is just one of the A arm bushings from the right side, or what's left of it.

So here's the right hand A arm off the car finally! There were years of grease and grime on it. At first I thought the bolts attaching the spring pan rubber piece had been refitted with some crazy round head bolts, but digging through the grime with a screwdriver revealed a true bolt head. At this point the kingpin is still attached. It may just stay that way.

Here's why. This wonderful piece of British engineering is the fulcrum pin that attaches the kingpin to the A arm. It's a threaded piece. The end you're seeing here as a slot to take the pin in and out. After 34 years though these pins are a real pain to get out, and that's if you can without messing up the bushings in the A arm.

This shows what's left of the bushings in the A arm. Quite sad and scary that I've been driving around with the car in this condition.

No, that's not blood under there. It's a fine concoction of PB Blaster, rust, grease, and whatever else can be jammed in there.

These are the mounts for the A arm. They look to be in fairly decent shape.

August 17, 2008

Everything was finally stripped off the car left and right side. I had a rebuilt steering rack that I wanted to install at this time too. Pulling the rack out requires removing the radiator. I was able to get the rack out without having to unbolt the steering column from the car, but had to unbolt it when putting it back in. It was 95 degrees again in the garage during this job. I propped the fan in the door to the house to blow cooler air in. It didn't help much.

I was able to get the rack physically back into place. My biggest time waster was with the pinch bolt that secures the connection between the steering rack and the steering column. Mine went about half way in and stopped. I couldn't get it back out, and I couldn't get it to go any further. Nothing worked to make it budge. I finally got my dremel tool with a cutoff wheel and sliced it off. Nothing like seeing sparks flying close to your fuel line (so fire extinguisher was within reach). With the bolt cut I could turn the column and get to the other side. It still took a lot of force to get the remains out.

I stripped off all the old rubber stops from the left and right side that you see in the pictures above. Don't think about cleaning these. Just go ahead and replace them.

Here's a picture of all the parts that I've either bought new, or rebuilt.

The only parts that did not get replaced were the spring pans. Even the anti-roll bar had to be replaced because it had a perfect curve in the middle where it should be straight.

I've learned some pretty hard lessons with this job. When a shop quotes you what you think is a ridiculous job, it's not that far off. So far I've spent as much in parts as the shop's high side price quote, and I'm the one gettng greasy. If the shop had done this it probably would've been another $1K or more.

I wanted to trial fit the swivel pin to the A arms because I knew it would be a pain with everything bolted up to the car. The fulcrum pins are held in place with a cotter pin, which is basically a piece of round steel stock with one side ground down, and threads on about 1/2" on the bottom. The right side would not go through. I used my file and belt sander to finally get it to go through, only to put the nut on and have it slide out the other side. A trip to the parts store (20$ in gas) got me another 3$ part. This one did fit, as did the left side.

The right side shock absorber turned out to be OK. I cleaned it, changed the fluid inside, and mounted it back on the car. The left side I did the same thing, but discovered a catch in the arm travel. When it was fully extended it would not come back down without a lot of force, then it would pop. I swapped it out for a rebuilt unit. Compared to how I cleaned mine up and the rebuilt unit I purchased, I couldn't see a whole lot of difference.

Next came the A arm fitment on the right side. Thankfully the garage was a bit cooler during this event. I was finally able to get it installed on the car. The bushings are a real pain to get around the mounts. The opposite side of the mount has a much larger hole. This is for installing the other bushing. The pin that has the flat washer with the tab goes through the smaller hole. The other tabbed washer as a bit more metal on it so it fits inside that larger hole in the opposite mount. When I pulled my suspension apart the left side was done the opposite way.

With the A arm installed, the swivel axle was able to be installed and the assembly connected at the trunion to the shock arm.

The spring and spring pan needed to be installed next. I opted for the long bolt method here. I put the spring up inside the A arm, and the spring pan underneath. Used two 4 inch bolts diagonal from each other to secure it. I suggest a 1/2" deep socket on your ratchet for the bolt head on top. I had fine thread bolts and I wished I'd gone with coarse thread instead. It might have made the job go quicker. After about 40 minutes I was able to bolt the spring pan onto the A arm and called that side done for now.

The left side A arm was a bit more of a challenge. The bushings didn't want to go in the mounts. Finally some persuasion and they were in. Again, large holes in the opposite mount is for fitting the other bushing, then the tabbed washer.

