TomP

So, first day is done. (Actually it was done around 9:00 PM!) Anyway, here's what happened:

1. Drove all around the friggin place trying to find grease fittings. Couldn't find any in Pep Boys except for oddball sized metric ones. Couldn't find any in Strauss Auto. Walked up to the counter and demanded to know if they had ever heard of a grease fitting. The intent was to follow that with "Well where the F--- are they in this store??" but the kid (probably sensing my extreme anger) said "Oh they're right over here". I followed him to the hardware aisle, getting ready to yell "They're not here, I looked in every f'ing drawer"- when he took a sharp turn and went to the grease guns. Yep, there they were. Never occurred to me that grease fittings (hardware) would be by grease guns (tools), but hey, what do I know. I bet Pep Boys had 'em too.

2. Bought a lot of beer. Careful disassembly requires lots of liquids. It's the re-assembly that requires me to be 100% sober.

3. Passenger side! I put my trick little bubble camber level on the rotor, and realized immediately that I should've bought TWO. The idea is to adjust the level to "zero degrees", and when you put the car back together, make sure the level reads zero again. Of course moving the level results in changing it's adjustment... dammit. So I drew around the upper strut mounts with white out... I'll use that to realign everything.

4. Removed caliper, rotor, dust sheild, strut & strut tower (fiance' helped on that one!), steering knuckle. [edit, 12/15/2003- make that EX-fiance. [I've since apologized to the car for letting her touch it] That knuckle did NOT want to let go of the balljoint... I thought my pickle fork was going to get wedged in there and not want to come out. Finally the sucker popped free. Inspected the ball joint hole in the knuckle, it's fine, so I can reuse the knuckle. (If the hole was oblong or something, you need a new spindle aka steering knuckle.)

5. Got one lower control arm bolt out; the other bolt is rusted to the bushing's center sleeve. That's when I quit. Tomorrow morning I'll be firing up the air-powered cut-off tool and slicing the bolt head off.

I'm trying to take pictures of every major step (i.e., removing the rotor is not a major step). The 'ol digital cam is working pretty good for this!

Couple stupid problems so far:

1. Had a hell of a time getting the spring compressor onto the spring. I wanted it up high but couldn't reach high enough into the spring. Finally realized that the spring was a coil, and I could just spin the upper half of the spring compressor so it "climbed" the spring to get as high as I want. (Duh)

2. While trying to break loose the castellated nuts for the lower ball joint and the outer tie rod joint, the suspension was trying to turn. I was worried I'd break the "steering wheel lock" by forcing the bolts to loosen. Duh, picked up the impact wrench, it loosened 'em without stressing the steering wheel or linkage.

3. Haven't removed the center link yet. It was in the way of the lower control arm's front bolt. Size is 18mm, and I didn't have a wrench. Couldn't use an open ended adjustable because the bolthead is "sunk" in a little bit. Finally realized that if I put the key in and turned the wheel all the way left, the linkage moved out of the way. (Duh)

That's all for now! Time to go to bed.

devianb

Man, that sounds like a lot of work. I am more than happy to pay someone to do that for me.

Of course I can handle installing some LCAs and Adjustable Panhard rod.

Doward

Fun fun! We changed out all the suspension under my friend's '95 'Stang vert, and let me tell you - it was ALL worth it when we finished around 4am!

unvc92camarors

sounds like you need to pick up more beer with all that work youre doing

KED85

Sounds about right!
Have a good day tomorrow!
Beer works good in the morning too!

pontiacguy1

Well, it may be a pain in the butt to do all that, but a lot of the little stuff that he is doing and checking is something that someone else isn't going to do for you. Besides, doing a big project like that and seeing the results at the end of all of your work will give you a feeling of satisfaction that cannot be described.

TomP

I'd give a status for day #2, but I'm going to write this day off as not existing. Guess what; the rusted bolt is still there. An 18 pound sledge isn't budging it. My air-powered cut-off tool did NOT fit well in there, so I was trying every other option. I finally said screw it and started to try to cut the bolt head off anyway. I'm trying my damndest not to cut up the control arm; so far I've just given it a good scraping. I have to reposition the cutting wheel every couple seconds to keep from cutting the control arm.

I'm -hoping- that I can just cut off the bolt head, and pry the control arm "down" and to the side to get the threaded end of the bolt out of the cross member. I can't see any way to get any cutting tool at the threaded end of the bolt. This is the "rear" bolt, the one that comes very close to the front subframe rail and exhaust y-pipe connection. I've considered cutting thru the y-pipe and welding it back together when I'm done, but that's an absolute last resort option.

I'm just hoping that the driver's side won't have this problem.

I tried using my die grinder to grind the head away; yeah, well, it just polished the head really nicely. I tried my snap-on air hammer, and just wound up ruining the chisel bit. Tried using a cold chisel, but can't get enough of a swing to make any difference. The chisel isn't even making a dent. Even thought of cutting the control arm in half and getting one out of a junkyard, but (A) that's a lot of work to do in the dirt/sand/mud, and (B) I'd probably hit the same damned problem.

To make things more aggravating, GONE is the great selection of sockets that Home Depot used to have. They used to have every socket possible; in 1/4 inch drive up to 1/2 inch, regular sockets to mid length to deep well, full selection of impact sockets/extensions/swivels, it's all gone!! There's a total of 15 sockets there. No extensions, no swivels, nothing. Apparently they want you to buy a full tool set instead. Asked the guy at the SECOND home depot where the sockets went, he said a guy from Husky came down and re-arranged the socket area. I believe him because their layout looked like the FIRST home depot's layout. Lowe's had even LESS then home Depot had.

I wanted a 1/2 impact universal (swivel) joint. Figured I could try to snap the bolt head off. Wound up trying with hand tools, and managed to get the bolt to spin; nothing snapped (dammit). So that would've been $20 wasted on something I didn't need anyway.

Alright, time for bed.

Xophertony

KED85

Find a friend with a torch set up, PAY him to visit, get arms dropped/finished.
Seek out the neighborhood PLUMBER!
Then apply the idea, I mentioned above for reinstallation of bushings.
Put poly bushings in freezer, now.
Heat will make that bolt cooperate.
And ViseGrips.
Been there.
Try your suspension rebuild on a 1974 Corvette from Iowa, coated with TAR for keeping rust outta frame.
Oh the joys I expect when I try to install new body mount spacers!