The Webmaster Zone

I've been looking forward to my first drive with a new suspension for a long time, and tonight I was not disappointed. The car is transformed from old car to race car!! I can't wipe the smile off my face. It used to be hard to control when going over rough road and of course with two ineffective shock absorbers, it would bounce up and down several times over every bump. Combined, it makes for some stressful trips sometimes as the amount of concentration required to correct for road conditions is quite tiring. Now, it corners like its on rails. The feedback is just right; I can feel the bumps and road surface under the car but instead of going jittery it literally sticks to the road and feels a hundred times more solid. I did the entire reassembly this week. Monday I exchanged the shocks and got most of the parts I ordered from Just Brits. After pressing the last two V8 bushings into the A-arms I attached the shock to the crossmember, and ran into my first and only real problem; one of the rear bolt holes on the driver's side was stripped! I solved that problem by getting a slightly longer 7/16" bolt from Octagon today, so that when it was screwed in a bit of bolt was sticking out the bottom of the shock mount and I could put a washer and nyloc nut on it; very secure. I'm lucky in that it was the rear bolt hole since the front holes don't show out the bottom! Anyway after I got the shocks on I put in the top trunnion pin. Then I assembled the spring pans with the new A-arms (with sway bar link holes). It all went so smoothly that I ended up putting in the new springs and the lower trunnion pins too, and almost put the lower trunnion seals on the wrong way around. I tried to find copper grease or Neversieze to assemble the trunnion pins but of course Canadian Tire didn't have what I was looking for so I made an educated guess and used white lithium grease instead. Today I took my sway bar to Octagon to get new bushings pressed in. I tried to press them in myself with a 5" C-clamp but they were way too tight. Picked up some cotter pins and a new inner door release handle as well. After work I installed the sway bar and connected it to the link. Greased the suspension and put new grease on the hub splines, then put the wheels back on and lowered the car to the ground. Did the final tightening and put in the cotter pins. Phew! The job probably took 20-30 hours total but I like to go over everything very carefully. The front of the car is sitting 6 inches higher than before, but I'm sure it will settle a bit as the springs wear in. The sway bar reduces the body roll dramatically, I was doing a bit of a test on the road around BC Place Stadium (part of the Indy circuit) and I have a lot of cornering power left to explore. This is the best thing I've done to the car yet, I recommend to anyone who has worn out suspension components to take the plunge and renovate while the weather is still icky. Checked the tire pressure all around and inflated my new improved spare; trips to Seattle are going to be a breeze now! Gotta get a quote on fixing the damage to the rear end, and I've got all the parts to renovate the rear suspension and I still need to replace the steering rack boots, handbrake cable, and install my new Lucas battery switch. If only I could afford that nice Motolita wood rim steering wheel on sale at Moss... Update: The car handles great on the highway too and wheel patter above 65 mph is almost imperceptable. Had another tire blow on me this weekend though, this is getting ridiculous!