Well, after several false starts (hampered by LSAT's, reserve drill,
office emergencies, etc, ad nauseam) Miss Molly now has most of her
front suspension back in place. I still need to put the calipers and new
flexible brake lines in (front and rear), reinstall the brake MC, and top
the fluids and lubricants off, but the end is in sight!
My only concern at this point is with the kingpin assemblies. I had no
side-to-side play in the kingpins and a bit of up and down play before
beginning this project. I removed the trunnion link (to clean out the
bits of shock bushings), and reassembled. Pumped full of grease, I still
had a bit of up and down play (maybe 1/16 to 1/32"). Removed the
trunnion link again, and removed one shim on each side. Now, there's no
play at all with the nut torqued into place, but one side turns with only
the slightest resistance, and the other side requires more effort. Both
sides still turn freely, though.
Am thinking I need to replace a shim on the tighter side. I didn't
torque the trunnion nut when I checked the play (yes, I know, dumb), but
perhaps another shim and torqueing the nut will equalize the amounts of
resistance. What is the list wisdom on this?
You can stop reading here unless you want to hear what else this project
involved ...
The weekend before last was spent removing the cotter bolts, getting the
old fulcrum pins out of the wishbones, hot-tanking the new wishbones, and
general degreasing and repainting of parts.
The easiest part was removing the old cotter bolts. I have been soaking
everything in PB Blaster since I began this project (lo, these many moons
ago). I removed the nuts from both, then reinstalled both of them on one
bolt. The bottom nut was a tiny bit above the seat on the kingpin, and
the upper nut was threaded on so that just one thread of the nut stuck
above the threaded portion of the cotter bolt. I slid a deepwell socket
over both nuts, put a suitably sized drift down into the socket so that
it rested on the end of the cotter bolt, and while holding onto the
socket and the drift, whacked the drift with my hammer a few times. Then
I backed off the bottom nut some more, whacked it again, and repeated
this process until loose. Saved the cotter bolts (I think I got lucky).
Next easiest was removing the fulcrum pins. I tried sawing them out, and
quickly learned that these things are *hard*. Ruined a new bi-metal
sawzall blade in no time at all and went to plan B. Put the assembly in
the vise, and heated them with a torch while a buddy with big muscles
used a jack handle (fit perfectly in the large slot on the pin) to
unscrew them. Took maybe five minutes a side, including set up. Actual
unscrewing took about a minute. Amazing what a little heat will do....
Over the following week, I spent a few minutes here and there cleaning,
degreasing, painting, and making sure I had everything in one place.
Last Saturday, I scrubbed and scraped the wheel wells, degreased the
frame, touched up the paint, and reundercoated. Looked so nice it was
almost a shame to put parts on it.
Sunday, my buddy was back over to help with the install. Shocks were no
problem, nor were the wishbones. Getting everything nice and clean
helped, I think. Copius amounts of anti-sieze were applied to virtually
every threaded surface, and to every bolt that served as a rotation
point; I also coated the fulcrum pin and cotter bolt heavily. Some swarf
in one of the fucrum pin bushings prevented the pin from being seated and
caused a bit of concern. However, once we learned that there is no place
open for business on Sunday (in Council Bluffs, Omaha, and possibly the
world) that carries taps that big, I bought a cheapie pick, bent it to a
right angle, and ran it down the threads. BTW, what are the thread sizes
on the bushings?
Getting the springs back in place required a little more effort. This
was more time consuming than anything, but involved the use of a bottle
jack and the long bolts. Taking them out was definitely much easier!
With luck, I'll get the calipers on today or tomorrow, finish flushing
the rear of the system and replacing the rear flexible brake line, and
get her on the road by the weekend. I'm beginning to suffer withdrawal
from a lack of top down drives......
Rich
Council Bluffs, Iowa
'74.5 RB MGB "Miss Maggie"
'78 Chevy Half-Ton "Waltzin' Matilda" (LBC Support Vehicle)
'79 Midget "Miss Molly"
'86 Ford LTD Crown Victoria (BarcaLounger on Wheels)
richard.arnold@juno.com or rdarnold@neonramp.com
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