[Adrian Worman]

All done and installed properly now, very pleased with the result from an engineering and quality point of veiw. Got to tackle the front end alignment first tho', any special instructions?
Now I got to hope for a dry Saturday this weekend and take it out for a road test, can't wait
Have'nt forgot your piccies Wayne, will get it up in the air and start snapping away for you mate

[dave-r]

Adjust the upper control arms to max caster. Which is front bush full out and rear bush full in.
Then wind the front bush in until you have the required wheel camber. About a half a degree negative (in at the top) will do. Then adjust the toe to about 2 or 3mm in.

[Adrian Worman]

Ta Dave, set the uca cam bolts roughly and went for a shakedown run. I am well impressed with the overall result, barely any body roll, diving under braking, ir wanfering into the other lane on acceleration. Very quiet, comfortable ride, just much better than I ever hoped for. Only downside so far is ridiculous wheelspin, even in 3rd..............although I did pull some crazy opposite lock stunts on the famous MK racetrack , its so easy to fling about now
My mate has let me use her alignement equipment, will do final adjustments later this week, then post up nice pix for Wayne

[dave-r]

Sounds very promising mate.

BTW I have a pumber coming to see me about that little boiler job on Monday night. He thinks he can fit me in during one of his other jobs in the near future.

[Adrian Worman]

Sounds very promising mate.

BTW I have a pumber coming to see me about that little boiler job on Monday night. He thinks he can fit me in during one of his other jobs in the near future.

Nice one mate, gimme a ring if you need any fittings or controls

[RedRaven]

then post up nice pix for Wayne

Sweet..........

[Adrian Worman]

In Cornwall right now Wayne having a little sunny break cos it's my birthday but I'll be back at the weekend. Nice new avatar mate, best prezzie I got today seeing them lovelys on my I-pod

[Adrian Worman]

Here you go mate, feast yo' eyes on these pix
Before you even start this job get the right tools, like this balljoint socket, lent to me by Dave , a balljoint splitter and a decent jack and stands. Firstly get the car up on stands and safe, you'll be doing a fair bit of levering, prying, hitting things with hammers, you want it secure mate
The first job to do is to unload all the tension on the torsion bars and remove them. The bar tension adjuster is a bolt located underside of the lower control arm and simply requires a socket to unwind anticlockwise. When all the tension is released from the bar you will be able to freely move the whole suspension assenbly op and down, albeit with a lot of weight from the components. Now you can remove and tie up safely the brake caliper and remove the upper balljoint nut and then pop the upper control arm from the rest of the assembly. This is where you'll need a balljoint fork or splitter, remember if you are replacing the upper balljoint it won't matter, but if you're reusing it be carefull not to split the rubber grease seal. You might want to remove the lower balljoint and the steering tie rods at this time, but I managed the whole job without breaking these to save time and it did'nt hinder me at all. The torsion bar is locked in place by a large clip hidden inside the hexagonal socket welded into the crossmember just back from the transmission, shown in the second pic. Remove the clip with your fingers, it comes out quite easily, get a wire brush and thoroughly clean the opening. Now go to the front of the car to the front of the K member and remove the nut that holds the strut rod in place, that can be seen in the third pic. Next go to the front side of the K member where the l.c.a is located, you'll see a nut , shown in the fourth pic, remove that and then place a pry bar between the l.c.a and the K member and lever the arm back till the torsion bar pops out of its rear socket, this will take a bit of jiggling about but it will happen.

[Adrian Worman]

