Rear Suspension Rebuild Thread

[Zed Head]

Congratulations. Better keep an eye, or ear, on them though, if you pressed on one race to get the other race to seat, you might have damaged the races. It's called "brinneling" in reference to the Brinnel hardness test, where a metal probe is pressed in to a piece of metal and the size of the dimple measured to scale the material's hardness.

http://www.dynaroll.com/excessive-force.asp

Don't shoot the messenger, please...

[Hardway]

First off, great progress, pictures, and info on your work. It is these kinds of threads that save so much of us a lot of pain, time, and money. On the note one small nugget I can offer on removing the bushing shells is this. #1 Invest in a reciprocating saw, I picked up a next to new Dewalt at a pawn shop for $40 and spent $10 on a variety pack of blades. #2 With the control arm in a vice and a metal cutting blade in the saw cut two slits in the shell at opposite sides, not just one. Then using a cold chisel push the two halves out. The picture below is of the shell I removed. It came out just the way you see it. The second slit I cut was not 100% through as you can see. I used this technique when doing my front suspension bushings so it should work on the rears as well, took about 6 minutes per bushing. Again, just be careful not to cut in to the control arm.

[LeonV]

Welcome to the nitty-gritty of a rear-suspension rebuild! Glad you got the issues sorted. I struggled with LCA bushings as well, got tired of pounding and took it over to my neighbor who has air tools. A few minutes with a die grinder and they were out!

Once you've replaced the outer LCA bushings and put the pin in, you'll be in the home stretch. Good luck!

[ksechler]

It's called "brinneling" in reference to the Brinnel hardness test, where a metal probe is pressed in to a piece of metal and the size of the dimple measured to scale the material's hardness.

I know. The thought's crossed my mind. We'll see...

[ksechler]

Thanks to all! I have installed the bearings in both struts and torqued them. Everything feels right this time. Is was a little tense rehabilitating the stub axle threads that I damaged. A steady hand and patience seems to have been the right combination. I have not peened the nuts yet. I know that as soon as I do there will be something I forgot so I'm going to hold off for now. I have the tabs for my discs installed also.

Ready for another try

All done

Another lesson: It takes a lot longer to fix the things you screw up than it does to knock everything down solve the problem and reassemble.

[ksechler]

Thanks all for the replies. Tomorrow is "differential day". I'm gonna clean it up and then see what the fluid looks like. If it is good I will leave it alone. If it looks bad then I guess I will rebuild. Wish me luck. I'm anxious to get all this stuff tucked back underneath the car where it belongs, but I don't want to do a half assed job!

[ksechler]

I made some progress today despite the fact that we didn't have power until close to 1:00 pm. I cleaned up the differential and checked the fluid. It looked very good so I painted with POR-15. It will get a coat of flat black tomorrow.

I also assembled the struts. Here's what they look like right now.

Sooner or later I am going to have to solve my brake line problem. Everything is welded together and no amount of elbow grease and PB Blaster is gonna get them apart. Maybe I'll wrestle that monster tomorrow.

[EuroDat]

Good news with your diff. Did you change the side seals and the cover gasket on the diff? Just looking at the first photo, looks like its weeping from the seals or cover gasket.

They are simple to replace now its out of the car. I cant remember the price exactly but it was less than €20 at the nissan dealer for 2 seals, gasket & new breather.

I would not do the front seal, it looks good in the photo, no leaks. If you replace it, you can mess up the pre-load on the pinion bearings.

Chas

[ksechler]

EuroDat:

Nope, I didn't change the seals. I thought about it, but the grime you see was from the u-joints slinging grease. The diffy actually looked really solid much to my surprise.

I have a few more photos. Not making good progress over the holidays. I have a cold right now.

I laid the parts out to prepare for reassembly and took a photo of my crappy brake lines. Most of what is shown in the photo has been pulled. I rebent new lines from the T-block tonight.

[EuroDat]

My left side was weeping a bit so I just popped them out and replaced them. It will look good when its finished. I finishec my rear end a couple of months ago and now buzy with the front and the 240Z bumpers.

Chas

[ksechler]

I made some more progress. This doesn't really have anything to do with suspension per se, but since I'm under that part of the car and this is part of my rear suspension rebuild I will put it up in this thread.

I have been agonizing about my rear brake lines. They were heavily corroded and I couldn't get the flair nuts off. Even with a lot of PB Blaster and waiting. They just wouldn't let go. After much soul searching and internal debate, I broke out the dremel and cut the lines at the nut. The I rebent new lines using the old ones as templates. Here are the results. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. There was a lot of labor involved and lying on the floor which isn't fun because it's 30F here and snowing outside.

The main line to the "T" old next to new:

The new main line and cleaned up "T"

The "T" and the new lines to the wheels:

A view of the completed install from the rear driver's side wheel well:

A little commentary is probably due here. There is a lot of stuff under there that I am leaving alone right now. I really had to resist the urge to pull the fuel lines because they look like heck. The brake line looked about that way when I started. It's hard, but I will be doing those later when I pull the gas tank and restore it. The only reason I am holding back is that I don't want to take my road-worthy car and turn it into a 2-year project that may never get done. My logic right now is to take small bites and finish the jobs completely. In the long run it makes more work, but in my own mind gives a higher chance of success and shorter intervals with a non-drivable car.

[rcb280z]

That's the way I do it also...staged restoration is what you are doing. Great work! Keep going and keep posting pics.