>I need an honest assesment from the list. I've got to re-bush
>Sonja's front end, and while I'm there I'm going to do ball
>joints, shocks and springs. I have all the parts. How long
>will this take me (i.e. can I really make it to Savannah?).
>I've got a fair amount of wrenching experience, and no special
>tools (as in I'll have to have someone else do the pressing).
>I can (maybe) find someone in the area who does this sort of
>thing 8 hours a day to do it and throw some money at the
>problem, but I don't want to if I don't have to. Any comments
>or opinions? Am I _likely_ to have to do trunnions?
I'd set aside two days of work, it is certainly doable by the Savannah
dates. You'll need a spring compressor that can be made at home
using several large nuts and a treaded rod. Buy the largest diameter
threaded rod at a hardware store you can get (usually 1/2'').
Before you begin jacking up the car, remove the lower suspension
stops to get at the 4 bolts that hod the bottom of the shock.
Once the car is then jacked up, remove the wheels and then the
top of the shock to allow the shock to be totally removed.
Then you use the threaded rod and bolts through the center of the
suspension (you essentially replace the shock with the threaded rod
and large nuts) to compress the spring and lower pan assembly enough
so that you can get at the front lower pan assembly nuts/bolts.
After freeing the pan, you then back off on the "spring-compressor"
until the pan is loose and can be removed. The details using
"special tool #xyz" is in the repair manual. Depending
on how early your car is, you may have to have the lower
front bushes pressed in AND honed to fit the suspension shaft.
That shouldn't be any big deal for any decent machine shop.
If they want to charge you more than 1 hours labor I'd say they
don't know what they are doing.
Hope this helps,
Bill
See you in Sanannah
Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's.
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Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.)
Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!dancer!whs70
201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@dancer.cc.bellcore.com
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