phoenix

Hey everyone :)

The front end is going back together a lot quicker than it came apart.

I got the painted control arms with new ball joints and bushings on in no time. The springs were a little more trouble. For some reason, the drivers side sat perfectly and just by jacking the arm up, it sat in the groove. The passenger side required the spring compressor to get in position.

Either way, they are in and the steering knuckles are on loosely.

So now... just to check procedure.

I torque the ball joint attachment bolts, then put on the dust shields, new bearings, old hubs and wheels. Then put weight on the car roll it or bounce... then torque the steering knuckle to ball joint bolts?

Then do the shocks, sway bar and finally brakes.

After that, the tie rods, steering linkage, idler arm, control valve and slave cylinder?

Am I correct in my ordering of things?

Thanks for the help.

john's '81 mouse

Sounds good to me, except, that you want to install sway bar loosely, and then do all else, including wheels, then put weight on the front wheels, and then finnally tighten the sway bar bolts. In other words, don't tighten sway bar bolts without weight on the front wheels.

TJKirby82CE

Did install the bushings yourself? How did you do it?-tk

82dukman

Seems right to me too, Mike. Get that baby back on the road soon, it's too nice to be sitting on jackstands :lol:
Finished one of the wheels today. It looks awesome. I'll send you picks when I'm done, if you want.

Larry B.

Just make sure you do not tighten the control arm bolts until the car is on the ground. :cool:

phoenix

Thanks guys...

So I shouldn't tighten anything down until I have weight on it? Even the ball joint to control arm bolts? and the control arm to frame bolts?

Chris, I'd love to see how the wheels come out. Definitely send pics. It was nice meeting you... nice to have a face to go with a sig :D

I did the bushings with help from SloRvette. We pressed out the old ones and pressed in the new... careful not to bend the arms though :eek:

I'll post pics later in the week. Before and After :cheers:

Jim Martley2

The only bolts that shouldn't be tightened are the 8 bolts that are on the ends of the control arms. The reason is that the bushings have surreated(?) ends and if they are tightened without the weight of the vehicle on them, they will try to "pre-load" the suspenion and destroy themselves. All of the other bolts & nuts can and should be tightened before taking the car off the jack stands.