Time to replace 30 year old suspension - little help please?

[frankc]

Front Axle

Similar to the rear, the front of the dolly is bolted to the chassis by means of the aluminum front cross member (Photo 1).

Photo 1:



The aluminum cross member is bolted to the chassis first using the normal fasteners.
Note that I did not want to put any stress on the aluminum where it would be supporting the weight of the chassis, so I installed the bearing housings (ER Spericals) in the cross member for additional support (Photo 2).

Photo 2:



I then bolted the front 4x4 to the aluminum cross member using the 2 @ 3/8" x 5" Hex Head Bolts (see Photo 1 above).

Here again I did not want to stress the aluminum, so I stacked several washers under the aluminum to ensure the bolt would compress the washers, and not flex the aluminum cross member (Photo 3).

One thing you can't see in the photos is that the head of the bolt that attaches the aluminum cross member to the chassis extends below the cross member, preventing the wood 4x4 from resting flush against it. Thus, I had to again carve out two small pockets in the front 4x4 for the heads of these two bolts.

Photo 3:



That's all for tonight, I'll finish up with the side beams and wheels tomorrow.

[frankc]

Side Beams
After I got the front and rear beams in place and bolted to the chassis, I then bolted the side beams (without wheels attached) under them using the 4 @ 1/2" x 8" Hex Head Bolts and 8 @ 3x3" Bearing Plates (one on top and bottom of each joint) Photo 1.

Photo 1:



Wheels
Since the base of the caster wheels are wider than the 4x4, I needed to use an adapter plate to attach them to the side beams (also Photo 1). I first bolted the wheels to the two pieces of 3/4" plywood (I chose plywood to avoid the risk of the wood splitting) using the 16 @ 3/8" x 2.5" Carriage Bolts.

Note that carriage bolts must be used here because the head of a hex head would interfere with the 4x4. Also, the 2.5" bolts were about 1/4" too long and would interfere with the rotation of the caster wheel, so I had to cut them down. A 2" bolt might be better here (I'll add a comment to the material list).

Once the wheel were mounted to the adapter plates, it was a simple matter of bolting the plates to the side beams using the 16 @ 3/8" x 6" Carriage Bolts. Photo 2 shows the view of the wheel assembly from the bottom.

Photo 2:



And that's it! I placed a jack under the rear axle beam and lifted the chassis to make sure there were no issues supporting the weight of the chassis using the transmission bracket, then removed the rear jack stands and lowered the dolly onto the rear wheels. Then repeated the same for the front.

I am happy with how it turned out, and it appears to be very stable and is easy to move around the garage. The caster on one of the wheels has started to stick recently, so if you plan to use the dolly long term, you may want to invest in some higher quality wheels.

Another benefit of this construction is that I can easily disassemble and store it when I'm done, for my next 911 project .

[frankc]

I know it has been quite a while since I updated this thread, but I have a good excuse. A few months back I purchased a ’73T project car. Just getting the car on a trailer was challenging as it is basically just a tub that I needed to purchase struts and wheels for to make it into a roller so that I could tow it to storage. Since then I’ve been very busy researching and acquiring parts for the ’73, and at the same time, trying to make progress on the ’77 to get it (and it's parts) to the point where that project would occupy only one bay in my garage, allowing me to bring the ’73 home.

So, I’m going to fast forward a bit to bring this thread up to speed with where I am currently. The problem I was having with posting updates is that the further I fell behind in updating the thread, the more monumental the task became. So to summarize, here is a list of what I have completed on this project in the past six months:

1) Rebuilt Pedal Cluster. All parts zinc plated and then powder coated either clear or black. A word of advice to folks planning to do this on cars with the brake booster (77+); the zinc plating adds just enough thickness to the push-rod shaft on the brake pedal such that the push-rod will no longer slide onto the shaft. You need to sand off the zinc plating first (easy - once you get the cluster back out of the car).

