Schmucker

I made some progress on the suspension today. I got the spring off. Problem is I broke one of the prongs off the cover. I looked at it and I was just flat out amazed at what I saw. Looked like someone tried to weld them or something as there was a lot of extra metal material around it. It was very brittle. I'm glad I broke it, otherwise I would have installed a new spring into that terrible cover. Now I need to figure out how to get that cover off.

The lower shock nuts came off like butter. Some PB blaster, Tri-Flow, and a 4 foot breaker bar and they came off with great ease. The top bolts on both sides are very solid. I think I could get them off if I had a six point socket that fit it. I'm using some metric impact sockets for a lot of the stuff, except that these bolts require what would be a 16mm, well, the set jumps from 15mm to 17mm, of course. And my American sockets are 12 point and just don't hold onto it well enough. The passenger side strut castle nut right by it has stripped threads (and I didn't do it!) so I can't get it off. It just spins and won't grab what's left of the threads at the end. So what to do? I tried the impact on it. That was fun, but it didn't help. That strut/shock bolt thingy will have to replaced anyway if the threads on it are stripped, so I think I may just cut the bolt off.

And I think some birds thought one of crossmembers would be a good home. Lots of grass up in there. I'll see if I can't blow it out with the air hose. They took residence with a previous owner and have since then left.

For some reason all of this is incredibly fun and satisfying.

Stewart's74

You wouldnt believe how many bolts I had to cut :cuss
Wait till you get to the T-Arm bolts. Fun Fun Fun ;)

mrvette

HEHE...RUST is the natural state of steel....mother nature calls......

if you beat and batter your self HARD enough...you too can become famous for restoring an old car.....

now the RICH part is left out on account of lousey economy.....

pardon my humor...but...been there done that....
it IS fun though,

women think it's twisted and perverted.....

I"m only perverted over their twists.....

nuff beer....


nite GENE......

Fevre

SOOO glad my vette came from California, very little rust and I have been able to remove every bolt fairly easy. Well at least all the ones the engineers decided to make accessible. :rolleyes:

page62

Now that you have the shocks off, you get the remove the lower shock mounts. Be sure to let us know how that works out -- I'll be doing mine soon (but I have little or no rust...)

Schmucker

I don't have the shocks out. I need to get the top bolt out first, but I don't have the right socket. The lower ones were a breeze, as I stated before, just need to get that elbow out once I get the shock out, unless that is what you are talking about.

PB82CE

Get the torch fired up!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Chris Johnson

I had no problem removing any bolts when I did mine. But the lower shock mounts (the elbow) were a huge pain. I had to hammer one of them out and then use a Dremel to clean up the threads.

I had much more difficulty putting things back together. Since I was working alone most of the time, I had trouble getting the struts, shock mounts, and shocks together. I also had trouble getting the spring bolts to line up with the holes in the spring. The best hint I can give you is to lift the hub manually to line these things up.

Schmucker

I need to get new shock mounts in the rear then, because the threads are stripped on the passenger side (not my fault, were like that when I got there). I'm checking the VBP catalog right now, hopefully they carry them as I'm ordering other stuff from there. It'll be easier to just get it all from one place.

But how do I get that differential cover off? It appears like I have to remove the bolts around the perimeter, drop the crossmember, and remove the 4 bolts holding it on there. Yay, more work! ...

Schmucker

Hmm, I think I found them at VBP, but I think I only need to replace the passenger side one, but if I have to replace that one, I might as well replace them both. I'm adding $100 here and there now! The boss man needs to pay me more than $6.75 an hour!

John2

I just put a new heavy duty cover on my 78 last winter. The worst part of the job is the lower shock mounts, most likely you will have to drive them out. They seem to 'weld' themselves to the strut bushings( which you will have to replace.) Anyway, you are one the right track. The easiest way is to disconnect the driveshaft from the diff and slide it forward, remove the half shafts, disconnect the strut rods and remove the bolts that hold the diff to the cover and pull out the differential. Now you can drop the crossmember that holds the cover and remove the cover from the crossmember. You will probably need a pry bar to drop the crossmember after the bolts are removed. While you have the differential out, it will pay you to check the side yokes for wear at the snap rings that hold them in. Good luck

Schmucker

That sounds like a lot of work. A lot of work I wanted to avoid. I didn't want to have to touch my half shafts.