Thanks,
here is a great more detail about the front suspension on this car. . .
both front tires are the same size 185/70 14 sears tires purchased by
the PO. no obvous signs of collision or other damage to the front
bodywork, suspension, or steering.
I replaced the lower control arm bushings and the rack boots just over
1000 miles ago. while the tie rod ends were disconected from the king
pins and the springs were out, I cleaned off the road crud from the
outside of the kingpins and R&R the lower trunion. coated every thing
with bicycle(lithium) grease for reassembly and gave all the nipples a
squirt of automotive grease afterwards. the stub axles turn freely about
the kingpin, and the rack moves freely. I filled the rack with hypoid
gear oil approx 1/2 pint through the cover on top and was careful to
replace all the shims and check that every thing turned freely before
dropping the car back on the ground for final tightening of the control
arm bolts. steering is easy until a little beyond about a 1/4 turn and
then it feels like it is "fighting back" more than i remember from
driving a CBB. I don't believe that this is the column binding cause
everything moves freely when off the floor and turning the wheel in the
stationary car causes no additional effort past the 4 and 8 o'clock.
PS i bet it is the toe-in. It is the only thing am not 100% sure is spot
on. IIRC I could not get the toe-in set closer than 1/16 of an inch and
i did not use a proper gauge just chalk marks on the wheel and a tape
measue to measure the difference between the marks. I can never be sure
that I got those tie-rod ends exactly the same number of turns off and
then on again.
PPS while replaceing the control arm bushings I also cleaned and
repacked the wheel bearings, replaced the brake rubber hoses and
installed new break rotors. the king pins seemed good not too much play
and no binding. the lower trunion of the driver side was a little tight
from a little surface corrosion, but a little emory paper and light
coating of grease put it right.
--
Henry D. Reynolds - System Admin
mail: hdr@jump.net - phone: 512.448.3617 - cell: 512.699.8658
Key fingerprint = 3F 5A FD F6 E5 40 55 9C 7F 0F 81 F5 0A E6 3B 7F
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|