1973 Rebuild

[Matthew Abate]

That’s good to hear about the Z Car Depot bolt kit. The Z Car Source bolt kit for the suspension leaves a lot to be desired. I haven’t seen one piece match what I took off the car so far.

In other news, after taking some sand paper to the pin tubes on the struts, the pin slides right in. I think it must have been the POR-15 around the lip of the hole. Going to go around and do the rest of it tonight.

After that I’ll do some blue thread lock on my ball joint bolts, which came with the joints.

 

Edit: by the way, no one ever commented on whether I should use the original rear hub nuts and peen them or use the S130 locking ones (see above for the comment a shop made about torquing them after 100 miles). I have both.

And in other news, looks like the guy that pressed out those bushing and pressed in the new one not only chewed up up the bushings but also bent one of the LCAs. I measured it and it looks like they still match, but one of them looks like it’s been in a North African rally a few times.

 

 

[Matthew Abate]

That did it.

 

 

The pins slide right out. The ant-seize actually made them less slippery. Had a nice time getting it completely out of the threads. Everything is finger tight for now. I’ll do the blue thread lock tomorrow.

 

[Patcon]

I would use the self lockers. If I remember correctly they require a lot of torque. I can't imagine them needed to be retorqued after 100 miles. They didn't do that from the factory...

[Matthew Abate]

True. The guy at the shop meant to retorque the old version after 100 and then peen them, which made me nervous they would get loose in that time. Felt like questionable advice and wanted to check it out.

 

 

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[Patcon]

22 minutes ago, Matthew Abate said:

True. The guy at the shop meant to retorted the old version after 100 and then peen them, which made me nervous they would get loose in that time. Felt like questionable advice and wanted to check it out.


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They didn't do that at the factory either. The only reason I could even imagine that would be needed would be if you were using a bunch of used parts you thought might settle in over that 100 miles. I suspect pretty much all of that will be new on your build so it seems it would be a useless step

[Captain Obvious]

Good. A POR-15 burr is a lot easier to take off than rust throughout the hole. Glad it was that easy. And I'm not surprised that the pin slid a little less easy after you had lubed it. That lube is pretty viscous and has significant shear required to move it. Makes sense. As long as it's clean and moves finger smooth, you should be good to go there. And don't torque the crap out of the tapered retaining bolt. All it needs to do is keep the pin from rotating while you torque the nuts on the ends of the spindle pins. Many people over-torque that tapered lock for no reason. It just doesn't need it.

And I wouldn't worry too much about getting all the grease off the threads before the thread lock. Especially if they are deformed thread nuts. I've been known to both lightly grease and thread lock nuts sometimes. But I've got a screw loose, so maybe you shouldn't follow that example. 

As for the stub axle nuts... When I did my rear bearings, I switched over to the new deformed thread version and did not use the original peened over style. I did not re-torque mine, and have not had any ill effects. In theory, I don't think re-torqueing would do anything. It's not like the tapered bearings on the front where you actually control bearing pre-load with the nut.

In the back, you're tightening against the "distance piece" and there's no motion or bedding in between anything there. I'm not sure what re-torqueing would accomplish. No deformable material like a gasket, no bedding in of the bearing balls, and nothing that should be changing length. Just very tightly held against the distance piece.

4 hours ago, Matthew Abate said:

And in other news, looks like the guy that pressed out those bushing and pressed in the new one not only chewed up up the bushings but also bent one of the LCAs. I measured it and it looks like they still match, but one of them looks like it’s been in a North African rally a few times

Bummer. Where did it bend? My PO messed up mine pretty bad too. So bad that I ended up replacing all four corners on my 77.

[Matthew Abate]

It’s just the brace that spans the arm. They squeezed it in a vice and caved it in about 3/16ths of an inch. I measured it against the other one and don’t see any geometry change, so I’ll keep it. Just pissed because it was pristine before I gave it to them.

 

[Zed Head]

On 12/12/2017 at 9:54 AM, Zed Head said:

But, on the other hand, there's really nothing wrong with staking the old nuts.  They're not really "wrong".  And it's simple to do. 

What are the odds that you'll be removing that nut over the remaining life of the car?  Tiny.

Edit - The self-lockers seem like the convenient way to do things.  BUT...if a person wanted to pick, they could point out that the locking portion of the nut might sit on the flat portion of the shaft, the flats created for the staked nuts to stake on to.  So, functionally, the crimped nut end has less area to lock on to.  But I think the self lockers might be short enough so it might not matter.  Probably have to put them and decide if they look like they'll do the job.

Looks like you have the stakers on and haven't decided yet to stake them or not.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Zed Head

[Matthew Abate]

Correct. Everything is finger tight for now. I’ve had to disassemble things before so I’m leaving thread lock and torque until last.


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[Matthew Abate]

Major SNAFU yesterday: spilled aircraft stripper all over one of my struts being careless. Looks like this suspension refresh is going to take a couple of weeks more than I expected.

 

—-

 

I also have a question concerning wiring: I have all of my harnesses, but I have no idea if they are good. I have considered just building new harnesses, but I think I’m looking at $600 or more if I go that route, and it’s possible that my harnesses are perfectly good.

 

So should I...

1. Test my harnesses and fix any issue myself (never done this before)

2. Pay someone to test and possibly fix them

3. Go ahead and make new ones and know the wiring is good but eat the cost and take a chance on my craftsmanship falling short?

4. Do a custom from scratch wiring job, either myself or paying someone. For this I obviously need to inventory my needs.

 

Right now I’m leaning toward the middle option expecting to need to refresh the connectors, and I would need guidance on sourcing this person.

 

If option 3, should I do any upgrades and where do those upgrades tip me over into option 4?

 

 

[Patcon]

I would be in option #1. Now how I would go about that is an issue. The original design has some weaknesses that are easily overcome with headlight relays. Also everything is already the right length.

I am thinking I will unwrap the harness I'm using. Visually check it, clean the connections and rewrap with loom tape. Possibly do some voltage drop or resistance tests. Maybe get new plugs from Vintage Connections (I believe that's the source)

[Namerow]

4 hours ago, Patcon said:

I am thinking I will unwrap the harness I'm using. Visually check it, clean the connections and rewrap with loom tape. Possibly do some voltage drop or resistance tests. Maybe get new plugs from Vintage Connections (I believe that's the source)

That's what I did and I'm happy with the results.  I didn't take all the old tape off, though.  Just the regions that were damaged or gnarly.  You can later wrap a cosmetic layer of new loom tape over the entire harness if you want a completely seamless, new appearance.  The loom tape is cheap and it doesn't take long to do the wrap, once you get the hang of it.  However, things will get a lot more challenging if you remove all of the old tape first.  Leaving most of the old tape helps to keep all of the wiring nicely bundled together.