2) Rebuilt steering rack with re-plated hardware and installed Turbo Tie-Rods. Most of my guidance came from the main threads on this topic here on Pelican (e.g.; SC Steering Rack DIY Bearing Replace).
A couple of things I did which I did not see posted anywhere were:

a. Removed the rubber seals at the ends of the rack so that I could have the aluminum housing cleaned. If anyone is interested in how these seals are removed, let me know and I’ll post some pictures.
b. Install the Elephant Racing Tire Rub kit. As you can see from the photos, my left tire was rubbing at nearly full lock (common problem I’ve noticed), so this kit should resolve that.

3) Disassembled, cleaned, powder coated, and reassembled aux oil thermostat with new caps. I still need to fabricate a tool to tighten the caps to the housing.

4) Completed the non-A/C ventilation system retro-fit. This task is documented in the following link, but I have a few final steps to post over there as well Retrofitting non-A/C ventilation ducts

5) Rebuilt the hand-brake assembly and added a hand-throttle. Just like the pedal cluster, all parts were zinc plated and then powder coated either clear or black. The only challenging part is here obtaining the aluminum piece that clamps onto the throttle linkage for the hand throttle since it is NLA, so I had to fabricate my own. Normally this would be fun, but I no longer have access to the milling machine I used in the past, so I had to do this all with hand tools and a vice. The results are not stellar, but it is functional until I have access to the correct machines again to re-do this properly (I have plenty of aluminum bar stock left over). The black “Throttle” knob is also NLA, so I posted a WTB in the parts forum and found one (it took me two tries to get the correct one). Surprisingly, all other parts were available. Why did I want a hand throttle? My 2.7 has Webers, and this will allow me to start the car and not have to hold my foot on the throttle pedal for 60-90 seconds until the engine warms up and it will idle on its own.

6) Speaking of the Webers, In January I partially disassembled and cleaned them, replaced the accelerator pump diaphragms and installed the PMO fuel bars. All of the linkage was re-plated & clear powder coated. I ended up having to replace the original zinc accelerator pump covers with aluminum PMO covers due to the originals being damaged at the plater. And then I had to replace the original pump housings with PMO housings due to a casting defect in one that I noticed upon re-assembly. A couple of threads on this topic:
Weber Accelerator Pump Cover Plating
Questions About Weber Accelerator Pump

7) Cleaned up some surface rust and painted the panel at the rear of the tunnel where all the lines enter/exit. This task ended up being on the critical path, because I could not install all the lines, hoses and cables that run through the tunnel until I painted the panel. And this prevented me from getting the interior back in the car and installing the steering rack at the front (easier to install brake lines with steering rack out). Part of the delay had to do with finding the correct chip guard material to match my existing SKS. I posted my results in a discussion on this over in the Paint & Bodywork forum: Correct colour for underseal

8) Disassembled, powder coated, repaired, reassembled heater flapper boxes using new springs and fasteners. The OEM material used for one of the butterfly valves melted, so I repaired it with Teflon sheet as I described in this thread: Heater Control Box Meltdown

9) Just recently I pulled the new brake and fuel lines through the tunnel, which allowed me to finally install the pedal cluster, handbrake and shifter in the cabin. I also installed the steering rack and front cross-member. And this basically brings me up to where I am currently.

10) Next up is to re-finish the floorboards so I can get those back in the car and then install the seats. I removed all the hardware from the floorboards and had that re-plated (of course). Now I need to sand and stain the wood.

Btw, I made a self-imposed deadline to get the ’77 mostly back together by the end of the May so I can free up the bay next to it (occupied by its parts), and get the ’73 home so I won’t have to pay for another month of storage. I work best under pressure .

Pedal Cluster Before:


Pedal Cluster After:


Steering Rack Before:


Steering Rack After:


Left Tire Rub:


Steering Rack Tire Rub Kit:


Aux Oil Thermostat Before:


Aux Oil Thermostat After:


I'll continue with the photos from the above projects in a new post

[frankc]

Hand Brake Assembly Before:


Hand Brake Assembly After:



Webers After:



Tunnel Area Before:


Tunnel Area After:


Heater Control Boxes After:

[Craig_D]

Nice, nice, nice and nice!! Well done Frank, looks beautiful!

