Weather was OK when I got home so I pulled out some tools and went to town getting some of the suspension ready to pull....

I remember Nicholas had said the suspension has some issues and after I pulled the discs I noticed a couple of things....

The driver's side looked like every other mopar I pulled the brakes off of.... bent to crap cotter pins, caked on crud and old grease....

Then I got to passenger side....

Clean Spindle?

The splash shield was realllllly clean... like it was NOS, the spindle was sanitarily clean... and oddly, there was no grease packed in the bearing....and when I went to loosen the upper balljoint nut... the stud rotates.... *sigh*... just gonna be more fun tomorrow... LOL....

Their ears were burning...LOL... got a call from Vanessa today and it looks like Saturday Morning I will be picking up a 3.21 sure grip F body rear axle....





Can't wait to pull the cover off and have it 'calculate' in the drain pan....



(OK time for the rubber chicken, that joke was old after the last topic post on rear axles....)

What a weird afternoon..... after 3 hours of head scratching and cussing... I'm down to needing to remove the steering link, the steering box and coupler, and the K member....

That being said, this car currently has a "Love/Hate" relation, and it's probably because the owner previous to Nicholas didn't love the car....

I started on the drivers side and amazingly:

The spindle came right off with the separator, the upper ball joint came out without much issue with the 3/4 ratchet and socket.... even the upper control arm bracket, adjusters, etc... all came apart reasonably well...

Then I went to the lower control arm... after putting in the separator, I tightened the bolt down and after a few rotation "BAM"... the balljoint had blown loose of the lower control arm and went skipping around under the car... that was a new one.

Sway bar (need some bushings that weren't on the list), torsion bars, shocks all came apart easily....

Then I went to the passenger side.... Lower ball joint came apart less violently and left the ball joint in the arm.... then the upper ball joint which had a loose stud... I ended up pulling out Mr.Cutoff Wheel and sectioning the nut off the stud and the spindle dropped right off... ball joint came out easily... then I looked at the adjusters... something didn't seem right...

I was missing the end washers for the UCA bushings like the drivers side... missing the washers under the adjuster nuts, and the two neat sheet metal brackets that keep the adjuster nuts and washers in line with the bracket bolts...and one of the adjuster nuts wasn't tight at all...

Maybe tomorrow while at Wildcat maybe they have a bucket of misc parts I can get these from for a few bucks....

The roller pin in the pot coupler doesn't want to budge... so I'll just pull the box with the K and pull the guts out the coupler so I can get to it more directly...


I took a few moments to lube up the K member bolt threads and took a few turns with a socket and 1/2" breaker bar and they turn really easy, so this will be a nice pull....

Finally got cleaned up and got a cramp in my left leg... as I remember right, Quinine helps with cramps... sounds like a good reason to have a couple of Gin and Tonics....

If the weather holds tomorrow, I will scoot down to the rear end and measure the driveline to see what I need for the 8 1/4" (might have one in my rack of misc drivelines...seem to think that Hollanders had said the 4 door late Dart with 8 1/4" rear is almost the same...)... and get the rear prepped to be pulled... and see what I need to do to remove the spring isobushings....

Time to also research how to remove the UCA bushings as the adjuster bar is captured, unlike the A-body where the arm has individual elliptical adjusters....

Edit: Interesting that both the 1976 and 1978 FPC and Manual has no listing or diagram for these sheet metal brackets... will have to look at another FM body tomorrow and see what is up....

Ouch. It is never fun to clean up someone else's mess. Pictures help us commiserate better!

I'll have to post my pics later, I'm on a mission to get in a position to get the suspension KO'd by next weekend so I'm just going to keep track of my actions as they unfold and post pics later.

I will say that the F body suspension has some of it's own unique challenges over the older straight torsion bar setup...


The final LCA ball joint came out with a shop press easily, as well as the LCA bushings using a spacer to keep from crushing the LCA, the UCA bushings came out easily with a shop press and correct spacers.

Since I am replacing all the rotten 40 year old bushings including the torsion bar end bushings... I will say the FSM is OK but leaves somethings to be desired...

Torsion bar dust boots and ends came off OK... but then I came to the pivot bushings... after drilling the welds and the plates didn't split after chiselling... I pulled out a couple cinder blocks and a MAPP gas torch and burned the OEM rubber bushing out... after that the pivot casing fell off the end and I could chuck it into the vise and chisel the assembly apart....

The manual said to chuck the torsion bar end assembly into a vice so you can drill the cold rivet/cross shaft heads and drive the shaft out with a 5/16" rod....It took drilling a hole through the shaft starting at 3/16" and working up to about .38 where the shaft body was so thin I could spin it out with the drill bit.... after that the end dropped off, and after drilling the welds out (that must have been some industrial spotwelder, I had to drill through the welds completely to get them to bust with the chisel, then burn the bushing out to get the pieces to release).

