Front Suspension Woes

[Meridious]

I'm going to be going in this direction in a week or two and it dosen't sound good. Are you on the upper or lower? My upper lost a bolt and the A frame moved foward. I'll see what your'e talking about hopefully.

Lower.

I just made my final attempt short of someone telling me I have missed a step.

I took my acetylene torch and heated the shaft (the one that is supposed to "tap" out) until it was solid red under my goggles, let it cool back to normal for about 5 seconds, used the rod and sledge and again, nothing.

When I was a welder and fitter, that would make anything loose enough to move.

Either this thing is screwed in somewhere, has a key, or it has welded itself to my frame.

I have no idea what to do now.

[Guest]

Walk away from that! I havn't got to it yet but I THINK to much heat no good. Somebody here Has to have done this???????????????????

[Meridious]

Looks like I am going to have to cut the shafts off.

Does anyone have an idea where I could find these lower arm "Shafts" for sale?

Its going to be horrible cutting them out with the rubber flanges still intact, but I have to prepare for the sad fact that these shafts that are supposed to just tap out have welded themselves in place.

I can understand that on the front-frame-side where there is some rust and its dry, but the cross-member side has an inch of grease/oil/sludge on it and the 'shaft' can't have rust-welded itself.

If anyone knows a place that might carry these parts or remanufacture them, please let me know. I will need new ones when I am done.

I can't stop the project here. I have no choice at all except to remove these one way or another.

[Meridious]

I've Emailed the Bird's Nest, the Tbird Ranch, Pat Wilson's, and about 5 other used-parts dealers I found on Hemmings.

Hopefully one of them will be able to supply these.

What I will need are 4 of these:

(part 3048 in this image)




Lesson learned...some parts seize beyond removal.

bleh

[dgs]

Sorry I'm late to the party. Mine pushed out with the taps of a standard framing hammer. Almost could spin them with my fingers. The benefits of a California car, I guess. I was shocked how easy most of mine came apart. I'm used to Ohio cars where everything is rusted together after 4-5 years in the winter salt. Sorry I can't give you better news. Are both arms that way?

Cutting them out might not be the best idea either. I'm not an expert in this stuff, but you'll still need a nice round slip fit hole to put the new ones into. Maybe try some penetrating oil, a bunch of tapping, more penetrating oil, more tapping, etc. It may take some time, but that might get you there.

I ran into a similar predicament with the ball stud on the PS control valve. Alexander told me oil and tapping, oil and tapping. I got impatient and started banging and using a pickle fork. That only buggered things up. I went back to oil and tapping and eventually it popped loose.

On the brakes, I bought the Kanter brake kit with 4 wheel cylinder rebuild kits, 3 rubber lines and a MC rebuild kit. Was about $130, I think. Worked great, but I found one wheel cylinder was scored and leaked even with new seals. Discovered that Autozone had one on the shelf for $13!

I'm telling you, get a couple of HS linebackers to sit in the engine bay when it's time to reassemble. No compressor needed then!

[dgs]

Posting at the same time.

Before you go cutting, get in touch with John at the Thunderbird Ranch. I bet he's removed a fair number of these and would have some advice for you. He'd be the one that would have them if no one else does, I bet.

Another thing to try might be to thread the bolt back in alone until it bottoms out. Then use a breaker bar on it to try to twist them loose. Without the clamping on the bushings, you might break 'em. Maybe.

Good luck, sorry this has gotten so hard for you.

[Meridious]

Sorry I'm late to the party. Mine pushed out with the taps of a standard framing hammer. Almost could spin them with my fingers. The benefits of a California car, I guess. I was shocked how easy most of mine came apart. I'm used to Ohio cars where everything is rusted together after 4-5 years in the winter salt. Sorry I can't give you better news. Are both arms that way?

Cutting them out might not be the best idea either. I'm not an expert in this stuff, but you'll still need a nice round slip fit hole to put the new ones into. Maybe try some penetrating oil, a bunch of tapping, more penetrating oil, more tapping, etc. It may take some time, but that might get you there.

