After like half a year of procrastinating, finally decided to do my front suspension rebuild. 5 days before a family vacation, lol. Had all the parts by January, but it was cold, then work got busy, and I put if off. Took around 3 days, had to wait for emergency parts for 2 days, then 1 more day after that.
Purchased upper control arms w/ ball joints and bushings, tie rod ends, lower ball joints and lower control arm bushings (never did use them, more later), swaybar end links and bushings. My one end link broke in the winter like a year prior, I removed the swaybar and did not put new links since I knew I'd be doing the suspension within the next year, so I thought it was a great time to put new ones in now. Also replaced the dust seals on the half shafts. I did my front hubs about 5 months prior. I would have done those as well during this if I didn't already do it earlier.
Decided to do the 2 piece UCA to the 1 piece UCA swap. Was going to go back with the 2 piece, as MOOG sold both versions, but decided against it because I read it wasn't needed, and it would bother me with having 2 different designs on each side, lol. Did install camber bolts for the UCA's. I believe they were 3 degree ones. Also decided to replace the torsion bar bolts, cuz why not.
All apart. Decided to paint the frame and surrounding areas while I was in there, since it can only help, and it looks better putting new stuff to semi-looking new stuff. All bolts came out surprisingly easy. That little impact on the floor took every bolt off without any issue. Everything was going pretty well, but then I ran into issues with my LCA's.
I read all about the issues people having removing their torsion bars. Read that best thing to do was soak them for weeks prior. I took it up a notch. Once a week since February, I'd go out and soak where the torsion bar goes into with penetrating oil. 5 months later, they still didn't budge at all. Tried everything short of heating them up. Decided to say screw it, bite the bullet, and just buy LCA's. This was on a Saturday afternoon, 4th of July weekend, so I couldn't even hope to finish it for Monday to do the alignment at work. So I just put everything back together as far as I could, painted the torsion bars after I finally got them out, and watched the tracking, lol. Waited 2 days, Wednesday rolls around. I take off work, and finish putting it back together. Went together pretty quick. Pretty sure I spent more time that day cleaning up the garage so cars could finally park back inside. My advice, and if I ever have to do this again, just buy LCA's ahead of time with all the other parts and avoid all the trouble.
After 5 days, it's all back together. Alignment was horrible, but drove great, besides the bad pulling, tire screeching when I turned, and crazy negative camber on the road test afterwards. As you can see, it looks really good besides the semi-new looking paint on the frame. The LCA bolts were a little crusty when I initially pulled them. Went to Ford and they couldn't get new ones for like a week and half. They were like 4 states away. So I just cleaned them up with a tap and die. All in all, project was just about done.
Finally on the alignment rack at my work, 4 days late, lol. This was actually the hardest part of the job. The camber bolts literally had to be half falling off to get the cams to move. Took 3 guys, one turning the cam, and hold it (me) while another guy tightened the bolt and nut, and one more to hold the light, lol. After some swearing and fighting, we got the camber in spec, as well as toe. Threw the wheel tubs back in, took it for a spin around the parking lot. All good. Thanked the guys, went home and loaded up for vacation. Drove it 200 miles the next day with 0 issues. 3 weeks later, still working flawlessly. No more clunking, creaking while stopping, and no more nearly-falling-out driver upper ball joint. One thing I do regret was not leveling it before the alignment. I want to, but I do not want to go through doing that alignment again, and neither would my coworkers, lol. I still may, but I would just pay to have the shop down the street align it. The laundry list is now slightly smaller now, haha. P.S. Sorry for the wall of text/pics, lol
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, the pole barn kit came with 4000 16D 21 degree nails, went to HFT to get a nailer and a motor for my secondary air compressor, found one, got home and it has a 7/8" shaft, old was 5/8" or 1/2"... the old motor has blown capacitors, should have just gotten some of those... Third trip was to try to find a motor pulley, was too late for NAPA and any electric supply place so nada. Ended up just using 200' of air hose from the garage, wasted 3 hours on a side project...
