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Saturday 10/25/03

What you are seeing is the original front suspension.

See that big spring in the middle?  That bugger has the potential to go right through the wall.  A whole lot of energy there.  It's a very dangerous procedure to remove it if not done correctly.

What I used to safely remove both driver and passenger front springs was this.

I use a 3 foot piece of 1/2" threaded rod with a large heavy washer at the bottom.....

You'll see how it works in the following photos.

After removing the shock absorber I installed the 1/2" rod from the top through the shock absorber mounting hole.

Then I installed the heavy washer that won't fit through the hole in the lower control arm and a nut onto the rod.

The nut is tightened from the top until the spring begins to compress.

You can see the rod where the shock absorber was.

This spring has enough potential energy at this point to go straight through a brick wall if released suddenly.

After I was certain everything was safe I removed the lower ball joint nut and used a "pickle fork" to separate the joint from the spindle.

The joints on both side were incredibly loose!  I can't believe someone drove this vehicle this way.  Very very unsafe.

The four bolts and nuts that secure the lower control arm to the frame were removed slowly.

I did this very slowly to verify the spring had been compressed and contained safely.

The arrow points to the front two mounting bolt holes and there are also two towards the rear of the frame.

As I slowly loosened the nut on top of the threaded rod the lower control arm was safely lowered down until the spring was relaxed completely.

I repeated the same thing on the drivers side.

Passenger spring and lower control arm.

WOW it looks easy and quick here.

This is what was removed, both front upper and lower control arms, front springs, steering box and associated linkage, front spindles, brakes, brake drums and front motor mounts.

Most of this will go in the trash unless I find someone who needs it.

It looks naked, nothing but the frame left.

I  have an idea in my head what it'll look like when I'm done.

Now that the frame was stripped I was able to examine it while it was positioned on the ground.

As I thought it was badly tweaked. It's difficult to show, I could rock it back and forth on flat ground.

The pic to the left shows the drivers side square to the floor and the passenger side a good 1" up.  The rear of the frame was moving at least 4".

I'm going to have the frame checked out to see if it's repairable.  If not I'll replace it.

This is two very large bolts that were welded? To the frame for a pivot for a clutch setup from someone in the past.

I have to admit it's pretty ingenious but really ugly!

It'll be gone soon.

I'm at a complete standstill until my frame problem is remedied.  There is nothing I can do.  Very frustrating.

Saturday 11/28/03

I loaded up and delivered the frame to a body shop in a nearby town.  He said he could have it done in 2 to 3 weeks......

I'm still on hold so I'm going to try and improve the web site.

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