Here's pictures of the progress so far. First picture is the right side. Left side still needs the spring and spring pan fitted.

Monday, August 18, 2008-12:15 AM

Yes, you're reading that correctly. At 12:15 AM the front wheels touched back down on terra firma. I would've had it on the ground before midnight, but I had a few complications with the wheel bearings and the hubs. Then I had some trouble refitting the brake calipers. I'm sure most of it is from fatigue, but it's all together and on the ground. I'll need to tighten the A arm bushings and start checking toe-in alignment. So far though it looks pretty good. No more of the top of the wheels leaning in, but what a pain to get it corrected!

Tonight I was finally able to start the process or refreshing the rear suspension. I have all the rubber bushings, u-bolts, nuts, rubber pads for the springs. I was not planning on replacing the shocks or the springs. I started by placing jack stands underneath the body. I still have the jack underneath the differential. The rear end was just as dirty if not more so than the front suspension was. There's a good quarter inch of crud covering everything. The other wonderful thing is that when the car was painted there was undercoat sprayed in the wheel wheels. This also covered some of the bolts and nuts that need to be accessed to get some of suspension loose.

With the car secured I started on the left side of the car. Tonight's challenge was to get the shock absorber off. I thought it would be fairly easy to do...not quite. The undercoating had to be scraped off the nuts securing the bolts holding the shock to the body. I couldn't even get a socket or wrench on them. The nut holding the shock link that connects the shock arm to the axle was removed. There's two bolts holding the shock to the car. The rear most nut and bolt came off without many problems. The front bolt was a different story. I couldn't get a socket or a wrench on the bolt head which is inboard of the car. I wedged a flatblad screwdriver between the bolt head and the shock body so I could tackle the nut on the other side.

The shock was physically unbolted but still attached to the shock link. It wouldn't come loose by hand. Remember that 2 and 3 arm puller from the front rebuild? I put that on and popped right off. With the shock on the ground I could see it was in pretty bad shape. I couldn't make out what color the housing was due to all the grime. A dip and scrub using Purple Blaster and I could see metal again. It has blue painted bands with some yellow. I suspect this is a rebuilt unit.

Cleaned up enough I took the six screws off the top of the shock for a closer look inside. Before I did though I placed it in the vice and moved the arm up and down. I could feel a catch in the arm, and not a lot of pressure. With the cover off I could see there was very little oil left in it. I drained what I could and sprayed WD40 inside to help clean it up a bit. Wish I had a parts cleaner right about now. Drained of the WD40 I could see a lot of metal deposits on the connecting rods. Some scrubbing and more WD40 showed some clean metal, but there's still a lot of metal paste where the insides have worn. This shock is a goner.

So here's some pictures of what I started off with. Not bad...but not that great either.

September 1, 2008

Today I was finally able to get back to work on taking the rear suspension apart. Nothing like wanting to work on something, but getting sidelined by all kinds of calamities. With taking the left shock off earlier I had a better idea of how to approach getting the right shock off. Scraped the undercoating off the nuts off and was able to get the shock off in a matter of maybe 5 minutes tops. The 2 and 3 arm puller had to be brought out once again to relieve the shock link from the shock. I'm not even going to fool with this shock since the left one was so bad. I'll just order rebuild units from Peter Caldwell at NOSImport.

With the shocks removed I could concentrate on getting the axle and spring separated and worked on the left side first. No particular reason, jut that it was the side I was on at the moment. With the jack under the differential I started working with the u-bolt nuts. Now when I first started this project I'd soaked everything in PB Blaster. It certainly helped, but the nuts weren't as tight as I thought they should be. All 8 u-bolt nuts came off with no problem.

Then I started with the shackle nuts. These came loose way too easy, both top and bottom. A few love taps with my plastic mallet and the front of the shackle plate fell off. Then the spring eye and bushing were able to slide off the shackle. It was quite clear that the rubber bushings had perished quite a while back. No wonder the rear end was a bit wobbly.

The one part I dreaded in this job was the spring box that's bolted to the rear bulkhead of the car. I'd heard this was a bad area for rust, and that the bolts could break out really easy. Someone must be looking out for me. There's two bolt heads to attack from the bottom of the car, and then two topside behind the seat rails. One bottom one came out by using a regular ratchet. The second one though required getting the air ratchet to convince it wanted to come out to play. The topside bolts came out just fine. Now the left spring was down on the ground. In the spring mount box there's one bolt going through rubber bushings and the spring eye. There's not a way you can access this bolt while the box is still mounted to the car. It's a good idea to start soaking the bolt and the assembly in PB Blaster. My first try without it wound't budge the bolt. 5 minute soak in PB Blaster and it came out with the air ratchet.It probably would've come out with just a regular ratchet, but my arms were already getting tired.

