MakoJoe

Hi all as promised I will be posting pictures and steps as I rebuild my front suspension on the 1977 Corvette. I have a bad back so this post is going to take me a month or two to complete but you will get pictures and steps then your patience is required as I perform the work.

Do not need any comments at this point so please keep them to yourself but this post will be updated every weekend until the job is completed. Than you can tell me how much I have sucked at providing the steps

As always first step is get the car up in the air. I put my jack up under the front cross member in front of the engine to lift the car evenly then set the jack stands on a piece of wood since I just epoxy coated my garage floor last month.




I separated the pads from the rotors with a small pry bar to remove the calipers then the rotors.



I removed the rotors so i can media blast all the parts and repaint them then reinstalled the calipers on the assembly. While i could do this later on it is easier to do while the stuff is still on the car. I pulled the pin that holds the pads in place then removed the pads from the brake rotors than removed the rotors. It is all about making it easier in later steps. The calipers will need to be removed again to pop the ball joints.



Parts on each side are placed on cardboard to keep my new floor clean. I marked where each pad sat on the rotor and the rotor will be scuffed to remove the glazing before reassembly. The Rotors will be painted with a high temp black paint to prevent future rusting.



I Purchased this front end kit from Harbor Freight and tested which of these tools will help me to pop the Tie Rods and Ball Joints. They will work very well on popping the parts free. They will also assist with removing other parts later on.

MakoJoe

I got a little further this evening. Put a jack up under the lower control arms and used the Wilcox style spring compressor to hold my suspension in place with the jack up under the car.



Found you only need to jack the suspension up until it starts to move the upper control arm and the front sway bar has the pressure removed from the bolts. If you keep on jacking it upwards it will lift the car up off the jack stands.



The Wilcox Cheap Tools Designed Spring Compressor is a safety measure and cranking down on the bolt relieves the pressure on the jack. I trust the guys at Wilcox Corvette so I am using a tool they helped me to design. The jack does all the work and the tool is a safety measure.



After 37 years old expect to buy some new sway bar mounting hardware. They snapped off with out much effort since the threads were so rusted that nothing would help them expect new mounting hardware.

next step is to pop the Tie Rod than the Upper and Lower Ball Joints which I will do this weekend.

MakoJoe

Since I am replacing all the bushings I also ordered some bolt kits. Make sure you measure your sway bar before ordering a new bracket kit. Mine is 7/8 inch

I ordered the new parts today from online vendor. Than when I got home worked a little longer on the car to drop the lower A-Arm


The Tie Rod Nut was a little tight so instead of bringing out the Breaker Bar I mated 2 Wrenches together to break it free. Old School trick




Then I used the Tie Rod tool to pop it loose. When they pop it makes a loud noise than the tool falls off.







Next I moved to the upper ball joint with a ball joint removal tool. Sorry only could take the picture once so it is a little blurry. Popped loose the upper ball joint






Next I lowered the Lower Control Arm with the jack about 2 inches at a time using my floor jack.



Sorry about the blurry pictures I am at the mercy of my Digital Camera on these. They tend to look good in the little window but when I posted them they are blurry. Tomorrow evening I will remove the spring

MakoJoe

Now you can make some comments if you would like on the disassemble of the front end but know this post is also going to be really long because I will post the media blasting of the parts then painting them with new black paint the also the removal and installation of the new bushings than I how I accomplish this task with more pictures and how I figured it all out. I have access to presses to remove the bushings than will figure out the stuff I need.

Keep all bad comments to yourself because I really do not care what you think on this because I am figuring this out as I go along. Doing a pretty good job of it. Suggestions welcome

MakoJoe

I can pretty much tell you I will NOT be using this method and have access to a press. Kill me first LOL

Having access to a press is very much different you need to support the control arm then press on the mounting bracket with supporting the A-Arm. I have explored a few methods and in later posts you will have pictures on how I remove the upper and lower control arm bushings then re-install them using Poly Bushings. Poly Bushings require buttloads of Silicone Grease during the installation to keep them from squeaking. The set I purchased from Parts Geek are Energy Suspension and are impregnated with Graphite.

MakoJoe

Tied up the Caliper this evening to keep it hanging of the way. As you saw in earlier pictures I removed the Front Disk it had to removed earlier than later because it was easier.



To get to the upper control arm nuts to make it easier you need to remove the fan and unbolt the fan shroud. I did them by removing the fan shroud bolts and just moving it a little but really need the shroud completely out of the way.







Than I unbolted my passenger side upper control arm While you will need to get the front end realigned you will need to tape and mark where you removed the upper control arm shims so you can put them back in place during reassembly.



This is where I have run into a problem I have not overcome yet. While you can remove the nuts from the upper control arm the Fan shroud is in the way to remove the upper control arm. The alighnment



I removed the fan and the snorkel then still do not have enough room to remove the upper control arm yet. have not figure out how to wiggle it in the right place without removing the radiator.



have you been here before? Suggestions are welcome. I can use a pry bar to bend stuff but not the direction I want to go.

