Greg Rogers

Decided to rebuild the front and rear suspension and replace the carrier and pinion bearings in the Vista Beater this winter. It needs new bushings and the rear sway bar apparently was added to unboxed lower control arms by a previous owner. It had water in the rear end for aprx 2 years so I know it needs rear bearings and also had a bad lower ball joint in front so I'm going to re-do it all. See the way the sway bar was installed to the unboxed lower control arms. Also you can see how worn out the rear upper control arm bushings are.

Greg Rogers

Got the rear end out of the car. I was surprised how easy everything came apart. I took the rear end completely out and put it on steel saw horses. I changed the rear wheel bearings in this car shortly after I got it because I found the water in the rear. After removing the old bearings I checked them out and found pits/rust, so I knew the other rear end bearing were probably bad also. Also when driving this car you could hear a roar that sounded just like a bearing spun w/compressed air. Today I disassembled the rear end and sure enough the bearings were pitted also. The gears look great. I was hoping to just put back together w/new bearings by counting the amount of turns to remove the pinion nut. I marked where the nut was in relation to the pinion and the yoke with a black marker. Then I counted the turns, and where it came off the threads. I marked where it came loose of the threads with a white marker. It ended up being 10 and 5/8 turns before it came loose of the threads. The carrier came right out without having to use a puller or any force at all. Then I got a surprise.. As I removed the pinion I found the crush sleeve was cracked!! So I'm going to have to see what I should do about this. Tomorrow I plan to go out and replace the rear control arm bushings. I got some weld in control arm plates to box the lower control arms. My friend welded them in some LCAs removed from my parts Vista.

Paladin31

Hey hey Greg, great attention to detail, very nice. I have a question for you, do these trim moldings look like the front fender pieces that wrap the mating area behind the bumper-fender line on your Vista's?

Brett

Greg Rogers

[QUOTE=Paladin31;767823]Hey hey Greg, great attention to detail, very nice. I have a question for you, do these trim moldings look like the front fender pieces that wrap the mating area behind the bumper-fender line on your Vista's?

Brett[/QUOTE ] Brett, I'll look at them tomorrow and let you know for sure but I think that is what they are.

Paladin31

Thanks. So I have to ask... Did you pre-buy propane this year ? A customer of ours signed up in June and locked in $1.59 or so he said. A screaming deal compared to last year!
Take your time in replying buddy.

Brett

Greg Rogers

Continued work today- removed old bushings. Was able to drive out the inner sleeves from the old bushing in the rear end easily because the rubber was so shot. Then the rubber came right out. I used a steel plate and a BFH to drive the old shell out. Then used a old exhaust pipe adapter and the big hammer to drive the new bushing in. Went pretty easy. I looked over all the pieces I had to decide which were best. (I recently tore apart another 70 Vista that I bought for parts, so I have 2 of most everything). You can see in the pics that the upper control arms from the parts Vista have some oblonged holes. Also the rust goes all the way to the holes- not like the clean area around the holes that the control arms from my car show. I think someone did some work on the parts Vista and forgot to tighten up the upper control arm bolts! I also found some other weird things on the parts Vista when I disassembled it.

Greg Rogers

I bought a set of plates to weld into the lower control arms that I took out of the parts car. A good friend welded them in for me. Pushed out the inner sleeves from the bushing from the upper control arms using a press and a socket. Then used a sawsall and cut a pie slice out of the old rubber. (shakes the hell out of the work bench and everything goes flying- also a smoky-stinky mess). After old rubber is out, then I cut the outer shell of the old bushing and took it out.

Greg Rogers

Had a hard time pressing in new bushings in control arms. You can't just press them in only backing up the bottom of the arm because it could get stuck at the top and flatten or smash the control arm. I went real slow and used a piece of wood and a socket to try to maintain the 1 3/8" (aprx) space between the 2 sides of the arm. Went ok but not easy. I ended up using a pair of vise grips to pull in the top. Then I painted all of it. I bought a quart of POR 15. Easy stuff to use but sure is pricy!

