(Author: ikom Sunday June 27, 2004,
Jun,27,2004Jun,27,2004
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Correct length bolts with the factory supplied bolt in the foreground.
Sunday June 27, 2004
I decide not to install the brake lines until after the calipers are installed because I want just enough slack in the lines at the wheels.
We are going to install the suspension wishbones instead. My neighbor came over and dropped off the sixteen (perfectly cut to length) suspension bolts that I asked him to machine on his shop lathe earlier in the morning. Beautiful workmanship - in fact they look like they came that way from the factory. The ends are chamfered perfectly as well.
I mentioned that we were going to substitute these correct shank length bolts for the factory item in my June 17, 2004 musings, so please refer to that day's write-up.
My son starts to install the factory polyurethane bushings into the wishbones with the factory-supplied grease, while I work on completing the front upright assemblies. The outer bearing races had been installed a few evenings ago and I am pressing in the grease seals, hubs, inner races, spacers and machined washers. I do not have a large enough socket (1. 625" - 1 and5/8") however, to torque the bolts down to the requisite 288ft lbs so I leave this undone and will take it over to a friend's garage to complete during the week.
The wishbones are prepared with the insertion of a polyurethane bushing in one end of the wishbone, followed by the insertion of the steel bushing with a coating of grease and subsequently completed with the insertion of the other polyurethane bushing at the other end. The steel bushing is a few thousands of an inch larger than the paired polyurethane bushings and will be cinched between the chassis lugs with the half-inch diameter bolt, washers and Nylock nut.
A friend shows up and together we install the eight wishbones onto the chassis. Not an easy task since each hole for the bolts on the lugs needs the powder coating cleaned in order for the bolts to pass through cleanly. In addition the lugs are not all that willing to accept the wishbones between them and I do not want to pry them apart too much. A lot of work with the mallet and dead blow hammer ensues. A conical rod to line up the bushing and lug holes will aid the installation of the bolts greatly.
When we are about to install the rear lower wishbones we substitute USCANAM's black Delrin bushings for the outer rear lower wishbone factory bushings. He kindly machined and mailed to me a few days prior to my install and they thankfully made it through the postal minefield in time for the weekends build schedule. These (Delrin bushings) are a lot harder than the factory item and should help the car's suspension stay intact (without deformation) a lot longer in this critical rear driveshaft locale where a lot of stress is induced when accelerating/decelerating.
The hardest part of this install was the radiator and the dead pedal area since there is very little room to get the bolts started for securing the lower front wishbones here. The dead pedal area has the added difficulty of not allowing the factory-supplied washer to seat against the chassis because of a lack of space and it had to be ground down.
A simple "bolt on" install, this is not and an inexperienced non-mechanically inclined purchaser lacking access to grinders, metal chop saws etc. should take heed.
I am very happy that I did not install a dead pedal prior to this work because it would have been difficult (if not impossible) to push this lower wishbone bolt in through the lugs and through the wishbone bushing since space is so severely limited here. My proposed dead-pedal design will now be of a removable configuration in the event that this bolt ever needs to be taken out again - in contrast to the factory's riveted version which will make disassembly impossible.
We call a halt to the work around 7:00PM and go out for supper to a local restaurant.
After supper we return to install the rear uprights and find that we are missing a Heim (rose) joint for the toe link adjuster and also both larger Heim joints for securing the rear uprights to the upper rear wishbones. We will recheck the contents of all of the boxes before we put in an emergency call to the factory tomorrow.