MakoJoe

Removed the upper control arms. I thought they were studs and they are because I was able to remove the nuts without having to put a socket on the outside. Pounding them out was a pain in the butt since they were so rusted in place and the fan shroud was in the way. Took awhile to get out the Bolts/Studs Ended up pounding on a Pry Bar which was a pain in the butt.






The new Moog springs are much smaller than the factory springs but have the same spring rate as the stock springs. Even though they look shorter it will restore the factory height in the front end of the car and will be much easier to reinstall since they are shorter.



Cannot remove the lower control arms because I need to purchase some more wrenches. It will require a 13/16 inch wrench for the top side bolt. I cannot get a socket on the top end of the bolt because GM installed the Automatic Tranny Cooling lines right on top of the bolt head so it will require a boxed end wrench. Got to love the installers back then. Looks like I will be tool shopping tomorrow to buy some larger wrench sets.

MakoJoe

I had a rusted frozen sleeve on the upper control arm that took me a few hours to loosen up with lots of WD40. Let it sit for about 3 hours working it every once in awhile beating on it with a piece of wood and a hammer then finally broke it loose. You can see the rust on it that the WD 40 finally ate through. To press out the bushings every part must be moving. This is also what caused this bushing to disintegrate.



It is now free for me to remove the bushings.

MakoJoe

All Right Dudes got a little further along this evening after about 2 hours of work. Latest pictures and you will learn what I am learning as I go along

I left off with releasing some frozen sleeves so tonight you will know why it was important to get those sleeves loose and why I cut the rubber around them.


This evening I broke out the PB Blaster Lubricant and Rust Release then Took my Air Hammer Chisel to the Bushings. You need to be careful here to only hit the Bushing or you will damage the Control Sleeve so start out squeezing the air hammer light to start to break free the parts.



I put in a set of ear plugs so I will not go deaf. And that is a Becks Beer if anyone is wondering this evening was about a 4 Beer Job. Yes jobs can be done on how many beers they take and as long as you only have a few all is good



Than with my air hammer chisel I moved from side to side to slowly move out the bushing from the control arm. Take your time it does not take long. After you get it started hit it with more PB Blaster for lubricated it more.




One side will pop out but not the other and this is why I said to make sure your sleeves are moving on the mounting are. Use your Air Hammer Chisel to remove the other sleeve and bushing. If loose enough you might be able to slide it off but doubt it. I hit with the air hammer chisel then it slide right off. RUST SUCKs on older cars



I got the Control Arm loose and cleaned it up with some Plumbers Emery Cloth really cool stuff since you can wrap it around the control arm mount.



Oiled it when done removing the rust.



Now that I had the removed put the entire control arm into my Vice and worked on the other Bushing. Again Be careful and try not to hit the control arm with the air chisel when removing the bushing. It will create burrs that will need to remove with a file. It is going to happen just minimize the damage then deburr the control arm on both sleeves or you will have problems with reassembly.



Upper Bushings control arms have been removed and I filed off the slight burrs I caused.

MakoJoe

I also finally finished dropping my lower Control Arm this evening and decided life is better on the bench then on the car.


Next Mounted my Upper Control Arm into the Vice



I am going to save more often this time lost my entire post by hitting a wrong key on my laptop

Here I used that Cheap *** Harbour Freight Tool Kit and as you can see it is a clamp than only put pressure on the lower Ball Joint then with a 16 OZ Hammer to Shock it loose. The parts did not fall to floor. WHY you may ask I put the nut on the assembly so I would not damage parts.

MakoJoe

Because I do not like to make hard work out of anything I put a 5/8 Inch Wrench on the Bushing Bolts than pounded on it a few times to break 37 years of rust loose on the bolt.



Next I used a utility Knife to cut the outer bushing rubber away and peeled it back with Channel Lock Pliers. You need to cut away the outer rubber bushings on both sides for the next steps.

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This is where you wait because the PB Blaster will slowly work into the parts and Tomorrow night you will see more.




Because Rust is your favorite force preventing you from removing these parts I took a wood workers chisel to the sleeve than sprayed a butt load of PB Blaster into the sleeve after I spread it wide open.

MakoJoe

This took a 1 inch wood chisel and a lot of hammering to get the lower control bushings out. Why you may ask the air chisel would have done damage to the control arms. A good sharp metal chisel will do the same work but I do not have one so I used an old 1 inch wood chisel to bend the sleeve working my away around the bushing then took my Air Chisel to remove it. Took about an hour to chisel both bushings out and clean them up. Rust is not your friend and has seized many of the parts on my front suspension so I work on getting them loose with the tools and lubricants I have. Breaking stuff is not an option unless you want to replace it. I did buy new bolt and washer kits for the front that you will not see until I reassemble the parts.







Cleaned up the mounting arms with the emery cloth




This is all I am going to do this evening.

