Well, everything is unbolted from Miss Molly's front suspension: coils,
shocks, spindles/swivels/kingpins, and wishbones. Calipers are still
attached to the front brake hoses, but they'll come out today so I can
replace the lines. The only things left in place are the tie-rods and
steering rack, and I ain't removing them less'n I gots to. She looks
kinda naked, but it's a good time to clean her up (OH, NO! The dreaded
"as long as I'm..." syndrome!).
Removing the wishbones was the proverbial cakewalk. Just a zip-zip with
the electric impact, a couple of tugs with the pry bar, and they popped
right out. The inner portions of each bush were in so-so to fair shape,
ovalled/compressed to the bottom. The outer portions (the part that
would fit to the outside of each ear on the wishbone) were toast. When I
pryed the wishbone out, the rubber litterally 'blossomed' out of each
side as it was released. It appears to have been swollen. Perhaps some
chemical I used to clean the engine compartment caused this, or the
Liquid Wrench/PB Blaster/WD40 sprayed in may have had a deleterious
effect?
To recap, the reason I began to this project was to replace the wishbone
bushings and shock bushings, and to inspect/repair the shocks. This was
hastened by the appearance of some horrible cupped wear to the inside
front of the left-hand tire. I suspected the shocks and the bushings as
being the cause. When I attempted to rock the tire top to bottom, I got
little movement and no sound. I'm not sure that the movement I felt
wasn't the tire 'giving.' Rocking from side-to-side also produced a
slight movement, and the clicking sound I heard appeared to be coming
from the steering rack as it began to move.
I removed the coil springs first, then the shocks. The shock bushings
were pretty much shot: split, pieces missing, and the sleeve was rusted
to the trunnion. The left hand-shock was almost empty, and the
right-hand shock was only about half-full (or half-empty, depending on
your POV). There was no play in the shock arms, nor leaks from those
areas. As I noted earlier in an earlier post, I have already repaired
the shocks.
Next, I removed the wishbone and the swivel assembly, and left them
assembled. Before removing these, I attempted to move the swivel
assembly in relation to the wishbone. There was a small amount of play
side-to-side (maybe 1/64"), and no up-and-down movement. Once I had the
two pieces on the bench, I removed the cotter bolt, and tried the same
thing. Side-to-side play increased to maybe 1/32", but still no
up-and-down movement. The cotter bolts did not appear to be fully
seated.
A closer inspection reveals that the fulcrum pin is probably (OK,
definitely) stuck like an impacted wisdom tooth. The zerk appears to
have only allowed grease to the one side. Thus, the collective wisdom of
the list to drill and tap the welch plug, and insert a zerk on the other
side will be applied.
Further, the grease is old and dried on the zerk side, am assuming the
same for the other side, if there is any there at all. This is
disconcerting because I regularly pumped grease into it. Perhaps the old
grease hardened to the point where the new grease simply cut a channel
through it, and didn't do anything other than squeeze out the other side,
leaving the points that need lubrication untouched?
So, this leaves me with a couple of questions:
* Which dumbass came up with this fulcrum pin design, and can we find the
responsible party and have him or her shot?
* Is it absolutely necessary to replace the fulcrum pin at this point?
* If it is necessary to replace the fulcrum pin, should I go ahead and
replace the lower wishbone and swivel assembly at the same time? What is
the best and cheapest way to do this without me having to do any welding?
Am hoping that my problems were the result of a combination of worn
wishbone bushings, worn shock bushings, non-functional shocks, and
non-seated cotter bolts. If that's the case, I have already repaired the
shocks, and will replace the wishbone and shock bushings. I also will
clean the old grease out of the fulcrum pin, and install a zerk to the
other side.
Suggestions, Comments, Criticisms, Name-Calling, Finger-Pointing, and
Discreet Snickering encouraged.
Rich
Council Bluffs, Iowa
'74.5 RB MGB "Miss Maggie"
'78 Chevy Half-Ton "Waltzin' Matilda" (LBC Support Vehicle)
'79 Midget "Miss Molly"
richard.arnold@juno.com or rdarnold@neonramp.com
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