Front Suspension Rebuild

[XfireZ51]

Spring Updatng season has come early this year. with 40d+ weather here in Chicagoland, its possible to throw open the garage door and do some needed maintenance work on the front end. Last year I decided to get a wheel alignment prior to BG. I was told they couldn't do it due to the condition of the lower ball joints. I bought some Moog ball joints last fall planning on installing them this spring. I also got a poly bushing kit for the front end. Well this weekend marked the beginning of maintenance season and I started with replacing the D/S rear hub bearing. Bought a Timken unit for that. And yesterday I started tearing into the front end.
The Brembos were the biggest obstacle due to how they were installed.
Also went ahead and order upper ball joints after getting a closer look at them. Here's some pics of the devastation:

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x198/Z51Xfire/FrontEndRebuild001.jpg

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x198/Z51Xfire/FrontEndRebuild003.jpg

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x198/Z51Xfire/FrontEndRebuild002.jpg

You can see the Brembos use a 2 piece disc. The bracket mounting bolts were too long to allow removal of the caliper which in turn would not allow removal of the disc. My suspicion is that the outer disc was installed in the caliper, then the center hub portion of the disc was bolted to the outer ring once the caliper mounting bolts were torqued. Otherwise, no way to remove disc without cutting the bolts which is what I did.
Passenger side gets disassembled later today.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x198/Z51Xfire/FrontEndRebuild004.jpg

[VetteMed]

Looks like fun, Dom. I despise doing front-end work, but somehow I always seem to end up still doing it myself instead of paying someone else. I guess my cheapness overwhelms my distaste for the job! :D

[XfireZ51]

Looks like fun, Dom. I despise doing front-end work, but somehow I always seem to end up still doing it myself instead of paying someone else. I guess my cheapness overwhelms my distaste for the job! :D


My checkbook overwhelms mine. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Having coilovers makes this a much less daunting task.

[rhipsher]

When its done you'll love it. It won't even feel like the same car. Are you doing the steering rack/inner/outer tie rods also? If you can afford to you should hit it all at once.

[VetteMed]

Do the steering rack mount bushings often deteriorate to any significant degree?

[rhipsher]

The Mooge inner and outer tie rods run about $250. There's only two bushings on the steering rack. The drivers side one was good. The passengers side was toast. Replaced both with poly.

[VetteMed]

Reason I ask, is I rebuild my whole front end last year, but neglected the rack mount bushings. Maybe I ought to inspect those...

[rhipsher]

Reason I ask, is I rebuild my whole front end last year, but neglected the rack mount bushings. Maybe I ought to inspect those... They're exposed to air which causes dry rot. But some are gonna be in better shape then others.

[XfireZ51]

When its done you'll love it. It won't even feel like the same car. Are you doing the steering rack/inner/outer tie rods also? If you can afford to you should hit it all at once.

Unfortunately no. These cars are a bit like a knit sweater. Start to pull on a thread and you get a cascading failure. I have another couple of projects betond this. Pulling the plenum to do a repaint and match cam covers. I may smooth out the runners while I'm at it. I also picked up a set of new Yukon 3.73 gears. That should bring the effective gear close to
a 3.45 using 19" rear wheels.
Need to replace rear hatch tray moldings and hatch curtain also. Hope to have it done before BG.

[XfireZ51]

They're exposed to air which causes dry rot. But some are gonna be in better shape then others.

Going out to the garage now. I'll give them a look.

[rhipsher]

Also another thing I noticed was that Prothane who I bought my bushing kit from calls it the complete suspension kit but its really not. Its 80% complete. Comes with everything except the front and rear sway bar bushings. And the bushings that press into the lower control arm that connect to the sway bar ends. Prothane sells those as a separate kit. Go figure.

[XfireZ51]

rhipsher,

Yeah, I checked out the tie rod ends and the boots are punctured on them. They look easy to get to so I figured I could leave them for later. It took me 4+ hours to dismantle
the driver's side but only 2 to do the passenger side. Lessons learned.