Tomorrow if the weather holds, I will finish cleaning the other suspension parts, get the tie rods assembles, rebush and insert balljoints in the UCA's, insert the polymotor mount bushings in the spool motor mounts I just burned the old rubber bushings out of... then get the cam installed and degreed in the block... after that I will work on the rear suspension. Sunday, I have a friend that will help me box the LCA's, weld up and gusset the K member, and weld up the holes I made in the torsion bar components, and install a homemade/Doc style cam button in the timing cover (since I have a spare rocker arm adjuster in a cracked rocker....)

I am debating on just dropping the A904 out so I can go through and do the band adjustment along with the usual checks and modifications easier than laying on my back fighting gravity....I have to drop the cross member anyway as the cross member to tailshaft bushing is rotten and not doing it's job (luckily I happen to have another bracket and poly bushing ready to install...LOL)

Parts are clean, 90 minutes at the parts washer to get the grime off, then another few hours with the peanut grinder and wire wheel to take care of rust, and a few minutes with a abrasive wheel to remove the old welds from the T-Bar bushing housings....

Tomorrow, I'll get my parts welded up, then when weather is good again I will paint and prep for reinstallation, and take a bunch of pics.

Got over to my buddy's at 8:30am and proceeded to
work on welding the K-member seams, putting a skid plate at the
middle of the bottom of the K, and after we looked a bit closer... someone previous to us had already done some welding on the stock seams
(the left lots of mig wire nubs all over the place...)

We repaired the T-bar bushing housings I had drilled to break the welds.
We installed a cam button in the timing cover, repaired an oil pump
splash sheild that cracked at the rear bolt hole (common issue).
Then we welded a couple of gussets onto the lower flange for the UCA's to keep them from spreading/ keep them rigid....

During this madness, his son stopped by with a head scratching look on his face... he had rebuilt an engine for his Chevy 4x4, but it wasn't running as good as it should.... So after asking a few of the usual tech questions it led to: custom cam grind, didn't degree the cam, lined up the dots... also using a stock distributor curve....

So after teaching him why we work on the little details, and why changes to cam phasing, why timing curve was important... he's going to get me some information, and after horse swapping some parts for some future elbow grease, he should have a good reliable engine that will pick up the torque and power that got left on the table.... I'll have to find out what the Chevy distributor secret numbers are and this will be a first time using the 8 cylinder setting on my sun machine... It's going to be interesting since my buddy was my journeyman when I apprenticed in sheet metal, now I get to teach his son something about building engines for efficiency.


I got back home and the sun was out so I cleaned and prime coated the parts.... went and did some house chores, and came back and painted the parts...

Will post pics when I get the chance.

We are supposed to have some good weather later in the week, if so, I can get the bushings installed, and my son and I can start installing the front suspension....

If that goes reasonably well, we can then concentrate on the rear axle swap, and if weather isn't so grand we can get the engine reassembled...

Somewhere after we get all that done, brakes and an alignment will be in order... The rotors look like them may not take another pass, and the drums on both axles look to be not the best donors for cleaning up, so I had better get my shopping list of parts put together...

It's pretty much going to be a new car when done (still need to do some body rot repair in the lower rear quarters....and clean out the cowl....)

Movin' and a groovin'....

Awesome! Your son is pretty lucky. I can't wait to see some pictures.

I gotta say... that when it comes to separating the torsion bar end bushings and brackets... there is a lack of information on the internet....

I finally got them apart to put the polybushings on... and took a couple of pictures to help others... (gotta stop working on this and get some pics posted up... but I'm getting lots of forward movement....)

For future FMJ suspension refurbishers... after removing the "rivet" by drilling it out progressively, and removing the end bushing assembly, then drilling the welds and cold chiselling the shell apart (and rewelding your holes back up and reforming the shells)... and burning the rubber bushing off, then cleaning up... you'll end up pushing the two parts apart using a press or bearing separator... if you use a press a 15/16" - 1/2" drive socket is just the right size to push the inner sleeve out.... and it's not easy... the ridges caused by drilling the rivet and just plain rust between the tubes really take a lot to get it to shove out... reassembly is pretty easy but you need to make sure to get the holes lined up right....

I hear the weather is supposed to be good tomorrow....I should be able to put the front end back together... then work on the rear next, which will be much simpler.... (leaving brakes, transmission, driveline, brake switch, and optional stereo modification....)

Dude gets shyte done......

Fog burned off about noon, one of our long term clients treated me like I was the backside of an unwiped camel, so I took the rest of the afternoon off... and will have a serious talk with my manager about our client... so I told my immediate supervisor that I was going to take the afternoon get some sun and gain some perspective...

Anyhow from my perspective:

Assembled and painted the Firm Feel PS box and reservoir.
Installed K-member (those 1973+ Charger Poly-U bushings are the bomb for the price and ease of installation...Fits FMJ too...LOL)
Installed LCA's
Installed UCA Plates, installed the UCA's but not set yet (waiting on shocks to arrive).
Found that if you do the Torsion bar ends right and don't over drill them by mistake, a 7/16" Grade 8 bolt will fit perfectly in the hole.

