can't get front end apart--help!

[ssoar]

I'm taking the front end of my '76 apart to install new bushings, struts and torsion bars, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting various things apart.

Maybe somebody knows some secrets.....

On one side, I can't get the tapered bolt driven out of the bottom of the strut tube that attaches to the ball joint, and I have put a nut on it and bashed it pretty good with the 2 lb precision allignment tool. What to do --bash it some more?

On the other side I got the taper bolt out, but the strut is stuck on the ball joint, and no amount of prying seems to encourage it to come out. Small pickel fork?

Now I'm trying to get the A arms off to replace the bushings, and boy does that job s*ck. I got the adjuster off and the fronts are unattached, but the arm is really stuck in the old rubber to the cross member, I've been wiggling and prying on it and got it about half way out, and it isn't going any farther.

At this point I'm considering dropping the entire crossmember with all the A arms, sway bar, and struts attached just to have a better chance at getting at some of this stuff.

Any better ideas?
Thanks

[Early_S_Man]

Steve,

Unless you are planning to replace the ball joints ... go ahead and drop the crossmember with eveything attached!

Using a pickle fork will destroy the ball joint rubber boot, and I wouldn't recommend replacing just one ball joint!

To get the wedge pin out, try using a very large C-clamp ... with an M14 hex nut over the big end of the pin.

[chrisp]

Put some penetrating lube everywhere where you are trying to break two surfaces apart.

Pound the piss out of the wedge bolt. You are (or should be) buying two new ones anyway.

The bushings are very tight to the control arm so you are better off taking the bushing outer collar (the one the bolt goes through bolting it to the aluminum cross member) with the arm. Then with a vice the bushing sleeve and bushing can be pulled of the control arm.

Replace both ball joints as well (unless you had enough background information to know they are good). The boots degrade over time even without use. So replace them both. The ball joint is easy to get out of the strut but very hard to get the nut off of it at the control arm. Having the arm off the car is by far the easiest way.

The car is almost 30 years old. Nothing is there that moves or is something other than metal can be expected to have lasted. Replace all your bushings and the ball joints. Put in turbo tie rods if you haven't already and you don't mind spending the $125.

This is one of those thing that you'll kick yourself if you don't do it all now.

Taking it all apart (entire front susp out of car) will help you to understand your car better and catch any safety issues that are there.

Good luck and have fun. It's an awesome experience.

[fred cook]

I recently replaced the ball joints on my '80 SC and found that once the tapered pin was out, the best way to remove the ball joint from the strut was to put the strut assemby in a vice, insert a large open end wrench between the ball joint and strut, support the other end, and strike the wrench (near the ball joint end) with a hammer (strike down toward the ball joint). The old joint will actually come out fairly easily this way. By the way, the new joints will go back in much more easily.

Good Luck!

Fred Cook

[targa80]

I just removed the front suspension on my 80SC. I could not get the baaljoint to seperate from the strut. I removed the large castle type nut on the bottom of the ball joint using a 14 inch pipe wrench. It actually came loose very easily. I removed the strut and ball joint together and will seperate them on a work bench with a vise and oter tools of persuasion. The A arm had four bolts two at the front and one holding the a-arm to the crossmember and the fourth bolt holding the end cap on the a-arm. once the fourth bolt was removed the a-arm came out with a few tugs.

[ssoar]

Thanks for all the help. I did get the arms out, had to use a piece of allthread through the hole in the crossmemeber to make sort of press to remove the arms.

Used the big hammer again on the wedge bolt, and after a night soaking in penetrating oil, it came out.

So now I've got to get the castle nuts off the ball joints to make separating the ball joint/strut ass'y eaiser.

Oh, and the turbo tie rods went in pretty easily (that rubber joint design on the tie rods sure was a stupid idea...). I used tie wraps to hold the inner end of the boots on, way easier than prying that wire spring back over...

[Jdub]

It seems to me that it makes a lot of sense to shoot a bunch of PB Blaster into all of these areas prior to disassembly, about a week or two before you do the work. Drive the car, and let the natural forces of driving help loosen these parts.

Any comments on this? Would driving around with this stuff at the balljoint, tapered pin, etc. cause any concerns?

Can you guess I'll be doing this shortly?

John