Greg Rogers

Filled up for $1.90 last time at the house. I am locked in for $2.79 at my cabin in Harrison. Who knows?? I thought $2.79 was a great deal then!! I own both my tanks.

Paladin31

I hear you. It's casino time and we usually get craps.

oldcutlass

Nice work Greg, thats my next project as soon as I find a posi rear.

Greg Rogers

Brett, Here's some pics of the front and rear moldings.

Paladin31

That's it, Thank you. I was puzzled when everything I could find pointed to the VC only receiving theses pieces...but makes sense now, to give a finish/trimmed line to the vinyl wood grain appliques'.

Today was a teaser, I had 60* here and was out in the yard working like it was September and not [nearly] December. Keep up the good work Greg, and keep posting pics. Been a long time since I worked on a [Battle]Wagon. Good memories!

Brett

Greg Rogers

Been rounding up parts, having lots of troubles. Bought a lot of the parts locally, about half of them were right. I was feeling a little guilty the way the small local auto parts stores were folding up and Rock Auto and Amazon, etc. are taking their place. So I went to order all the parts from a friend who works at one of the local stores. But the prices on some parts were so much more than Rock (ball joints and tie rod ends) that I ordered those parts from Rock. Well my friend is working on getting the bushings and a set of air shocks. I also got a set of front springs from him but they were for a full size Olds, now he can't get the correct springs for a Vista. Meanwhile got the parts from Rock Auto and the outer tie rods were wrong. The Moog ES314RL that are listed as for the Vista is wrong, even worse one was mispackaged, (see pics) It looks like a inner tie rod end for a FWD car. Well they sent me a label to send them back and that should be ok. I ordered rear end differential parts from Jim (Monzaz- on Classic Olds - a great guy) NO problems- got the right parts from him. Well I plan to go back to work on car this Saturday.

Greg Rogers

Bought a complete bearing kit from Jim (Monzaz - here on Classic Olds) that includes the bearings, shims and seals. I also bought a new crush sleeve from him. Used the old outer race, a plate, socket and extension with a bfh to drive the new inner pinion race in the housing, did the same with the outer pinion race. Not the best way but worked ok, just went slow. The original pinion shim had ears on the inside which doesn't seem right. The ears cause the bearing to not fit flatly against the pinion. But I may have deformed it when I took the inner pinion race off the pinion. Anyway I measured the thickness of the shim and put together 2 shims from the kit. Then after putting shims between gear and inner bearing I pressed on using the press. I used the old inner bearing race to protect the new one while pressing on.

Greg Rogers

Pressed on new carrier bearings again using old races to protect the new bearings. Put the original carrier bearing shims in the housing to see how it would fit. When I took out the carrier with the old bearings it came right out without any tugging at all, but when I attempted to put back in with the new bearings and original shims it was tight. I attempted to tap in and sure enough... broke the original right side shim. Jim (Monzaz) warned me about that so I am glad I bought the replacement shims. I measured the original shims and used new shim pacs. Went in with a couple taps. Back lash feels good.

Greg Rogers

Rear end pretty much all back together. Had some good help. My son and grandson helped put the backing plates/brakes back on.

Greg Rogers

Had a huge transmission fluid leak that was coming out thru the u-joint. I asked here on the site about it and found out that they changed the design of the front yokes in 1970. I was told if my yoke had a vent or bleed hole and a "missing" spline I could braze or JB weld the hole shut and it shouldn't leak any more. Well when I changed U-Joints a while back I brazed shut the hole. The leak was much better but it still leaked. So now that I have the driveshaft out again I put air to the yoke and saw that the yoke still leaks around the disc that apparently is pressed in the yoke. So I grabbed a couple old driveshafts I had and neither of these have a vent hole. I filled both of those yokes up with water and left them. I'll see if they leak tomorrow. See the pictures of the drive shafts. The longer one is from the Vista. The other 2 I think are from 2 door Cutlasses. Why does one have a rubber insulator and the other is solid?

