RAMBOW

I've been gathering parts for this for the last year (acutally since before i got this car)...

PST Basic Front End Kit + PST Centerlink
Moog Idler + Inner Tie Rods
New Shocks

Picked up a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee 12.7:1 Steering box & Lee Industrys Metric to Flare adapters & Ragjoint.

about 3 years ago, i started gathering parts to do my own disk brake conversion- at that time the kits were around $700- and putting it together peicemeal was cheaper... anyway- finnaly SLOWLY picked up everything i needed- Except for buying the Prop Valve and new Master Cylinder- everything else wound up being free or mega cheap.

I'm doing manual disks, so picked a 1" bore manual disk/drum MC from a 70 442 (W30 cars had manual disks)

One of the key things in doing the mega cheap disk swap this way was to modify your stock drum spindles to use w/ the disk brake caliper brackets.

got a few a few pics of the spindle mod... Basically the height you need that upper boss to be is exactly 3/4" LOWER than the spindles shoulder- So i measured over with a steel ruler- marked it and chopped it with a cutoff wheel grinder- and followed that with filing it flat. Came out exactly like the original disk spindle a friend loaned me to use as a template.

Started pulling off the old steering linkages tonight- but nothing really interesting to show there yet.

i'll take some pics when the control arms come off and go to the blaster.

Ranzan

Cool Ben....

I might have to do this swap..make sure to keep the updates and pics coming
with this mod I`m guessing you use 68 and up single piston calipers?

RAMBOW

yes, this is intended to use all the 68+ stuff as its cheap & available.

You use 69 camaro or 69-74 Nova Disk brake hoses as they are a little longer than the a-body ones, and will work with the factory drum brake brake hose brackes (with a little file clearancing)

Ranzan

Ben are you going power or manual?

RAMBOW

It will be manual Disks.

Chipped away at it again tonight- steering linakge is all off- shocks are off and all the cotter pins are out- Ready to pop the ball joints and remove the springs- probably will have to wait till saturday when my wife & 21month old son are out of the house... He had a real hard time earlier this evening when i was hammering on the picke fork to take off the tie rods... Doesn't help that its practically impossible for me to get in the garage without him while hes awake... even if i was silent, he'd have a fit that i didn't bring him in there with me...

anyway... moving right along- if i can get the arms off saturday or sunday i'll take them to the blasters on monday for cleanup.

RAMBOW

Easy peezy...
Springs are out. Used the ole floor jack under the arm method- I can't beleive i used to fight with spring compressors rather than doing it like this. Used to take me at least an hour per side. This took me a total of 10 mins to get both springs out- took longer to clean up than it did to get em out.

I'll chip away at it some more tomorrow- get the arms off the car and start getting stuff cleaned up and ready for blasting.


edit...
Lower arms are now off the car too

RAMBOW

Got the Upper arms off- Drivers side was a PITA because of the steering shaft... Used a C-clamp to press out the cross shaft studs- not too bad.

Scraped about 5lbs of petrified grease off the lowers. Look good underneath it all though, no cracks!

I'll press out the ball joints & make up some shims & press out the bushings tomorrow. Break out the air chisel to get the upper ball joint rivits out...

daily pic updates... arms up on the bench, and a growing pile of removed stuff under the car.

Ranzan

Can you do mine while your at it Ben

Looking good.....are you going Poly replacements?

RAMBOW

No, all Rubber in the front. PST's "Stock Performance" Package. Not even upgrading the sway bars. Going to blast & repaint the original 1" front & 7/8" rear bars.

The car is a cruiser w/ occasional 1320 blasts planned(once the bastard motor goes in)- so didn't feel it was worth the expense to go poly for the front. Rubber did just fine for 44 years and 245k miles, I'm my replacements will outlast my ownership of the car.

2blu442

It's a pain to clean that petrified grease off... but sometimes that accumulation is what protects the steel from rust & corrosion.
John

redoldsman

Rambow - thanks for the tip on using the Camaro/Nova brake hoses. Did not know that and was wondering about those brackets since I do not have the ones for disk brakes.

RAMBOW

No problem, hope there is at least a gram or so of useful info in here somewhere....