Next up:

Refurbish pot coupler.
Install FF PS box and connect coupler.
Install torsion bars and set service height.
Install Shocks (when they come in).
Install Spindles, Pitman and Idler Arm, C-body tie rods.
Install front sway bar (when bushings come in).
Front Brakes (when replacement parts come in).
Refurbish Leaf Spring Bushings.
Rear Shocks
Swap Rear axle.
Rear Brakes.
Driveline
Brake Switch
Tune Up
Alignment.
Stereo.


I'm no longer an idiot, I'm an F'n Mad Man...a mad mannnn.....

From Dusteridiot to Aspenmaniac? Or F/M Madman?

Before the thunderstorms started (at least we didn't get the NOAA warning for half dollar sized hail....)...

U Bolt nuts on rear axle seized... angle grinder and cut off wheel took care of that in record time....(lot faster than cordless sawzall and metal blades)....

7 1/4" rear is out.
Driveline is out, will pull nasty looking U joints and prep to measure to have it cut down...
Leaf springs ready for new bushings, have isobushing elimination kit.
8 1/4" new rear cover came today, have some nice 80W90 GL-5 ready to go in it.
Pulled the transmission.. will open it up this weekend and see what it looks like and make the band adjustments.... better get some ATF.

Waiting on replacement brake parts and shocks...

Will need to track down a correct speedo gear for this thing... it's got the hairpinned smaller gear in the unitary speedo cable housing.... by the old gear system I need a 33 tooth...

I have to laugh a bit... I tried to get the rear half of the exhaust system out of the way and found someone replaced the muffler and exhaust clamped the muffler in place with some of that exhaust flex between it and the pipe....

I got looking more at at this, and I got to putter around the shop a bit tomorrow... I was just going to put in a single exhaust... but I do have head pipes for a set of dutra duals, and I do have a front dutra.... but I had a back stock manifold prepped a while back but I don't see it, so I'll have to dig....

OK... for the record, I will say that the F body rear upper shock mounts are easier to access and work on than the A body (someone with a wrench in the trunk just makes things more team oriented!!...)...

The bad part is that the 40 years of road abuse does make them hard to get loose when they are rusted to all get out.... but we got them out and put the new shocks in.

That being said...I got the poly bushings put into the rear springs and shackles this morning (the rear came out with a screwdriver, the oval front ones had to cook in my cinder block BBQ for 30 minutes before chiselling out the shells with a BFH...)

I got the parts wire wheeled and painted while the sun was out.... then put Spencer in some grubbies...

Cleaned the foul oil out of the 8 1/4" case, scraped the old gasket off the mating surface, then put the new chrome cover and gasket on and torqued the bolts. Put a bit more than 4 pints of GL-5 80W90 in the case and closed the fill plug (will get some sure grip friction modifier to add next week).

Rolled it under the car and jack it up...

Then double teamed each side of the car installing the rear hangers, then with some manipulation with a jack got the front hangers installed and torqued both sets of bolts....

We put the shock plates and bushings into place, then lowered the 8 1/4" into place... Working on each side we put the u bolts in and the new lower plates to clamp the springs into place now that we have no Isobushings...then I heard a crack on the passenger side when we ran the nuts up on that side... this is the first time I've seen the bottom partial leaf on a leaf spring pack crack in half... but better now than on the road...
so we pulled the broken leaf and hand tightened the nuts... and I will have to put a parts wanted ad in for a loose leaf...

We got the shocks mounted to the shock plates, then put the new rear axle brake hose in place and got the lines tightened up to it and the C clip on the body knocked into place...

Assuming my arms haven't fallen off... tomorrow, we will get the refurbished torsion bars installed, sway bar mounted, front shocks installed, then get the upper ball joints installed... and if enough time mount the spindles.....

Which will leave this grocery list to finish:

Hook steering box to pot coupler.
Install Pitman and Idler Arm.
Install Steering Link and Tie Rods.
Degree Cam.
Install Oil Pump and Recurved Distributor.
Install head.
Pushrods and Rockers.
Install motor mounts and accessory brackets.

Check adjustments on A-904.
Replace Sector Shaft seal.
Figure out what to do with the non-existent 4 year only plastic gear they used in F-bodies in lieu of the metal shaft ones in trucks and other cars....
(I saw an article where I might be able to use one of my spare A-body housings, the older metal shaft gear, and use a 1980 truck speedo cable that works for the metal gear and the newer style of speedometer attachment (I gotta take the dash bezel off anyway since my buddy's kid traded me a 1.5DIN bezel and Pioneer CD/MP3 player to help him run the SCR/DCR calc for his other brand engine and help degree it in).

Bolt both tranny and engine together.
Stab assembly back into the car.
Determine driveline length...see if I have one that works, or get one cut down).

I pulled a couple of spares I had on my storage rack, and one might work.... the Aspen/Volare 7 1/4" rear driveshaft measures 54"... the nose
on the 8 1/4" rear axle is 1 5/8" longer than the 7 1/4"... so that puts the drive shaft length needing to be about 52 1/2" +/-... or so (as a trivial note the 108" wheelbase A-body uses a 51 1/2" drive shaft... and the 7 1/4" rear version is 53".... which is pretty close....)