rkk69olds

I am going to attempt changing out all front control arm bushings, upper and lower ball joints and the front springs. Have never done this and do not own a service manual. Looking for some guidance as far as level of difficulty and best practices. I was told to be pretty careful when messing with the front springs due to the risk of the spring flying off the spring compressor. I am using energy suspension bushings, stock height moog springs and moog ball joints

Thanks

yankees

It doesn't look like anyone has provided any feedback. From my experience and doing this often It's pretty simple, but will take some time and is labor intensive. If you have pickle forks, air compressor/impact driver and tall jack stands then your job will be that much easier.

For safety I bought some chain with a separate link that you can open and close by screwing the link on and off.

Use the chain when taking off the coil springs and wrap it around one of the coils and to a part of the frame when taking it off. You'll have to use your foot to push down the LCA to get the spring to un-wedged and this is where the safety chain comes into play as it will limit its travel if it pops out on you.

For compressing the new spring I had two people hold the clamps on the spring compressor in the proper position while I used the impact driver with a long extension to compress the spring. Once that is done put the springs between the UCA/LCA's and gets the nuts on the spindles quickly. Now the time consuming part is to get the compressor clamp off of the spring. The compressor clamp will definitely come off, but will be a small pain in the rear.

The tie rods, idler arms, center link and pitman arms are the easiest to do.

As for setting up your initial alignment get a couple of scrap 2x4's 24 inches long. put each 2x4 on the outside of your front tires and adjust the tie rods so that your measurement is the same from 2x4 to 2x4 in front and behind the front wheels. You can make your prelim alignment even easier if you buy aftermarket tie rod sleeves so they are easier to turn with a wrench, so don't get the round ones.

hookem horns

Follow Rob's extensive thread in Major Projects and get a chassis manual. Both filled with lots of good info.
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...storation.html