Started to tackle the rebuild of the front suspension on my '71 B today.
Disassembled the passenger side assembly tonight. Went pretty smoothly,
except that I had to cut the fulcrum pin holding the shock to the swivel
axle (as anticipated, ordered new bolts for that purpose, and thank God I
bought that angle grinder). The lever shock on this side was really bad had
absolutely no resistance. I was able to remove the lower trunion bolt, only
to discover it was some el cheapo bolt with full length threads, and no
special nuts w/ split pins either (as an aside, even where there were those
special nuts, the DPO didn't bother to use split pins anyway). At this
point, I thought this was just another DPO cost-cutting measure, so I
started the reassembly. Pressed in my V8 bushes into the A-arms, and
remounted them onto the car w/ the spring pan. Added the new spring, and
jacked up the pan slightly so I could get the new trunion bolt into place.
Pushed the bolt through, and its way too short. Reason? Looks like the holes
for the trunion bolt on the A-arms had ovaled, and the DPO's fix was to weld
some metal plate to the arms, and re-drill the holes (explains the longer
trunion bolt). Seeing that both A-arms on the other side are quite bent and
twisted (???), I guess I'll just get new A-arms for this side also. The
kingpin on this side was nice and tight and had no play. I am probably going
to take apart the other side tomorrow, and hopefully will not find any more
surprises.
Craig
'71 B
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