C1 Front Suspension Questions

[Christopher R.]

I'm replacing the lower outer bushings on my 62's front suspension. The old pivot bolt was pretty worn and misshapen. The new bolt won't screw into the existing bushing. The old worn bolt had deformed it. So the pivot bolt bushing will have to come out of the knuckle. It went in there 41 years ago with 150-170 ft. lbs. of torque. Since then it's been in the Rust Belt.

Any suggestions on how to get it out? When it was still on the car, a 6 point socket on a long breaker bar with a pipe extension started to raise the car off the jackstands. Now I've got the knuckle and spindle off the car. It needs to go to a machine shop to get the kingpins off anyway. I can't even get the kingpin lock pin out. Any instructions I should give the machine shop to do this work? Anybody know of any machine shop in the Boston area?

Am I going to have trouble getting the new pivot bolt bushing in? Is this something for the machine shop also?

[Steve Junkersfeld]

Re: C1 Front Suspension Questions

Chris, What a coincidence - my 56 spent time in the same rust belt. I ended up gently heating the knuckle with an acetylene torch (a propane torch would probably work also)and using an air driven impact wrench until it loosened up. I would recommend that you soak it in WD-40 or liquid wrench first. My knuckles were off the car for the total body off route - but you should be able to do the same thing on the car. Be very careful with a torch under there as ther are a lot of things (including fiberglass) that will really burn. Good luck, Steve

[Steve Junkersfeld]

Re: C1 Front Suspension Questions

Chris, I'm having a senior moment - I just read the rest of your post. With the knuckles off, it's really straight forward. Just have the shop use heat to expand the knucjkle a little and the impact will loosen it. You will be able to install the new parts yourself. Steve