Greg Rogers

Both the yokes held water, so I cleaned up the best looking one and installed it. Hopefully no more leak. I plan to finish up the rear part and start on the front end this weekend.

oldcutlass

They were rubber encapsulated to prevent power train noise/vibration. The problem is that over time the rubber got old and degraded, making the drive shaft useless. Looks like your help had a good time.

Greg Rogers

Had a few days over the holidays to take my time and work slow but sure in the garage. Reinstalled the drive shaft and finished up the rear end. When attaching the sway bar to the welded boxed lower control arms I noticed I needed some shims. I bought some on line and put one in each side. Last summer we had 6 adults in this car and even though it had new cargo coil springs in it, it sure rode low. The car had air shocks on it before ( I think from the factory). So I bought some Monroe air shocks and installed them. The instructions said to install them with the line fittings towards the inside. I mounted them that way and it put the plastic lines near the tail pipe. I ended up switching them so the fittings aim toward the outside of the car. This way the air hoses can go directly in the frame and out of harms way.

Greg Rogers

Started on the front end. I have a spare set of everything from a parts car I took apart this summer. When I took apart the parts car I noticed that car has had the front end rebuilt before. When I took off one of the lower ball joints it fell right out of the control arm! I knew I wouldn't be using that one. The pic also shows the replacement bump stop compared to the square one w/a locator. I compared all the other parts to pick the best ones. The upper control arms off the parts car had the ball joints replaced so I used the original ones (not messed with). I was going to use the lower control arm off the parts car that had a tight fit to the ball joint until I found it had been tack welded in! Whoever did this work to the parts car were a bunch of yahoos!! Comparing the upper control arm shafts: the ones off the parts car were offset and had markings on them "wheel side". I decided to use the originals. So after comparing all the parts it looks like all the original parts are going to be reused except the springs( I think they were replaced when the "rebuild" was done) and the sway bar ( it has less wear at the frame bushings). Now I have to remove the bushings and ball joints, etc., clean and repaint them and install the ball joints/ bushings

Greg Rogers

Used a bunch of ways to get the bushings out. Actually used my ball joint pickle fork tool to remove a upper control arm bushing. The shaft is in the way to use a press so I slid the fork over the shaft and hit on the fork to bang out the bushing. Then the shaft is out of the way and could remove the other bushing using sockets/extensions/etc., to press out. On the lower control arm bushings I pressed out the inner sleeves first with a socket, then cut the rubber with my sawsall. Just like before with the rear ones. But unlike the rear ones, on the front I used a chisel and collapsed the shell in on itself. Then it comes right out. Sorry I didn't get a pic of that.

Yellowstatue

When you are pressing the new bushings into the control arm, use a piece of ABS plastic pipe (2" or 2 1/2" ID, whatever you need) cut to the width you need and then cut the side out of that piece (looks like a letter 'C') so that it slips over the new bushing and then press it in. When the bushing is seated just remove the plastic part. I think I used an ABS coupler cuz it has thicker walls.

Greg Rogers

Used a bunch of weird ways again to install the new bushings. Not very easy but got it done. Followed yellowstatue's advice and made a "C" out of pvc pipe to keep from smashing the control arms when pressing or pounding in bushings. Ended up breaking the spacer when removing it but it still worked again- didn't matter.

Greg Rogers

Ended up smashing my exhaust pipe adapters trying to use them as sleeves in the press. I finally borrowed some big 3/4" drive sockets and got the rest of the bushings in. The first upper control arm bushing went in really hard, enough so that I was beginning to think I had the wrong bushings. I finally got it in using the sockets and press. On the other 3 I ground the inside of the control arms and the outside of the bushings just a touch. I also greased them and they went in ok. So painted all the control arms and other parts w/ POR 15. I planned to also clean up and paint the frame around where the arms go but decided that was tooo much for now. This definitely is not a show car! Also last year I noticed a exhaust leak from between the left head and exhaust manifold, so I decided to check that. I don't think the exhaust manifolds have ever been off this car or if they were they didn't put in gaskets. (I think the manifolds were bolted to the heads w/o gaskets from the factory and usually gaskets are installed when a valve job or whatever is performed). Anyway... The bold heads were really shrunk and seized up pretty good. I went real slow and got 3 of the 5 out using a 9/16 6 point socket. one slightly shrunk bolt I got out using a almost new 14mm 6 point. (I always thought 9/16 and 14 mm were the same but apparently 14 is just a rch smaller). The center one was really shrunk and I pounded on a 13mm 6 point socket. Got the manifold off and can see the leak was at the rear port. I am going to get some new bolts and put it back together with a gasket.

ent72olds

Great work Greg, definitely not easy working on the old suspension parts. It will make a world of difference though when she's back on the road!