[frankc]

Originally Posted by Craig_D

Nice, nice, nice and nice!! Well done Frank, looks beautiful!

Thanks Craig - this sure has been a long (and fun) journey. I learned a lot along the way, and hopefully can shave some years off the '73 restoration because of it.

Before I finished installing the interior items, I wanted to re-condition the floorboards. The wood on the left (drivers) floorboard had some water damage, but it was mainly just stained - the wood was not de-laminating.

The lower hardware was a little rusty, so I drilled out the copper rivets and plated it in yellow zinc, followed by clear powder coating. I then used stainless fasteners to re-attach it to the floorboard.

The upper hardware (clutch stop) was in good condition (no rust), so I simply re-plated that in clear zinc to match the OEM finish, and did not powder coat it as this is an articulating piece.

When I had the hardware removed, I sanded the old black finish off the floorboards, and re-stained them with a light coat of Ebony stain to try to match the original finish as close as possible. I then applied 3 coats of satin polyurethane to protect the wood from any potential future water damage (should never be an issue as long as I own the car).

Left Floor Board Before:






Left Floor Board After (almost too nice to cover up):







Right Floor Board Before:


Right Floor Board After:





Having the floorboards installed allowed me to then install the carpets and seats - the interior is nearly complete. And with the seats now in the car and out of the way, and after re-arranging a few other items - I had enough space in the garage to bring the '73 home from storage on Saturday as I was hoping (before June 1). It was a bit of a hassle because I had to go to two different U-Haul locations for the truck and the car carrier, but it all worked out.

Next up; installing the ER Spherical front control arm bearings...

[frankc]

I decided it would be a littler easier to install the fuel pump before the front control arms, so I got it installed tonight. The fuel pump bracket was powder coated, new fuel line fittings, new electrical rubber boots, and new fuel lines.

The aluminum pump housing was a bit corroded (see 'before' picture), so I lightly polished it, and then applied the POR15 Glisten PC product. This is my first time using Glisten PC, so I'll see how well it holds up. In case you're wondering why the supply fuel line from the tank is not clamped down yet, it's because I'm going to yank the tank to have it painted. One step closer...

Before:




After:

[Craig_D]

Beautiful, Frank!

[Flojo]

Wow! Great detailing!

[irl]

Great work, where did u find the new rubber wire boots and the vibration pad for the pump.

[frankc]

Originally Posted by Flojo

Wow! Great detailing!

Thanks, but as you know - it's a disease. Once you recondition one assembly, the adjacent components then look even worse, so you feel compelled to recondition those, and it just keeps spreading until (several years later) the entire car is complete .

Originally Posted by irl

Great work, where did u find the new rubber wire boots and the vibration pad for the pump.

It took me a long time to find the replacement boots for the fuel pump. Ultimately I was unable to find a source in the US, and ended up ordering them from the UK via eBay (link below). Shipping to the US was only about $6, the parts arrived in about a week, the the boots fit well - so overall a good experience.

1x Rubber Boot Kit for Bosch Hi Out Tank Fuel Pumps FK02 | eBay


The vibration pad is simply cut from plumbers gasket material that I purchased at Home Depot. Hopefully this will hold up better than the clear tape originally used to isolate the clamp from the pump, which I suspect was done for galvonic corrosion purposes as the vibration dampening should already be addressed by the rubber mounts that attach the pump bracket to the crossmember. I have used this rubber sheeting in the past for other applications and had good success. Here's a link:

DANCO 6 in. x 6 in. Rubber Packing Sheets (2-Pack)-59849A at The Home Depot

[frankc]

Well, finally a post that actually has something to do with suspension. I made some progress with getting the ER Spherical bearings installed. A few days ago, I test fit the races on the control arms and discovered that I did not have the powder coating shop mask the ends of the control arms when clear coating. I had the arms plated and coated very early on in this process when my plan was to use the ER Poly-Bronze up front (before Sphericals existed), I even purchased the P-B, and then ended up selling them new. But I suspect I would have had the same problem with the Poly-Bronze races. To get the races to fit, I had to sand off the Powder Coating with 80-grit - the races then fit nice and snugly, with just a little play. I then cleaned the arms and races, applied the J-B Weld and installed the races - there's no going back now.