Tomorrow I will start to work on removing the spring and lowering the Drivers Side . I will do pictures on both sides


I want to thank you guys for not adding comments while I do this post because it will distract from the end result of getting the front end disassembled and put back together. As I said this is going to take about a month to complete

MakoJoe

Moved on to the Drivers Side this evening so I will somewhat repeat the steps on how I removed the passenger side but modified it little to make my life easier

I removed the Shock which you do not need pictures of removing Everyone knows how to replace shocks.

Jacked up the lower control arm and installed the Wilcox inspired spring compressor for safety reasons again. You know that unsafe tool after I posted how to make it. It is actually very safe and does what I want it to do hold the parts as I preform dis-assembly of the spring. Many of You may not want to use it but for me it has come in handy and is very safe.

From all my research many mechanics will not use a spring compressor on Small Block engines because the spring rate is not as heavy as a big block engine car. The Floor Jack does all the work



Decided to just break out the SawZaw to cut loose the sway bar bolt this time since it was just as rusted as the passenger side and would break anyways. I have new bolt kits for the entire front suspension so do not really care to save something so rusted.

At the mercy of the camera again so a little blurry




Next I placed the cheap *** Harbor Freight Tie Rod seperater tool on the Tie Rod End and left the nut on this time.



Used a 3/8 inch socket wrench to break it free with a little effort. Glad these parts are new



Tie Rod is loose and put the nut back on so I do not lose it.



It will probably be next weekend when remove the brake disk and I break loose the upper ball joint. So look forward to more posts on this project

stung76

You are doing a great job so far

danh63

Will be doing this same project hopefully this winter. Thanks for the updates!

MakoJoe

Moved on the left Front this evening and will show you all I did again

First I removed the Sway Bar and broke 1 out of 3 Sway Bar Mounting Bolts. Did not take pictures of it but it is only 4 bolts.



Then I moved on removing the Left Front Caliper and put a little pressure on the pads to spread them loose.






I then pulled the Pin out that holds the pads in place.



Slide the pads out and labeled them inner and outer



Loosened the Caliper mounting bolts with a 1 Foot Breaker Bar

MakoJoe

Then removed the caliper and slide it up between the 2 Ball Joints out of the way so I could remove the Brake Disk











Cleaned up the grease on the spindle





Then I loosened up the Upper Ball Joint Nut. Again used the old school trick of mating 3 wrenches so I did not have to work hard.

MakoJoe

I installed the Cheap Harbor Freight Ball Joint Tool on the Upper Ball Joint and cranked down on the tool and popped the Upper Ball Joint Free.



Than I loosened up the Wilcox Inspired Spring Compressor That is very safe since the jack does all the work.



Lowered the Jack to lower the Lower Control Arm



This is far as I am going this evening after about 1.5 hours of work. Might be this weekend before I pick this up again



I admit I can be a dick when someone tells me a tool will not work Tools are meant to help you and make it easier but when used wrong they will break or become dangerous. Key is knowing how to use the tools and not break parts or tools. Rust is your enemy and even though I sprayed with PB Blaster the One Sway Bar Bolt ended up breaking which was the one that was so rusted it was going to snap no matter what I did. Damn I am asking myself you bought all the other bolts why not these. I will show you how to remove the broken bolt when I get to it.

Thanks Guys for checking it out I hope it helps you guys out with your future projects

MakoJoe

I went ahead and hung up the Driver Side Caliper this evening and wanted to show you guys this trick I learned years ago.
A clothes hanger is not going to be strong enough to hang it up so I am using about a 1.5 foot long piece of Electrical Wire.

Put an S into the end of the wire and if the wire bends the top of the S will grab the inside of the frame and keep it from falling out.

Hang it high enough to keep the stress off the brake cable.

MakoJoe

Because I am going to media blast everything I am tearing apart I tore apart the spindle assembly this evening.

Sprayed all the bolts and everywhere there is a gap in the metal with PB Blaster then let it soak in for a few minutes.



You never know how rust has settled in so I like to lightly shock the parts free with a rubber mallet. If you do not know how much rust has frozen the parts this is a safe way not to break bolts with air tools. So sometimes you want manual labor.



I use the parts to hold one of the wrenches.



And remove both bolts in this manner.



This bolt is secured by a Tab on the Brake Shield so I tapped a pry bar into the Tab to start to flatten it out.



You can see the rust that 37 years has put in place after I flattened out the Tab.



I used my 2 Foot Breaker Bar to break this 15/16th Bolt Free. I hit it a few times with my rubber mallet to shock it free then wrenched on it.



The disassembled Spindle Assembly after I took it all apart and is almost ready for Media Blasting.



I stocked up lots of rags which you can buy at Sam's Club and Costco in bulk of packs of 50 rags for less then $12.00 bucks.




This Weekend i will show you how I remove the Drivers Side Spring and the Upper and Lower Control Arms.