Yellowstatue

Love those metric sockets on rusted stuff...try a really large file to clean and flatten (true up) the mating surfaces on the manifolds. I think ABS is stronger plastic /less brittle than PVC.

Greg Rogers

Just realized I never updated the thread about the problem I had with the parts ordered from Rock Auto. It was corrected hassle free. They emailed me a packaging label and I printed it, packaged up wrong parts w/ label on package and sent back. I didn't have to pay for return shipping or anything. Rock Auto is a good company- I recommend them.

Greg Rogers

Funny that I just posted how great Rock Auto is in the last post because I now have more wrong parts from them. The tie rod ends I got earlier were wrong from them because the Moog applications for Vista Cruiser are actually for a full size Olds. I planned to reuse the sleeves but they were pretty nasty so I decided to replace them. So I ordered them from Rock and got them in a few days but haven't been out to work on the car in a month. Today I found they're too big in diameter. So I checked w/Rock about returning them, but guess what?? I received them 33 days ago and their return policy is for 30 days!! Oh bother!! Well we'll see how this turns out.

Greg Rogers

Rock Auto will take back the wrong sleeves if I pay return shipping minus a 5% restocking fee. So I will probably only net about $5-10. Not really worth the hassle. I'm not real happy because it was their catalog which was wrong- but it also was up to me to see if there was a problem before 30 days which I didn't do. I think I'll just buy some sleeves locally and be done with it. I cleaned the old bolts up to reinstall and I found they have a "L" on the head. I thought a "L" on the head meant it was left hand threads but these definitely aren't. I used one piece of a 2 piece spring compressor I had- Put it inside the spring. As I compressed the spring it sort of pulled it at a angle which made it easier to get it started. Then I could jack up the lower control arm and it all went together. Got the springs all in and the shocks, sway bar. Couldn't do the tie rods until I get the correct parts. Hopefully I'll get back to it sooner than a month.

Greg Rogers

Well got back to it finally. I noticed there is no leak anymore at the yoke so that is probably fixed. Got the exhaust manifold back on and no more exhaust leak. I found out that Moog itself has the error about front end parts. They have the Vista Cruiser together with the full size Olds. So if you order ft end parts for a Vista they won't fit. If you order them for a Cutlass they will fit your Vista. It is the same on Amazon. So I got the new sleeves thru Amazon (which actually came from Jegs) for less than from Rockauto. I am not going to deal w/ Rock anymore. I might just give these sleeves to some one with a full size Olds at the Homecoming. I ended up getting inner and outer tie rod ends from ACDelco which I believe to be a quality part. But they came with bright blue boots!! Not to my liking so I cleaned up the old boots and used them. I got the tie rods on now. I just need to tighten everything up after I get the weight of the car back on the tires. Still won't be able to take it for a test drive until the snow and salt are off the roads.

Paladin31

Its great seeing you take such care in putting the old girl back together, but thats what makes it fun, to me anyway. Is seeing the before & after effect on whatever your doing. But its sad that parts suppliers are so cavalier, 'course its easy with the internet they can leave all the cross checking and facts to us, then when the parts arrive wrong, they nick us for restock fees...frustrating.

Greg Rogers

Took Vista to the alignment shop today. Drove fine. It seems everything turned out fine. No more rear end bearing noise, no more transmission fluid leak, no exhaust leak- pretty happy. The car drives nice but not a big difference from before. It always has been a pleasant car to drive, drives much better than it looks.

vistacruiser67

Great job!

Greg Rogers

Thanks, David. Haven't heard from you in a while, How ya been?