While I was waiting for the J-B Weld to cure overnight, I decided to finish a few other items. One of the few quick and simple jobs was installing the reconditioned heat control valves ("flappers"). This involved new cable housings, new hose clamps (powder coated), new hoses, and adjusting the cables so that the valves operated full open/closed. I used stainless nyloc nuts for this with plenty of anti-seize on the studs in an effort to reduce any galvonic issues, but will be keeping an eye on them. Done.

Next was to finish installing the rear brake lines. This took longer than expected (big surprise) because I had to tweak the S-bend where the rear brake line exits the back of the tunnel and attaches to the L/R splitter. A word of caution to folks replacing the brake line through the tunnel. That one line is NLA (at least it was the two times I tried to order it), and unless you have a very high quality bubble flare tool, you will need to order a section of line cut to length with the correct bubble flares. Since this is nearly a straight run line, the length is critical. I ordered this line three times (first time it was waaay too long, second time about 1/4" too short, third time about 1/2" too long). The third piece was the only one that was usable, but it did make installation more difficult than it needed to be. You can see in the photos that the tunnel line protrudes a little farther out the front of the tunnel than the original line.

With the brake line project now nearly complete (except the flex lines that are on order), I then moved to finishing up some minor paint work that was on my list - mainly the channel piece that the engine tin seal slides into.

After the J-B Weld was cured, I started to install the control arms, but then realized two things; 1)based on what I've read, it's easier to torque the ball joint castle nut with the arms in a vice instead of mounted on the car and 2) it's easier to install the new style front sway bar with one of the arms not installed. The problem is I do not yet have the ball joint nut tool or the new sway bar bushings. I am placing the order tonight, but this means I am stalled on installing the arms until later in the week. Not a big deal - I'll either move on to installing the races for the Rebel Racing spring plate bushings, or installing the rear fuse/relay panel in the engine bay.

Some obligatory pictures from this weekend's progress:

I used the propane torch method to remove the old bushings from the control arms (many years ago):


J-B Weld applied to control arm:


Spherical races installed and front bearing assembly in place:


Spherical rear bearing assembly mounted in crossmember:


Heater control valve after:


Front brake & fuel lines before:




Front brake & fuel lines after:


Rear brake lines before:


Rear brake lines after:

[afterburn 549]

Love the "slipage" marks !

[911 tweaks]

nice frank...my those a-arms look familiar...? keep making progress every day...then one day you will say to yourself, wow, all I have to do is this & that and she will take her first test spin...sooo cool...thx for posting & sharing your journey with us... :-) bob

[frankc]

Originally Posted by afterburn 549

Love the "slipage" marks !

I assume you are referring to the red paint? I tend to put everything together loosely at first until everything is in place, and then when I'm fairly certain I won't have to adjust or remove anything again, I torque all the fasteners and mark them so I know they have been torqued - a habit I picked up from a mechanic friend. If you look at some of the "before" photos you can see dabs of various color paint used over the years.

Originally Posted by 911 tweaks

nice frank...my those a-arms look familiar...? keep making progress every day...then one day you will say to yourself, wow, all I have to do is this & that and she will take her first test spin...sooo cool...thx for posting & sharing your journey with us... :-) bob

Thanks Bob - I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. One of the upcoming tasks that worries me a bit is the oil cooler and lines. I am upgrading to the 28-row brass cooler (from trombone) and had the bracket for the cooler welded on when the car was in the body shop. However, I still have to install right fender, put everything in place to ensure sufficient tire clearance, and then install the upper cooler bracket on the back of the headlight bucket. In addition, on of my hard oil lines is partially crushed (like so many), so I thought I would take advantage of the lines being off the car to resolve this. I'm not too keen on the compressed air technique, so I want to try another method I've been thinking of. I'll post results when the time comes.