So now it's time to figure out what other parts I need to order to get it back together. First item on the list is new shackles. Here's why:

These are in pretty bad shape. There's a lot of corrosion on the one, and a lot of grooves and gouges in the other part. This isn't worth salvaging as it'll still be rough. If this is fitted back on then the bushing will wear out quicker.

Shock links will also be replaced. They're worn and the rubber on them is cracked.

Parts order will be made tonight, and hopefully I'll have the bits cleaned up and ready to go when the parts arrive this week.

9/4/2008 Rebuilt shocks from Peter C are in. Hopefully the other box of parts will arrive on the porch Friday.

9/13/2008 Back On The Ground!

The parts order I was waiting on did not arrive on Friday. Instead it arrived Wednesday evening. Bit of a bummer, but at least I had them. After spray painting the bits I had off the car with the same Duplicolor black paint I waited for some time to free up. Saturday morning seemed to be the right time. First items to go back on the car were the shocks. A lot easier to fit on, and it took me at most 5 minutes per side. Second item was making a sub assembly of the shock link and the u-bolt plate that fits on the bottom of the axle. Reason being is that the nut is a bit close to the axle housing when installed. Made life a bit easier, and less bloody knuckles.

Now I should mention here that I had the left rear shackle off the car. It's easy to get out because there's really nothing around it on my car that interferes with it's removal. For cars with a different muffler configuration it might be a different story. The right side shackle is more of a challange to remove because of it's close quarters with the fuel tank. There's two ways to make it accessible to remove it. First option requires unbolting the fuel tank from the car. If I was going to go this route I would have to disconnect the battery (safety first) disconnect the fuel filler neck, put a floor jack under the tank and remove the six nuts. Not really an easy task when you've got almost a full tank of fuel.

Since I wasn't in the mood to fool around with all that I decided for option #2. There are three bolts with nuts and lock washers holding the shackle mount to the body. The bolt heads are on the bottom side of the car and the nuts are in the trunk to the right of the fuel filler neck. The space in the trunk is a bit tight, but if you've got a flexable 1/2" wrench, or deep 1/2" socket with a u-joint and extender you can reach them. He's the beauty of it at least on my car. I removed 2 of the 3 bolts, loosened the third bolt enough to allow the mount to pivot. I could then extract the shackle, and the rubber bushings, fit the new stuff and put it back in position. That was a lot easier I thought than removing the fuel tank.

The front spring mounts have to be attached to the spring before the mount is bolted back on the car. There's no getting around this. I started with the two bolts on the bottom side of the car. Then I lifted the spring up and pushed it onto the rear shackle, put the outside shackle plate on, lock washers, and then finger tightened the nuts.

By this time the heat and humidity was almost unbearable. I put the new u-bolts on the axle housing. I've got to make a note here. There's a rounded metal piece each side that fits over the top of the axle housing, then the u-bolt fits over that. The top u-bolt plate, rubber pad, spring, rubber pad, lower u-bolt plate, then the heavy u-bolt plate that the shock link attaches to fits in that order. Here's the problem...the spring is about 3 inches too far away. I took my floor jack and positioned it on the spring allowing me enough work space to get the u-bolt assembly together. I jacked the spring up to get it into position. The u-bolts are spread out a little so they didn't go in the mounting plates very easy. A rubber hammer helped persuade them. With the mounting plates in position I ran the locknuts on finger tight. I should also mention I connected the shock link to the shock arm before I put the u-bolt assembly together. Then the two bolts for the front spring mount were installed. These are the two nuts inside the car behind the seat rails.

Once all this was secured and finger tight the tires went on and I took her off the jack stands and started lowering the car...slowly. I wanted to make sure the spring shackles were pointing toward the rear of the car. I've heard if they point toward the front then the rear end could be a bit higher up. On the ground I worked on the nuts and bolts tightening them up. I took a test run to grab some lunch. The suspension is much smoother than it was. I'm still needing to work on the front end alignment and getting that corrected.

Hopefully I'll have a couple of pictures up in the next couple of days to finish off the suspension rebuild story.