Everything but a couple of cotter pins and one sway bar bolt is back in
place! The new ball joints, tie rod, steering links and A-arm bushings, as
well as new upper A-arm spindles curtesey of Ralph Bradley, 3 used A-arms
from Jim Sloans and a pair of locking plates from Les. The last three being
emergency parts at the last minute.
I need to thank a bunch of people for making it happen. Chris and Diane
Luers for taking a weekend out of their busy lives. Chris spent two full
days turning a wrench. Jim Sloan, both for his efforts at a wrench Saturday
and then opening his barn for us to salvage 3 A-arms off his parts cars.
Teddy Seidenfeld for spending Sunday trying to put things back together that
he hadn't seen disassembled ( although I think he would have worked both
days had I been able to get him a pancake and maple syrup breakfast both
days!). Les, for Priority Mailing two locking plates at the last minute
after reading my notes to the list that the PO had left them off.
A special thanks to the wives who allowed their husbands to come over and
play and now have some very greasy clothes to wash.
An the biggest thanks to Kathy, my wife, who spend all of last week
preparing the house for weekend guests and prepared delicious food for
everybody Saturday and Sunday.
I hope to get a how-to-article written before next weekend and I'll let
the list know when & where it is posted. For those that followed Ted & Toms
discussion last week, the bolts were all SAE, nothing metric! Chris and I
decided that with out the interruption of finding the bad A-arms, the job
would have been about 5 to 6 hours. I think the key was the can and a half
of penetrating oil I soaked everything in for a week before!
Again, thanks to every one who make this weekend possible. I can't wait
to finish it off, get an alignment, and break in those new ball joints!
Paul
OROC
BTW, I did end up with a few extra parts. Anybody need some dust seals for
their tie rod or steering links?
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