working on my front spring install...

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I am working on putting new shocks and springs in my 91 coupe.

Right now i have the H&R springs all ready to put in (already have the rears in) and my bilsteins as well.....


I have tore into it pretty good. I have it up on the stands.....calipers and rotors removed (ill be replacing those as well).

Here is where i am at:



I have a few questions.....

Where can i get a new set of plates for behind my rotors like these:



Also im toying with the idea of puttin in new wheel bearings while have it apart.....

can anyone tell me if a wheel bearing kit comes with the inner seal shown here:



Finally...my last 2 questions:

How the hell do you loosen the top of the shock? All i get is spinning when i have my breaker bar on it. I can get anything in the slot on the top while the socket is on the nut....hence is spins...not loosens.....

and

What is the deal with where the arm connects to the spindal on the bottom. There is rubber deal there but on the bottom there is no grease zerk so i cant pump any new lube in there. Is that the ball joint? Shouldnt this be lubed?

Oh wait...one more....

Any good places online to purchase bearings / rotor sheilds online? Or should i get the basic bearings at my local Napa / Checker etc?

Thanks!

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well i guess i should have posted this in the new sub forum I would have been the first one to post in the new area......dang....

[andy669]

#1. Not sure where you can get new dust shields, or if they are even available. Maybe 50 resto.com?

#2. I'm not familiar with a wheel bearing kit. All items are sold individually and should be real easy to get at most any parts store.

#3. Air Impact.

#4. Yes, that is your lower ball joint. Replacement ones might come with a grease zerk. Make sure the zerk isnt busted off. If theres simply not one there, then it wasnt meant to be lubed.

#5 See #1 and #2.

Good luck

Andy

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thanks for the reply. I was able to loosen those top shock tower nuts and brake them free using a large wrench and i actualy took a lawn mower blade off my mower and put that in the slot to hold the strut. Worked like a charm! Once i broke it free then impact tore it the rest of the way off. Impact couldnt do it alone.

Anyway...ive checked 50resto...no sheilds....

Are they even needed?

I was able to pound out my ball joints tonight from the spindles.....

IM wondering if i should by new Moog Ball joints or if i should just buy new after market control arms for the front with the new ball joint already pressed in??

I hear these things are horrible to do....

I plan on taking both control arms out to put in some urethane bushings so maybe it wont be that bad once i have them out of hte car....

[USMC302]

I'm thinking your talking about the A-arms, and UPR sells some good ones, while your down there, it's a good time to drop out he stock heavy K-member....Just a thought.

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Originally Posted by USMC302

I'm thinking your talking about the A-arms, and UPR sells some good ones, while your down there, it's a good time to drop out he stock heavy K-member....Just a thought.

yes the A arms......

i dont have the time, money or the resources to pull the kmember.....at this time......

bummer....

[andy669]

Lower ball joints are a breeze. Auto Zone will loan you the press you need and it shouldnt take more than a half hour.

Andy

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well i pulled the passenger side spring tonight.....came right out no problems...no compressor......just a small pop and it was free.

Im trying to pull the a-arm now......whole christ those bolts are tight.....i got one. The other (the front one passenger side) I snapped my foot breaker bar clean off....

might have to take out the torch to heat the bastard

does anyone know where to get single impact sockets.....??
The damn socket i need is the one i dont have. SAE 13/16 or whatever the hell that equals in metric.....


I dont want to buy a new bar just to snap the socket i have. Id rather put an impact socket on there and get on it good.

[bmxmon]

Where I live L&M fleet sells individual sockets, not sure if they have impact sockets though. (I use regular sockets with my impact wrench alot though with no trouble, even though I have a full set of impact sockets ) Not sure if you have L&M in the cities or not, but I've seen individual sockets at autozone before I believe it was...Best of luck.

hey, also, you said you pounded your ball joints out of your spindles, did you smack the ball joint or the spindle? The spindle is the way to go.

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Originally Posted by bmxmon

Where I live L&M fleet sells individual sockets, not sure if they have impact sockets though. (I use regular sockets with my impact wrench alot though with no trouble, even though I have a full set of impact sockets ) Not sure if you have L&M in the cities or not, but I've seen individual sockets at autozone before I believe it was...Best of luck.

hey, also, you said you pounded your ball joints out of your spindles, did you smack the ball joint or the spindle? The spindle is the way to go.

well i headed off to home depot (because they were the closest) and trying to buy there 18in husky breaker bar. They guy in tools had never heard of one (even though they are on the website). He said he thought i needed a rachet...and then another guy came over and told me the breaker bars are in the electrical department. Needless to say i left.

Then i head to sears to get a craftman 18". They were clean out even though they showed up instock on the website. I gave up. Tonight ill probably try to go to lowes for a Kobalt and see if they have them. What a PITA.

If i was smart i would order up a S-K or somthing of better quality but i dont wanna wait 2 weeks to get it

Anyone else notice that sears now sells s-k tools on their website? Weird...

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guys....

does anyone know what the size is of the stock front control arm? Im looking at ordering bushings online and they list alot of different sizes. Not sure what i have here...

[bmxmon]

Check out Kmart too, they sell craftsman now.

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Originally Posted by bmxmon

Check out Kmart too, they sell craftsman now.

Thats just great!

not to get into a big tool discussion here but wtf? Why would sears let kmart sell craftsman? Just goes to show the quality and the fix it yourself theroy is down the tubes and disposable everything is here to stay.

I feel bad for the kids today....they dont have to worry about knowing anything....just go buy a new one. Should be a nice race of idiots here in the next few generations...

I have a set of SK rachets that i love but man....i dont know why sears would pick them up....

whatever.....as long as the tool gets it apart and back together and im not breaking them left and right....then i guess ill have to deal with it

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Originally Posted by andy669

Lower ball joints are a breeze. Auto Zone will loan you the press you need and it shouldnt take more than a half hour.

Andy

christ.....i finally got the a-arm nuts out on the passenger side.

The whole arm seems to be springy as in a push it down....it comes back up.

I can get the rear bolt out or at least to move....in and out

the front one......if i torque on that the arm goes down with it. it is like it is frozen to the arm. I smacked ithe bolt a few times to get it try and move the bolt. It seemed to loosen it some. It is almost as if it is spring loaded some how.

Wtf is the deal here? IS it suppose to be like that? I dont want to damage anything. My guess is that it isnt suppose to be and that the rubber bushing has fused and twisted with the bolt at some point.

I have to wrench like heck to get it to spin even with the nut off so i just want to be sure before i keep going that it isnt suppose to do that

Seems funny to me that the arm would be spring loaded with one of the mounting bolts some how......

can someone clear this up for me?

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Well here is an update.

It would seem that the front bolt has fused with the damn crush sleeve. It wont move for anything.

Ive burned away most of the bushing with a torch.
Tried soaking it (4 days in penatrating oil)
Tried impact gun and impact hammer.....

beat the hell out of it with a pipe....

hehe im out of ideas. How do you get the crush sleeve to seperate from the bolt? It isnt moving for anything as far as i can tell. If i had a cutting torch i think i know the answer

Im trying to reuse my arms....so i dont want to damage those