-----
Not too much progress today- Got the upper and Lower BJ's out- Started pulling bushings, but got shut down by the sound police (wife).

I don't have access to a hydraulic press (at least not that is convenient) so i bought a big ball joint press from harbor freight (~$40) and use that with an impact wrench. Does it really quick once you get the cups and spacers picked out/made...

unfortunatly, i guess the impact wrench @ 9:00pm in silent neighborhood was not a winning combo- even though i was In my neighbors garage!

Oh well. At least with the BJs out i can finish cleaning & take them for blasting. I'll Worry about finding someplace else i can use the loud tools after they come back.

Eddie Hansen

Ben it is looking good man, enjoy having your son looking for you, my daughter just turned 17 and I only get visited when the oil needs checking, the wallet is empty, or mother said no LOL.... I am also going to upgrade to discs, I do not have the knowledge to pick stock parts off the shelf so I am doing a kit. Thank god I have already done the front suspension. I got to work on the rear suspension a little over the weekend, waiting for parts before I disassemble the rear diff. I am also upgrading the rear to disc brakes I hope it goes smoothly!

keep us posted

rktolds

Your are doing the exact project I'll be starting soon. I have all the parts except swaybar end links, bushings, and the JGC related parts needed for the swap. Good project for a budget guy like myself.


Matt

RAMBOW

No pics tonight- but I hit the lower arms with some ez Off oven cleaner to take off as much grease as possible- Sand Blasters charge more if they have to degrease the parts before they blast...

used the EZ on the lowers, ran out- so i used Engine Gunk on the uppers. The gunk didn't do anything- but the EZ off worked a little too good. Took about 98% of it off, left nice shiny metal behind where it had been... Unfortunatly- while i did wear rubber gloves, like a dumbass i had rolled up my sleeves before i started wirebrushing- and the little specks of EZ off & grease got up on my forarms. OWWW!!! CHEMICAL BURN.

So yeah. EZ off Rules for degreasing- but protect your SKIN when working with it! I should have worn safey goggles too- can't even imagine the pain i'd feel if it was my eyes instead of my arms.

Ranzan

ah yes the joys of ez off......... my uncle used me for the engine cleaning for his stuff... imagine I still like him lol

RAMBOW

CAR ****!!!!

There is just something cool about dropping off rusty parts and picking up nice clean bare ones!

Upper & lower arms, Radiator top plate, Lower rears (i'm gonna box them) & Headers for the "new" motor ...

I even had them do a set of 66 mustang air cleaners for a buddy at work.

(these are clickable for bigger version btw)

Before:



and After!


Hedman BBC 2" Primary's


Buddys mustang air cleaner

defiant1

Never installed upper ball joints before. When you install your upper ball joints, can you tell me how you assembled them? The instructions I got show the boot cap being installed with the entire assembly before placing the stud through the hole. However, in my case the boot cap was too big to fit in the hole of the control arm, so I installed it on the other side and bolted everything together.

Did I get the wrong part or is this how it is assembled?

d1

RAMBOW

I'm pretty sure they do go in from teh top w/ the ball joint- but its been a few years since i did this last- I'll take a couple pics when i get to that point & post em.

I do happen to have 2 extra sets of core upper contrl arms that still have their balljoints in them, so that should help as a guide.

lil_no

Hey Ben,

Where did you take your parts to get blasted? There are a few pieces I need to have done here in the near future.

Also, can they do bigger items (e.g. frames, rear end...)

Thanks.

RAMBOW

The place is Sandblasters Inc up in marysville. They have a 50 foot blasting bay, so they can do your whole car if you'd like!

I'm sure a rear end & frame would be no problem.

Eddie Hansen

sure beats wire wheeling... did they use just sand the finish looks very smooth? crap mine always comes out kinda dull and a little rough but I use one of those cylinder blasters..

RAMBOW

They are rougher than smooth shiny metal, but not bad. I'm planning on rattle can etching primer and rattle can semi-gloss black paint- pretty sure after a few coats of each, they will be smooth.