[frankc]

Well, I hit a bit of a snag on the front suspension assembly. The ball joint tool from our host is not scheduled to ship for 9 days, which means it will likely be at least two weekends before I'm able to get back to this task. But I'm quite used to this by now, and will switch over to working on the rear suspension or installing the front fenders. I had wanted to leave the fenders off while working on the front suspension to make getting under the front a little easier, but it's not a big deal.

I had a little time tonight so I installed the rear reflector, and unboxed the tail light housings to wire and install them, but then noticed that the reflecting material in right housing is starting to wear through (I replaced the left housing some years ago). Fortunately I purchased a nice used pair from a Pelican not too long ago that I planned to use on the '73, but I think I'll use the right for the '77 and find a replacement down the road.

Also, I found a "before" picture for the heater control valve and will edit yesterday's post to add it, but then realized that there is a rubber cap at the end of the cable (see photo). This makes perfect sense to keep moisture and dirt out, but I do not see the cap on the parts diagram. I can probably re-use the old ones, but does anyone know the part number for this cap as I suspect the originals are not in the best condition?

[frankc]

I was unable to add the photo to the previous post (max of 10 photos per post).

Here is the rubber cap I am looking for:

[javadog]

Originally Posted by frankc

Here is the rubber cap I am looking for:

Have you looked at 914 504 319 00?

JR

[frankc]

Originally Posted by javadog

Have you looked at 914 504 319 00?

JR

That's it! Thanks so much JR - I should have thought to look at the handbrake assembly diagram where there cable is listed when I did not see it listed with the heater box. Now I'll have to call Pelican and see if I can get this added to the part of my order which has not shipped yet.

[frankc]

Well, the ball joint pin wrench socket I ordered on June 9th is still on back-order, so I decided to move to the rear suspension. I started preparing the torsion tube for the Rebel Racing races, and also ordered the rear Konis, but the Konis are now also on back-order. Not to worry as there are still plenty of things to do.

One thing on my misc. list was to refinish the outside of tail light housings. These are made of (heavy) pot metal and originally have some type of silver finish protecting them. Due to the housing being exposed in the wheel well, the silver material chips off rather quickly leaving the pot metal to corrode.

I wanted to apply some type of silver finish again, but needed something that was both durable and would adhere to pot metal. I called POR15 tech support and they stated that as long as I follow the application procedure (Marine Clean, Metal Ready, POR15), adhesion should not be a problem. I removed the remaining silver finish and corrosion from the exposed pot metal using a Dremel with 180 & 280 grit buffs, and then followed the POR15 3-step process using Silver POR15.

I also had the rear covers media blasted, yellow zinc plated and then clear powder coated. One of the screws attaching rear cover on the right housing was corroded in place and snapped when I tried to remove it. I ended up drilling out the screw and re-tapping the hole. Based on this experience, I decided to replace the original screws with stainless cheese head screws. I researched the galvonic corrosion properties between stainless and zinc (pot metal is mostly zinc), and found that it is minimal, but I used anti-seize on the threads as a precaution because it depends on the type of stainless. If someone knows that this might be an issue long-term, please let me know.

Regarding the sealing of the rear cover to the housing to keep out moisture & dirt, the factory used some type of putty that is a one-time-use, and crumbles when the cover is removed. I have read of some folks installing the cover and then using silicon or RTV to seal the cover. I decide to use high temperature butyl tape applied in a similar way as the original putty, which appears to have worked out well.

Here are some obligatory before and after pictures:

Before:



Corrosion removed & ready for POR15:


Butyl tape applied to rear cover:


Finished Housing with stainless fasteners: