Suspension rebuild and disc brake swap...by a noob for noobs
Time to put the suspension back together, this time with disc brakes.
Looking at the steering crossbar, next to where the inner tie rod goes, I noticed the steering idler arm was missing its grease fitting.
The fitting should be on the top. I removed a grease fitting from one of my old tie rod ends and tried to screw it into in the idler arm, but the hole was too big. I decided to put that on my list of things for the alignment shop to take care of, but it turned out they weren't able to find a fitting that would thread in either. I suppose it got knocked loose and stripped the threads as it came out. I'll need to replace the steering arms (Pitman and idler) at some point, which may be soon because I have a power steering fluid leak from the gearbox anyway. If I have to remove the gearbox that would be a good time to replace those arms. In the mean time I'll just drive it without the grease fitting. There doesn't seem to be any play in the joint, so it should be OK until I get around to fixing the gear box leak.
Here's the tie rod with the new inner and outer ends and the grease fittings installed (7mm box wrench). I cleaned it up with a lot of WD-40, a wire brush and a screwdriver. Then I worked the new ends in and out a few times until the threads were smooth enough to turn by hand. You don't want the alignment shop to have to grab it with vice-grips and scar it all up. At first I was careful to make it the same end-to-end length as before, but once the wheels were installed I just eyeballed the adjustments by looking at the tires. That was good enough to drive to the alignment shop.
The inner end (left-hand threads) goes into the steering crossbar from above:
The outer end was dangling free at this point, and I was ready to install the lower control arm and strut rod.
If you put the LCA in before the strut rod you can't get the strut rod in (ask me how I know). Before mounting the LCA I attached the strut rod to the outer end of the LCA (finger tight until the suspension is at ride height). The LCA rubber bumper is also a lot easier to install before mounting the LCA, though it could be done after. Finally, you need the aft parts of the strut rod bushings on before you push the strut rod through the frame. The Moog metal bushing pieces are clearly marked as to which way they go, but all the concave sides face aft. (I could say rearward but I've been in the Navy too long for that.) The rubber pieces each have a small flange that butts up to the frame, and I put those flanges facing each other.
At this point I reinstalled the torsion bars. I greased both ends as instructed in the shop manual and made sure the dust boot was on the bar facing the right way (cup aft), then slid the bar forward into the LCA pivot. It went in pretty easily by just jiggling the LCA up and down to line up the hex. Here's where I made a potentially serious mistake:
Notice how high the adjusting blade sticks up. There's no way the adjusting bolt will reach up there. Fortunately I realized my mistake before anything bad happened.
This shows the adjusting blade in the right place. Notice the angle is either correct or it's 60 degrees off, so you don't have to be precise to get it right. In this picture you can see the torsion bar is not all the way in yet.
Don't forget to reinstall the retainer ring on the aft end of the t-bar.
There's a good amount of room for fore/aft movement of the bar, but I slid it all the way forward. The manual says to completely fill the annular openings around the bar with grease before pushing the dust boot back on. I chose to wait until after I had the rest of the suspension together in case I had to remove the t-bar again, but I never needed to.
Before moving on the upper arm, I installed the forward end of the strut rod bushing, and the pivot shaft nut, both finger tight until the suspension is at ride height (tightening them too early will ruin the rubber when you set the car down).
Next: the upper arms and spindles.
Time to put the suspension back together, this time with disc brakes.
Looking at the steering crossbar, next to where the inner tie rod goes, I noticed the steering idler arm was missing its grease fitting.
The fitting should be on the top. I removed a grease fitting from one of my old tie rod ends and tried to screw it into in the idler arm, but the hole was too big. I decided to put that on my list of things for the alignment shop to take care of, but it turned out they weren't able to find a fitting that would thread in either. I suppose it got knocked loose and stripped the threads as it came out. I'll need to replace the steering arms (Pitman and idler) at some point, which may be soon because I have a power steering fluid leak from the gearbox anyway. If I have to remove the gearbox that would be a good time to replace those arms. In the mean time I'll just drive it without the grease fitting. There doesn't seem to be any play in the joint, so it should be OK until I get around to fixing the gear box leak.
Here's the tie rod with the new inner and outer ends and the grease fittings installed (7mm box wrench). I cleaned it up with a lot of WD-40, a wire brush and a screwdriver. Then I worked the new ends in and out a few times until the threads were smooth enough to turn by hand. You don't want the alignment shop to have to grab it with vice-grips and scar it all up. At first I was careful to make it the same end-to-end length as before, but once the wheels were installed I just eyeballed the adjustments by looking at the tires. That was good enough to drive to the alignment shop.
The inner end (left-hand threads) goes into the steering crossbar from above:
The outer end was dangling free at this point, and I was ready to install the lower control arm and strut rod.
If you put the LCA in before the strut rod you can't get the strut rod in (ask me how I know). Before mounting the LCA I attached the strut rod to the outer end of the LCA (finger tight until the suspension is at ride height). The LCA rubber bumper is also a lot easier to install before mounting the LCA, though it could be done after. Finally, you need the aft parts of the strut rod bushings on before you push the strut rod through the frame. The Moog metal bushing pieces are clearly marked as to which way they go, but all the concave sides face aft. (I could say rearward but I've been in the Navy too long for that.) The rubber pieces each have a small flange that butts up to the frame, and I put those flanges facing each other.
At this point I reinstalled the torsion bars. I greased both ends as instructed in the shop manual and made sure the dust boot was on the bar facing the right way (cup aft), then slid the bar forward into the LCA pivot. It went in pretty easily by just jiggling the LCA up and down to line up the hex. Here's where I made a potentially serious mistake:
Notice how high the adjusting blade sticks up. There's no way the adjusting bolt will reach up there. Fortunately I realized my mistake before anything bad happened.
This shows the adjusting blade in the right place. Notice the angle is either correct or it's 60 degrees off, so you don't have to be precise to get it right. In this picture you can see the torsion bar is not all the way in yet.
Don't forget to reinstall the retainer ring on the aft end of the t-bar.
There's a good amount of room for fore/aft movement of the bar, but I slid it all the way forward. The manual says to completely fill the annular openings around the bar with grease before pushing the dust boot back on. I chose to wait until after I had the rest of the suspension together in case I had to remove the t-bar again, but I never needed to.
Before moving on the upper arm, I installed the forward end of the strut rod bushing, and the pivot shaft nut, both finger tight until the suspension is at ride height (tightening them too early will ruin the rubber when you set the car down).
Next: the upper arms and spindles.