In other news... I went to the Giant Portland Swameet Yesterday...
Scored a correct Factory Air Cleaner, emblem pie tin, & chrome top bezel all for $23 (was all that i had in my wallet at that moment)

Was absolutly thrilled- I've been looking for one of these one and off since i got my car, but everytime i've seen one its either trashed or rusted out- or they want an arm & a leg for it.

Anyway... I'll get back on suspension stuff this week- need to get my bushings R&R'ed so i can paint the arms and get them back on the car.

Eddie Hansen

I used the duplicolour self etching primer on my rear control arms, and then used vht roll bar paint ( satin I think they called it) a little shiner then gm restoration black, the duplicolour satin black is dead on for gm restoration black.


neat find when you can get an air freshner let alone an air cleaner for 23 bucks !!! man that is like 4 pesos or a buck seventy five canadian nowadays LOL everything seems so expensive... anyway a cool score

Texas Jim

One heck of a topic. There should be more like it, useful and informative. Great goin'. Sincerely.

lil_no

Thanks for the info.

RAMBOW

Back at it last night- Got the Orig lower control arm bushings out last night- Need to rent the special tool at Oreillys today to press out the old upper bushings...

These aren't my pics- but these basically show how i'm doing this with the balljoint press...
(coutresy Glen Lever & his site where he restores A-body control Arms) http://www.leverfamilysite.com/GM_A_body.htm

Basically make a shim to go in the boxing sections to keep it from collapsing & hammer it in there- Put the BJpress around it, and use an impact wrench to pound it out. Installation is reverse.

A little easier said that done- but its pretty easy.

The uppers are a little trickier- Because the cross shaft is in the way, you need a BJ press that has a forked top- and a top plate that is forked to press the pushing out.

The local Oreillys rents these out- basically put $85 on your Credit Card- borrow it for a night, bring it back and they credit it all back to you- so its a free rental... just don't break it!

Putting the uppers back in is also tricky- you need to have a long shim between the two ears to keep the arm from compressing- and press the two bushings in at the same time.

Of course this is all the highly scientific method of doing this- this can all also be done with a BFH beating them out- Air Chisels pounding them out, or A torch & grinder to melt the rubber & cut the bushing out... Of course then you still need to figure out how to get the new ones in w/o crushing the arms... so I like the BJ press method- Quick easy.

If i wasn't so time limited, this would have all been done already- Once you do the first arm, it really goes fast.

anyway... thats all for today...

RAMBOW

Just one more side note...

I've done front suspensions on 3 a-bodys before this one... Each time i've done it, I've had other people do this bushings R&R for me, the first time a friend helped me do it at his job machine shop using their presses, etc...

The 2 following times i had to pay shops to do it- Both times it was Roughly $150(the area i live has expensive shop rates) and Both times, they FUDGED up my lower arms- telling me afterwords how hard it was and how they really were not equiped to do the work properly (a lot of good that did me after)...

After the last fiasco- I told myself I would buy the tools and do the next one myself- and I'm glad that i did- this job is not rocket science(as most stuff on our old cars really is not either)- and its definitely worth saving the money to learn to do a job that even the shops balked at doing!

Jamesbo

x 2

Eddie Hansen

excellent topic, I wish I had this info when I did mine,
FWIW
you can buy an inexpensive version of this tool at harbor freight, one of those tools you could use for many things 40 bucks, I ended up buying it as there wasn't a place like o'rielly's when I did mine, and heck tools is tools....LOL
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38335

defiant1

It is funny (really not so funny for me) that you posted this. I unfortunately was present when my local mechanic friend was installing the bushings in the upper and lower control arms. Needless to say that his 2 favorite tools are a 5 pound hammer and a chisel. Since I had never done this before I took it to him thinking it would be easier and less damage to the parts. Basically, I could have done the same damage that he caused using the same tools.

Definitely use a support for the lower C.A. to keep from smashing the arms. He did not have the bushing quite lined up and wound up bending the arm. Live and learn and buy your own tools and do it yourself. Good call!

RAMBOW

It really is easy to mess them up- you have to be careful. One of mine did start to crush a little last night as the press got cockeyed- but i pulled it off and corrected before it did any real damage.

Thing is, if my arms are going to get bent or messed up- I want to be the one doing it.
Its a lot easier to get over being pissed when its your own fault.