I ran into a similar predicament with the ball stud on the PS control valve. Alexander told me oil and tapping, oil and tapping. I got impatient and started banging and using a pickle fork. That only buggered things up. I went back to oil and tapping and eventually it popped loose.

On the brakes, I bought the Kanter brake kit with 4 wheel cylinder rebuild kits, 3 rubber lines and a MC rebuild kit. Was about $130, I think. Worked great, but I found one wheel cylinder was scored and leaked even with new seals. Discovered that Autozone had one on the shelf for $13!

I'm telling you, get a couple of HS linebackers to sit in the engine bay when it's time to reassemble. No compressor needed then!

Yeah, I have banged on all 4 with the sledge and the rod. None will budge. I have soaked them in penetrating oil/ break free as well, since yesterday.

This is the first time I can recall that getting a bolt/rod/shaft amber red hot with a torch, then trying to remove it just after it returns to normal...has failed to work.

I have removed rusted/seized lug nuts, bolts from just about every engine part you could imagine...from frames, from so many things. Yet that + an 8lb sledge and iron rod would not move the one I have focused most of my efforts on today.

If a hydraulic jack cannot press it out, and an expanding it with heat won't work, it is time to consider cutting.

I can cut the shafts without damaging the 'hole' that the shaft is in through the frames/cross-members. The worst part is that the rubber will be burning and popping and bugging the crap out of me as I do it.

I am literally at a stand-still until I know for sure I can get these shafts replaced.

I have my engine ready to go back in as well...but I can't do anything else until I get this resolved.

[Meridious]

Posting at the same time.

Before you go cutting, get in touch with John at the Thunderbird Ranch. I bet he's removed a fair number of these and would have some advice for you. He'd be the one that would have them if no one else does, I bet.

Another thing to try might be to thread the bolt back in alone until it bottoms out. Then use a breaker bar on it to try to twist them loose. Without the clamping on the bushings, you might break 'em. Maybe.

Good luck, sorry this has gotten so hard for you.

He was the first person I Emailed. Waiting for a reply. If I cannot get any of these through used dealers, I suppose the only recourse would be to have a machine shop fabricate 4 new ones.

I shudder to think how long I will have to wait and how much it will cost to do that. That's IF one of the 3 machine shops here would take on the job.

[Meridious]

Pat Wilson's had 4 of the lower control-arm shafts, so I have them ordered. I'm going to have a lengthy conversation with the seized shafts either this evening or tomorrow.

They will be removed. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever now that I have replacements.

It's on.

[Meridious]

Update:

I only had to cut out 2 of the 4 control-arm shafts and managed to get 2 of them loose. The used sharfts came in from Wilson's...so all is well with the world.

I dropped off the control-arms at my local machine shop and they will have them sandblasted, primed, painted, and new parts pressed in on Monday.

I'm a happy camper.

[Guest]

And we are all happy for you

[dgs]

Good news. I saw in another post that your 'Bird came from Minnesota, right? Mine was from southern CA. That would explain why mine came out easy and yours did not. Snow and salt are hard on fasteners. I was simply shocked at how easy my front end came apart for a 47 year old car with 150K + miles. I'm used to Ohio cars that are fused together by rust!

[Meridious]

Good news. I saw in another post that your 'Bird came from Minnesota, right? Mine was from southern CA. That would explain why mine came out easy and yours did not. Snow and salt are hard on fasteners. I was simply shocked at how easy my front end came apart for a 47 year old car with 150K + miles. I'm used to Ohio cars that are fused together by rust!

Yup. There is a ton of surface rust under the compartment, but the rest of the car has apparently been treated well with protectant. I scraped down the protective coating in various placed under the car, and there was no rust.

There was no protective coating (naturally) on the front frame, beyond the wheel-wells, so they got hit pretty hard.

Even after I cut the two control-arm shafts so I could drop the control-arms out, it was A PAIN to get the rest of the shaft out of the front frames.

I still had to heat them red-hot, and pound them with the heavy sledge, but once I had the room to swing that sucker, they gave and popped loose.

I celebrated afterward. Cake, Ice cream, champagne, the works.