[XfireZ51]

Today heading to Pete's to do bushings and ball joints. I'm waiting for the upper ball joints but we can remove the old ones and I can start re-assembling front end and bolt uppers in when they show up next week hopefully. I bought a set of
AC Delco Pro series ball joints from Amazon. In the meantime, we just got
our heaviest snow this morning 3-5". It's the wet stuff.
Should be melted by Sunday w temps at 47F.
Then we'll get started at pulling plenum and IHs.

[rhipsher]

Today heading to Pete's to do bushings and ball joints. I'm waiting for the upper ball joints but we can remove the old ones and I can start re-assembling front end and bolt uppers in when they show up next week hopefully. I bought a set of
AC Delco Pro series ball joints from Amazon. In the meantime, we just got
our heaviest snow this morning 3-5". It's the wet stuff.
Should be melted by Sunday w temps at 47F.
Then we'll get started at pulling plenum and IHs. It was 81 degrees here yesterday. It's the middle of Feb for god sakes.:dontknow: I predict another miserably hot summer. If so I won't be driving the Z at all. See you guys up north put your cars away for the winter. And down here I put mine away in the summer.

[XfireZ51]

Bushings and lower ball joints installed last night. Not a job to do without a hydraulic press and an ornery stubborn Greek. The upper ball joints were the biggest PITA as far as pounding out the rivets. Obviously these were the OEM ball joints on a 20year old chassis with 115k miles on it. Ball joints themselves and bushings did not look bad but replacing everything with poly.
Much tighter. Using Energy Suspension bushing kit and Moog lowers. I'll clean the arms and install tomorrow w temps getting close to 50. Still waiting on upper ball joints.
BTW, Greeks that do suspension work must be fed Burritos in order to maximize their strength and concentration. Pete is sort of like the Tasmanian Devil running around in his garage when he's hungry!
LOL!

[rhipsher]

You know how fat people get when they're hungry. Sounds like its the same with little greek guys with a metabolism like a chiuaua.

[XfireZ51]

Here's Pete looking for food in his natural habitat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c54SvkgQ04A

[XfireZ51]

I just finished cleaning up the control arms and spindle w Engine Degreaser and Brake cleaner. Came out looking decent. I decided to pull the lower sway bar mount that attaches to the lower control arm and discovered that the bushing is not in very good shape. Anybody have a part# for that poly bushing. It did not come w the Energy Suspension bushing set I bought. Since I have everything apart, may as well change the out. waiting on upper ball joints as well.

[XfireZ51]

What happened to my last post here? I included pics of the lower sway bar link bushing and the 2 piece Brembo rotor! The bushing is in the lower control arm. On side came out w just the bushing and inner sleeve, while the passenger side came out w the outer sleeve intact. I just bought a set of
Energy Suspension away bar bushing but no outer sleeve appears to be I included. Is that outer sleeve needed w poly bushings?

[XfireZ51]

Here's a couple of pics. One is of the 2 piece Brembo rotor adn the other is of the lower Sway Bar Link bushing. This bushing is in the lower control arm. The Driver side came out with the inner sleeve and bushing. The pass. side came out with the outer sleeve as shown in the pics.

[XfireZ51]

Here's a couple of pics. One is of the 2 piece Brembo rotor adn the other is of the lower Sway Bar Link bushing. This bushing is in the lower control arm. The driver side came out with the inner sleeve and bushing. The pass. side came out with the outer sleeve as shown in the pics. I have new poly bushings for the sway bar links coming from Energy Suspension Parts. I may start pulling plenum while waiting for the upper ball joints and sway bar bushings.

[XfireZ51]

The answer to the question in the previous post is that the metal sleeve
is not used when installing poly bushings for the sway bar links. The outer sleeve is pressed out. Since i got the bushings I installed them yesterday and started re-assembling the front end. I have most of the driver's side back together with the exception of the brake caliper and rotor in place. all other bolts are torqued down. I should have the front end together by this evening. I can see that I will need to replace the tie rod ends but those can be done 1 off at a later point in time.
I'm really interested in seeing how the front end feels with all the bushings and ball joints having been replaced. Just moving the suspension around to manipulate it for re-assembly indicates it to be stiffer and more precise with the input. I'll post pics of the re-assembly later today or tomorrow.
Then we'll go to the top end to re-do the plenum and injector housings. New paint and freshen up the porting. I'll take the opportunity to measure the head ports and see what kind of porting job GVD did.