RAMBOW

This is exactly what i bought & am using.

Unfortunatly harbor freight doesn't sell the one where the top is forked that you need for the upper bushings.... I could probably use a cutoff wheel and cut an opening into the end of mine, but i don't want to ruin it- so its convenient that i the local auto parts place rents them...

Eddie Hansen

Ben when I went down there to look for some bearing pullers I saw they did make another kit with adapters that might be the one your using. HF is a bad place to go when your working on projects, I ended buying too much crap that I don't need now but will need later in my resto LOL....


found it here it is ( cost more then the friggin press LOL)

RAMBOW

Yeah the cup kit would come in handy, but i'm cheap- i can make more cups out of exhaust tubing....

Didn't get to the parts store to rent the forked press today, but I did spend a few mins out there after my son went to bed tonight and got all 4 new lower bushings installed, and the two lower ball joints.

moving right along- I'm impatient to get this stuff painted and back on the car so i can get onto the disk brake conversion...

Ranzan

Ben sounds like your moving along pretty good.........thanks for the link I booked it for reference

Eddie Hansen

you worked after he went to bed??? the other night I used my impact gun removing the bolts from the rear sway bar, it was only 9.15 my missus nearly brained me with a mop handle LOL... I make up for the lack of knowledge with increased hammering cussin, and general noise making LOL...

can't wait to see the disc conversion, I rummaged through my kit and it is pretty damn exciting, gotta finish the rear end first but that will be my next step too. keep us posted

RAMBOW

Trust me i know exactly what you are talking about...
I've gotten very good about being "silent" in the garage after he goes to sleep. He's almost 2 now, but when he was under a year, if i so much as dropped a wrench, or even the rachet sound of a socket i was cringing....

Honestly, its probably never been that bad- he sleeps like a rock(like his old man) as long as he's not sick... Its his MOM who is overly sensitive to every sound i might make....

I do have to say, he didn't even make a peep when i was beating on the balljoints to break them loose @8pm the other week... Good thing mamma was out at the store during that 15mins though or i would have really caught hell!

My next house will NOT be a split level.... Separate Garage/shop is a requirement as this silent garage stuff has to stop. Its no way to LIVE!!

RAMBOW

%@#&*(!!!!!!!!
So yeah..... All the local Schucks Auto parts are being converted over to Oreilly Auto Parts.
About a week and a half ago I was at schucks, and saw that they rented a specialized tool for removing the upper control arm bushings- it has a forked end on it to go over the cross shaft. The guy pulled it out and showed me- its the exact right tool for this job. Great, i knew where to find it when i'd need it.

So today i go in to rent it.... NOPE
Oreillys carries a different brand of tools- and that specialized one is not included in the new rental set. The store did the final product&remodel last week- and they packed up all that stuff and shipped it out.

Called all the other local stores... They have ALL BEEN converted over this last week- NO WHERE has these for rent anymore, and nobody seems to know what happened to all the tools they used to rent that they sent back.

Somewhere there is a 100 of these used tools I need sitting in a bin- and i can't even find 1.

ARRRRRGGG. So I called all the regulat tool rental places around here- nobody has that tool. So I looked it up on the internet $80 to buy one...

So Yeah. My options Spend $80 I don't have on a tool i know full well i will need again in the future, as i wind up doing this on ever classic car i buy... Or half *** this removal job doing it a number of different ways that i would have rather not done but will get the job done- but will still wind up taking it somewhere to press it all back together because i don't have the tool, or a shop press to do both sides at once....

Excuse me while i turn around and swear at schucks/oreilly for a bit. &%@#$!!!!!

RAMBOW

Ok- So I found a store about 40 miles out in a little town that has not yet changed over from Schucks to Oreillys (you know the type in a little town that still has the 20 year old sign in front of the place)...

Worked like magic, its amazing how easy work can be when you have the right tools. Pulled those upper control arm bushings out like butter, and pressed the new ones back in just as easy.

I went ahead and did the same thing on two extra pairs of upper control arms i have- keep those saved for future projects.

Now I'm ready for paint & front end reassembly!!!