Remove the shock from its mounting on the l.c.a and compress it up out of the way. Assuming the torsion bar was fully unloaded and devoid of any tension it should have come out of the rear socket. If it has'nt, resist the temptation to apply grips to it and belt it, you'll damage the surface of the bar and a stress fracture could appear there and shatter the bar. A good time to install new bars anyway considering the low cost and the handling benefits. If your carefull you can install the nut onto the l.c.a shaft and give it a couple of raps with a soft copper or hide mallet, don't damage the threads on the shaft. When the arm comes free the bar will pop out easily, and then you can draw the arm and its shaft out of the K member, the strut rod will stay attached to the arm, I left it there all the time and it was'nt an issue, you can remove the old strut rod bushings now, one either side of the front of the rod attached to a thin metal sleeve. Now have a look at the lower arm and where the shaft is installed into it. The bushing is a rubber inner with a metal sleeve both inside and outside. This part is reasonable fun, you get to burn the rubber out with a blowtorch , simply hold the flame to the middle of the bushing 'till it catches fire and wait while it burns itself out. You can easily pull out the shaft with inner metal sleeve attached and then get a pair of pliers and pull out the remains of the old bush, leaving the old outer metal sleeve still firmly inside the arm. Clean any debris out of the arm and the surface of the shaft and install your new poly bush, loads of silicone grease around all surfaces and the shaft will easily push back into the arm without much more effort than leaning on it.
Now you can fit the inside half of the strut rod poly bush to the end of the rod, greased thoroughly, and get ready to install the l.c.a c/w shaft back into the K member, guide the strut rod back in at the same time, install the shaft nut but don't fully tighten it yet, install the other half of the strut rod poly hush and plate and nut and tighten. Now you can re fit the torsion bars, make sure they go in the same side they came out of, they cannot be swapped over, they will fail if they are but it doe'snt matter which end goes back in tho'. Take as much grase as you can hold and pack it into the hex receivers on the l.c,a and the chassis, slot the bars in from the back and fit the grease boots to them as they go thru' the chassis, jiggle the l.c.a up and down till you find the point at which they both line up and push the bars all the way home, don't forget clips.
Now you can move on to the upper control arm, or u.c.a. Look in the engine bay to find the other end of the special bolts which hold these in place and loosen them off and remove them, see first pic. The u.c.a will come out now but will need a good tug due to the years of rust and dirt. The next job is to remove the old bushes and fit the new ones, here you'll either need a special tool, see Daves bit on this post where he shows the tool he made up,........... or a mate with a press, I got one ion my garage , made the job super easy, see second pic. Clean the u.c.a and refit it to the car, reattach the bolts, don't worry about the position of the bolts and washers yet, Dave tells us the basic position for them, good job we got him eh Now you can attach the upper balljoint and tighten the nut, install the caliper and shock and you are nearly done. Before you wind some tension into the torsion bars grease the top of the adjusting bolt and the socket where it fits into the torsion bar lever, I've got a really good scan of an article on torsion bar installation that shows this at work that I'll post up this week. Drop the car onto its wheels and load the suspension , set the ride height to about 24", floor to top of wheel arch, to start with and now fully tighten the l.c.a shaft nut and check everything else for tightness, all the torque settings are in the workshop manual. You'll have to visit a garage with a set of suspension geometry gauges to get it all set spot on, wheel alignement, camber and caster. It all sounds like a lot of work but in reality its not, I had a couple of major headaches but even then it was'nt too bad, and you know everyone on here will help you

[RedRaven]

Super posts lad thanks, the pics look great......very clean and tidy.

[drewcrane]

Super posts lad thanks, the pics look great......very clean and tidy.

Do you think you can get that green dude on the road soon?

[RedRaven]

As soon as I get the brakes sorted mate...I dont trust them at the moment they need a serious look at.

I want to have her in good nick when you get here lad.

[drewcrane]

As soon as I get the brakes sorted mate...I dont trust them at the moment they need a serious look at.

I want to have her in good nick when you get here lad.

well quit boob shakin and get bakin

[Adrian Worman]

As soon as I get the brakes sorted mate...I dont trust them at the moment they need a serious look at.

I want to have her in good nick when you get here lad.

You still got drums have'nt you? Even with my disc braked front end I can see failings in my brakes now I've done those suspension mods, they just ain't up to it

[dave-r]

Funny enough I aways found the R/T 11"x3" drums better for braking force. The problem is trying to stop fast in a straight line. No matter how I adjusted them the car would twist to one side or the other in an emergency.
The change to discs cured that.

[Adrian Worman]

Ironically my '67 Firebird had brilliant drums all round, used some semi mettallic sport shoes and the drums were huge, stopped dead straight every time and barely any fade Needless to say I've never encountered such a good system again