"underneath", installment #3
This weekend the front suspension is out; the Garage Queen is
supported only by a forest of 7 (seven) jackstands. Larry Paulick was by
again for the process of removing the front crossmember. Actually, this
was a semi-painless process, as the crossmember had been out before, the
bolts weren't seized, and we used jackstands and multiple hydraulic
jacks to _slowly_ bring the assembly down. BTW, it was done with the
radiator in place but it probably could've gone faster had it been
removed. I just didn't want to slice up my fingertips on the stainless
steel flex fan's razor-sharp edges. Oh, yes: the four bolts that hold
the crossmember in place don't quite come to the tops of the threaded
openings in the frame, leaving a shallow "pocket" for filling daily with
WD40 for a week beforehand to ease removal of the bolts.
Once on the garage floor, disassembly began. I started with the
shocks, I my case Spax that I put in a few years back. They are
double-nutted at the top, and the nuts are thin enough to defy the
wrenches in most automotive toolkits. My solution was to break out my
old Eldi "Pedalschussel"; bicycle pedals usually require a thin 9/16" or
15mm wrench so pedal wrenches are usually double ended in those sizes.
Your local bike shop probably has a homeowner-grade wrench cheaper than
the Edli that'll do the job.
Larry P. mentioned the two-hammer approach to popping loose
balljoints and tie rod ends, where the retaining nut is loosened and
both sides of the spindle (stub-axle carrier) or steering arm are struck
simultaneously with two hammers. Eh, seems too much like my job at the
office, but what-the-hey. Worked easily enough on the tie-rod ends, so I
tried it on the upper BJ's once I bought a length of threaded rod to
hold the spring compressed (1/2" size, BTW) while I did it. The problem
I ran into was that my upper BJ's were the type with a Nylock nut, not a
castellated nut with a Cotter pin, so once the BJ popped loose it just
spun when I tried backing the nut off. Fortunately I could just get a
pair of waterpump pliers ("Channel Locks") on the shaft _above_ the
spindle and hold it.
So far, I've found no evidence of trauma to the main "bits"; no
cracks in the A-arms or the crossmember, and the shock towers look lined
up OK. This will have to be borne out with more scrutiny later.
I won't be re-using the lower fulcrum pin and bushings, as I am
getting a set of Dale's, but the upper bushings I wanted to re-use. The
entire set of bushings were Delrin from Tiger Auto Service. Fortunately
they came out easily, after scraping any loose paint from where the
bushings met the A-arm, they came out by locking the fulcrum pin in a
vise and tapping lightly on the A-arm parallel with the fulcrum pin. All
but one, that is; one lower bushing stuck a mite and took more force. It
seems the original lubrication was about gone, and there's no way to
introduce more. I'm wondering about drilling the A-arm's "sleeve" for a
grease fitting but am curious about getting the inner surface of the
"sleeve" right afterwards. Would dressing with a jeweler's file,
followed by a brake cylinder hone, do OK? Or would machine work be
required?
One thing that's really stuck is the lower balljoints; there's a
lot of build up paint and crud on the nut, and my breaker bar and I
aren't up to the task. Well, everything's going in a few days to the
strip joint (no, not that one) to have the paint/crud/rust removed, and
I'll just send the spindles with the BJ's attached; in my experience,
once they're back the bolts will come loose easily. Speaking of
stripping, dy'a think there's any problem with the "bearing area" of the
spindle, the machined surfaces, being exposed to the chemicals?
Everything else, especially the small parts, get strung together with
coathanger wire to avoid anything becoming lost in the tank.
To retain use of the Delrin bushings, I swapped in the A-arms
and spindles from my old SV Alpine soon after I acquired the Garage
Queen. One thing I don't think was on the equivalent Tiger parts
(they're around here somewhere) was a pointed bulge on the bottommost
part of the spindle, directly above the BJ, that struck two tabs on the
lower A-arms at full lock as a limiting device. I don't recall this
feature on the Tiger A-arms or spindle; would there be any problem with
leaving this in place? Knowing the Tiger's Ackermann woes at full lock
suggests that I really don't want to be able to turn sharper; plus I
figure the Alpine arms and spindles must've led an easier life, eh?
All of the bolts, I hope to replace; most are Grade 8 from a
local speed shop I put in 12-13 years ago in my Alpine and transferred
to the Tiger. I'll just go get more. One I expect to have trouble
locating is the nut (there are 4) for the bolt holding the upper fulcrum
pins to the crossmember. This little devil has a wrench size (13/16")
all out of proportion to its thread size. Anyone know who might have
these?
Spell-checker whimsy: the suggested replacement to "balljoint"
is "balloonist"!
Lawrence R. Wright
Purchasing Analyst
Andrews Office Products Div. of USOP
lrw@aop.com
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
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