Ready for this one?

Re: Ready for this one?

Reply #15 – August 05, 2019, 11:24:14 AM

I've experienced....most of this in the last couple of years.

My co-worker is about to buy Smittybuilt stainless steel hinges for $400 for his 2012 Jeep because the one door was almost frozen shut due to lack of use. I really don't know what's worse. These old pieces of shiznit or the new pieces of shiznit

Watch out for waterpumps....maybe redundant but my daily 87 Grand Marquis snapped a brand new Gates water pump shaft when I stood on the limiter pissed off one night over who knows what. Steel fan so it took out the shroud, radiator...tranny lines....shaft was at least an 1/8" thinner than factory. Bought a GENERAL MOTORS AC DELCO water pump, that thing is beefy!!!! I have no worries.

How sad is that? God Bless you GM

Re: Ready for this one?

Reply #16 – August 06, 2019, 02:25:36 AM

Wanna hear the worst part? Holy cheap swapping springs sucks and is super scary on these cars.

When I was in auto shop in high school there was a kid working in the stuts he just pulled out of his car. He was sitting right next to me, took of the top of the strut mount and it popped him into the chest and knocked him flat on the ground. He ended up in the back of an ambulance, teacher said that he was trying to out lowering springs on his Honda and heard he didn't need a spring compressor.

Ever since then, I've been a bit gun shy whenever I'm around springs.

So I pulled the a-arm off my 86 cougar. Wasn't too bad, after unhooking the strut and swinging the spindle out of the way, I pryed it a bit with a shovel and it fell out, in two peices. Thought, wow that was easy, I wonder why everyone makes such a big deal of this.

Went over to do the same thing to my 86 tbird, unhook the spindle, let the a arm down to the ground. The spring is bowed out quite a bit and won't come out at all, obviously still under a ton of tension. So I jack it back up till its about to lift off the back stand, grab two beefy ratchet straps and wrap them around the spring, tighten them a bit and then do the same thing again.

I think I spent 3 hours trying to work up the courage to actually get the spring out. Then once it was out, I felt like it was a hand grenade ready to go off. Swap out the a-arm and go to out it back in, and even with the ratchet strap fully compressed and the spring almost touching every coil, still can't get it in. So chickened out and then went to get a spring compressor.

I needed up trying three different spring compressors before I got one that really worked, they were all to big to fit between the coils, even after I loosened the ratchet straps and removed them.

Ill bet I spent 4 hours trying to get the spring compressor out, after I finally got it lined up right and everything in place. Have to use an open ended wrench to loosen all 9" of the threads showing still on the spring compressor before it loosened up. Then I spent about an hour trying to take the thing apart and get it out and in between the coils.

She. I went to put the busted a-arm back on my 86 parts car, I bitterly cut about 3 coils off the already broken spring just so I didn't have to mess with that stupid tool again.

Then right as I get that done, remeber that wobbly fan clutch? I dunno if it was the two years of driving with a blown head gasket or the fan clutch that did it in, but I go to take the car on a test drive, and it hucks the serpentine belt. The brand new barely driven 5 miles serpentine belt. Pull over and pop the hood and the fan is sitting in the shroud with the entire water pump shaft bouncing up and down on the harmonic balancer.

So I swap out the water pump for the 3rd, maybe 4th time in the last two years, and its leaking, badly. I did kinda rush stuff, I used rtv on the long water pump bolts, but I didn't clean them off.

So after working a few more days and getting picked up and dropped off at work, I finally have enough time to redo the eater pump bolts. This time I took my time, wire wheeled off each on and cleaned up the entire bolt, then I put a bunch of thread sealant on each bolt, along with a touch of rtv along the shaft of the bolt just for good luck.

Now for the first time in 2 years and 85k miles, I have a daily driver that doesn't overheat or shoot coolant out overnight, even in 105°f heat. I love this car again. But not do I feel like I've been working too hard on it.

Re: Ready for this one?

Reply #17 – August 19, 2019, 02:09:02 PM

The front coil springs are crushed into a horribly small circular range of motion with the control arm.

What I've found best is to get two thick metal plates, drill a hole through the middle, use the hole in the top of the spring bucket to clamp these together with a nut and bolt or threaded rod etc...hold the top of the spring to the bucket, then get a long bar, ideally a piece of square or circle tube stock and cut notches in it so that it will actually stay in place and "grab" a lower coil, then you can bend it right into place as you support the arm with a floor jack underneath. Suddenly it's the easiest job ever.

F most spring compressors for these cars.