Front-end overhaul

[gadget73]

mevotech is Chinese. I wouldn't trust it too much. I actually have McQuay-Norris stuff on my car and its held up fine the last 4+ years. Its all greasable too. The Mark has Napa Premium, which I believe is all made by Spicer (Dana) and they also have grease fittings. The Duralast stuff from Autozone is usually decent too, the valuecraft stuff is shit though.

[mcninetyone]

Have you checked the price of new upper control arms with the bushings and ball joints already installed? And maybe check the price on lowers as well.

They might be extremely expensive, but then again the price of the parts vs the price of a new control arm maybe closer that you think, maybe even the same as the parts alone? I have found this to be true on several projects I've done, especially with upper arms. But I've never looked up CV parts.

[91waggin]

$#@$%%$%%!!!!!

I hope new control arm bushings are worth it, because this project is kicking my ass. This is by far the hardest thing I've ever done on my car.

I think the main problem is that I'm doing this entirely with hand tools.


Anyway, I've got the bushings in and the UCA mounted on one side. I have the new spring compressed down as tight as I can with a spring compressor, and I'm trying to install the LCA. The knuckle is mounted to the upper ball joint, and originally I had it also attached to the lower ball joint and I popped the spring in and went to jack it up to attach the LCA. I couldn't get the two hinge points on the LCA to line up where they needed to be on the cross-member, so I decided to detach the LCA from the lower ball joint and remove the spring, and hook it up to the back first. But with the new bushings the fit is so tight that I can't get all the holes to line up at all, and there's no good place to smack the LCA with a rubber mallet to make shit line up! I'm at my wits end here, and I feel like setting fire to the car right now.


I don't know how you mangs who did this job without a spring compressor managed, I'm having a hard enough time with one.

Any suggestions?

[1987cp]

I'm confused - but then, I'm told the 700 lb/in police springs I was last working with have a considerably shorter free length than some. IMO, reinstalling the LCA is by far the easiest part of the job. Once the arm's pivot points are bolted back onto the chassis (which on one side I think may have required a smack with my 4# mallet, evidently because one bushing wasn't in far enough), it pivots very neatly on the freshly lubed poly bushings. Then (in my case, anyway) it was just a matter of positioning the spring in its seat, raising the arm with a floor jack, and threading the nuts onto the balljoint studs.

IIRC, the idea with the spring compressor is that the jack shouldn't be 100% necessary for the final step in this sequence.

[91waggin]

Ok good. At least you can get the spring in with the LCA attached on the inboard side. Chilton's says do it ball joint first, and I can't see how the fuck that would work.

I'm taking a beer break right now, but I'm gonna see if I can get the stupid LCA to go in its holes.

[1987cp]

Good grief. I've certainly contemplated trying to change out springs with the balljoint still connected, but then mrltd and gadget73 (and probably others) explained how to use a BFH to separate the balljoints without damage (I wanted very much to get the LCAs out without replacing balljoints), so I never got anywhere near the point of actually attempting it. Having only one axis of rotation does make the reconnection job pretty simple - having the balljoint flopping all over and the spring in the way (and weighing things down) while whacking the LCA's pivots into place must be one heck of a nightmare!

[91waggin]

Yes.

As far as the ball joints go, I'm not replacing them, because it turns out they're fairly new (dad had them replaced just before I started driving the car, and they're greasable). All I did was remove the nut and smack the stud down and it popped out of the knuckle.

[91waggin]

Got it! Thanks for your encouragement, 87CP.

[1987cp]

That's part of what we're here for.

Hope you didn't mushroom your stud! I did that once in '05, and a coworker was rather perturbed with me when he found out what I'd done. I used the hammer-on-the-spindle-to-temporarily-deform-the-stud-hole-so-it-lets-go-of-the-stud routine when I pulled my junk apart last fall, so the only concern was making sure I had a clear swing and didn't inadvertently hammer on the balljoint boot and be in the same boat as back in '01 when I mangled the boots with a pickle fork.

[Piece-it pete]

... I feel like setting fire to the car right now.
.....

A time honored tradition.

'The Busted Knuckle Garage - Repair and Dispair under one roof.'

Is it done?

Pete

[1987cp]

'The Busted Knuckle Garage - Repair and Despair under one roof.'

Sounds like my garage. I try to despair at least once per project!

[Piece-it pete]

Pete

[91waggin]

Fuck yeah, got it done last night at about 11pm. I get to go back to my apartment in my own car instead of the caravan, and my parents get their garage back. But it's fuckin done!!!!

Anyway, replaced upper and lower control arm bushings (energy suspension), front coils (stock wagon rate from Moog), outer tie rod ends (moog), and sway bar end links (moog). The upper ball joints looked to be in awesome shape, but the lower ones are a little sorry looking, and they'll get replaced as soon as I can muster up some more energy and funds, along with the inner tie rod ends. I'm not too worried about the ball joints since they are all greasable, so either Ford put greasable ones on the later cars, or they've already been replaced once. Dad thinks he did it at some point, but he's not sure.

And it was totally worth it! The car feels like a modern car, and it rides as well as my mom's brand new van. It's incredible. And the old end links were so sloppy and open it's a wonder they did anything. I used to install aftermarket sway bars on big motorhomes, and I'm going to go over to the old shop and see if they've got a set of poly saddle bushings that they'll throw my way. It's so flat through the corners now.


Thanks for your encouragement, everybody!

Oh, and I didn't mushroom the ball joint stud, but I sure managed to fuck up the threads on the outer tie rod ends. Oh well, they needed to be replaced anyway. Next time I'll put a block of wood between my hammer and the studs.

[gadget73]

front end rebuilds definitely do wonders for overall road feel on a car. These cars age well in that department, driving decently even with pretty well fried bushings but they feel so much better when the front end isn't slopped out. If you ever want to drive something thats horrible with worn out front end bits, borrow a worn Fox chassis car sometime. They tramline so bad that its actually scary.


Tip for getting that BS out without damaging the studs. Don't hit the studs at all. Hit the side of the spindle or center link where they pass through. It will deform it just enough to pop it out of there without ever touching the threads.

[91waggin]

Tip for getting that BS out without damaging the studs. Don't hit the studs at all. Hit the side of the spindle or center link where they pass through. It will deform it just enough to pop it out of there without ever touching the threads.

Where were you 36 hours ago? Oh well I needed new tie rod ends anyway.