C1 Front Suspension

[Leon Brown]

Question 1:
Got a 61 project car and has not been road worthy for quite some time. The drivers side camber adjustment will not center. Top of tire tows in and will not center line using the upper outer control arm pivot pin (as much as 3/16"). Inner and outer control arm bushings/shafts and king pins were replaced at one time. No apparent signs of wear. Any ideas of the cause? As much metal this thing has it's hard to believe something might be sprung or distorted.

Question 2:
I'm about to drop the complete front suspension assembly to further investigate and clean, etc. Any do's or don'ts I should be aware of during disassembly and assembly that would affect the alignment?
Thanks
Leon

[Leon Brown]

Re: C1 Front Suspension

Anyone with experience in this field would be appreciated.
Thanks again
Leon

[Chris H.]

Re: C1 Front Suspension

No expert on this but when you put the lower arms back together be carefull installing the threaded bushings into the arms. Easy to cross thread and mess up. Also the king pins were, in my case, impossible to get out on a bench. After I busted up my hand with a huge hammer I took to a local machine shop and they had to heat / press out.

I tried droping the front susp with a engine lift but that did not work well because it was so rear heavy and it twisted around. Instead made up a wood adapter for my jack and that worked great. See pics. Use chenige as user name and password.

Also keep good pictures of yellow and other markings. Mine were pretty much gone but some did exist and some that I had were not the same as the directions from the Quanta marking kit directed.

Other than that it was pretty easy to rebuild. I dropped the entire suspension assembly out to work on it.

Chris

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?alb=105064

[Leon Brown]

Re: C1 Front Suspension

thanks Chris, great info. I'm hoping to find the cause of why the drivers side camber won't align. It's really got me scratchin' my head.
Nice pics of your suspension and bracing. What paint did you use?
Have a good day
Leon

[Christopher R.]

Re: C1 Front Suspension

I'd recommend leaving the front suspension on the car to do the rebuild. You'll need to hold the suspension in place while you apply a great deal of force to do some tasks. So it's easier to do them while it's on the car. If you really want to take it off, do the lower outer bushings/pivot pins and the springs while it's still attached. Although, you might have to remove the knuckle to do the king pins and get the old lower outer off. The lower outer requires 175 ft/lbs torque to install, so you can imagine what it needs to get it out 40+ years later. An easier way to get the springs out is with a floor jack. So, that too is better attached to the car. See the ST-12.

[Chris H.]

Re: C1 Front Suspension

I took all the metal parts to a chemical/heat stripper that removed all rust and paint. Any parts that I could not easily get to such as the crossmember I had ecoated at the same time. I them sprayed everything with Dupont DP90 primer epoxy and then a semi-gloss black top coat out of a spray can.

I removed the springs using the spring remover kit you can buy and then return for no charge at auto zone. I did on the jack fixture at its lowest position. Easy to get at.

Chris

[Allen W.]

Re: C1 Front Suspension

If you don't have ST-12 get it. It has good instructions about front end rebuild. Just read over and over until you undersstand. Two additional comments. 1. The kingpin bushings float 2. Use a floor jack to remove springs just like ST-12 indicates. No problem.
Allen

[Leon Brown]

Re: C1 Front Suspension

Thanks Allen
I've got the st12 and intend to use it durng my restoration.

And thanks Chris for the paint info and pics.
Leon