I finally received my back-ordered ball joints from TRF yesterday, so of
course, I had to install them today. I replaced both ball joints and replaced
old and cracked upper A arm bushings with new poly-u ones. I replaced nyloc
nuts and lock washers, used my dye on the existing ball joint bolts to clean up
the threads and tapped the castle nuts on the upper fulcrum pins. I went for a
drive tonight and it's amazing that the front squeaks are gone and the car has
significantly tightened up around corners. My question is about the upper
fulcrum pins. The sleeves were pitted a bit, but still looked even. I tried
to clean them up with strips of wet sandpaper and a fine wire brush wheel, but
couldn't clean them up like I would like while they were on the car. When I
tried to remove them, I was only able to get two bolts off one side and three
on the other. The one I took off from inside the engine bay required a lot of
effort and I couldn't budge the fourth bolt on that side. I was limited to
cleaning up those bolts I could remove and replacing lock washers. Is
replacing the upper fulcrum pins advised in any front suspension rebuild? And
how does one best remove them with the body still on the car? I've 90% decided
to order new ones to put on the my replacement frame (that was supposed to be
delivered today, but has been delayed) but I'd still feel better being able to
remove and clean the existing ones. I do have the satisfaction, though, of
beginning and finishing a project within the same day and seeing noticable ride
improvement. And I got to go for a drive on Dec 8.
Andy
TR250
CD6521L
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