El Bandito Gets A Pardon And Tries To Function In Society

[payaso del mar]

I realize "homemade SST" sounds scary, but we're just talking a bushing puller, not a supersonic airplane.  the bushing keeps wanting to cock downward in the hole, which will stop you cold, so I put the jack under it to keep it from slipping downward.   and here it is, mission accomplished. 

[Totem]

On 12/14/2015 at 4:28 PM, Derek up North said:

Don't forget some fresh flowers, mood music and her favorite adult beverage waiting inside.

Isaac Hayes and Drambuie on the rocks. guaranteed will work.

[WME]

Forgot to reply several posts ago...For your "possibly" fragile water tank. While its still clean and new wrap it with strapping tape. A couple layers, all the way around, every 3 inches will add a lot of strength.

[payaso del mar]

next step is installing the lower control arm and bolt.  note the notches in the head of bolt:  the end of the torsion bar fits over these and so leave it loose for now to facilitate rotating it to align them. 

next, the shock.  the "nub" on upper bushings goes towards the flange on frame. I like to Loctite all suspension bolts....again, anticipating  washboarded roads

[payaso del mar]

next up:  the strut bar (provides fore-aft locating for the lower control arm).  the long bolts poke through from below to attach it to the control arm.  when you remove the strut bars, try to keep the rearmost nut on the rod  from moving since you need it to establish your baseline for reinstallation.  t

here are a number of these suspension bolts which you snug up but don't fully tighten until the vehicle has been dropped back down to normal ride height and bounced some; I even take it around the block to fully settle things. this is one of them.

second  and third pics show it in place, along with the lower ball joint (sorta.  had to move the ball joint to bottom side of control arm, where it's supposed to go.....)

 

[payaso del mar]

the Compleat Suspension Installer's kit.........

next. steering knuckle gets poked into place on the pin of lower ball joint and the nut snugged up, so it hangs there. 

then you hang the previously-rebushed upper control arm assemblies.  these take some finagling to get in, and you won't be able to do the driver's side unless the steering box is loose.  the bolts actually go into the bracket from the inside side of the frame rail, and the camber is adjusted by a series of shims that fit under the bracket (between it and the frame rail) to move the pivot point in or out.  when you removed these, you DID remember to watch how many were in each location so you can put em back in the same place, right?  I didn't (working while it's in the 20s out and you're exhausted from work isn't a good idea....), so i'm having to guesstimate for long enough to get it to the alignment shop.

[payaso del mar]

once all this is done, you can install the upper ball joint if you have one that fits and connect the upper ball joint to the steering knuckle.

next up is hanging the swaybar.  fit the center bushings over the bar as best you can (this will bulge the bushing since it all needs to "compress" together) and work the brackets over the bushings.  I like to use some extra-long 8mm bolts to let me gradually "pull" the bushing in to the frame and compress all the rubber into its slot.  then when it's in place, i'll replace em with the correct ones, one at a time.  swaybar bolts are another set of bolts, though, that you don't want to fully torque down until the vehicle has settled to normal ride height.  once you have the center of the bar hung, go ahead and connect the end links to lower control arm but don't tighten yet.

you've now assembled the front suspension.  on to the steering......

[payaso del mar]

so, how much do you like changing your trans and diff oil?  I don't.  so I made something that makes it a lot less onerous.  cover the open end between uses and clean the ends of the tube.  but this lets you work on other stuff while the notoriously molasses-esque 90W oozes slowly down into the trans.  if you use synth, which I do for fuel economy purposes, it flows a lot quicker.

a glimpse into the Pit of Sadness, AKa the Bandit's engine bay.  no cans of Gunk were harmed in taking this photo.......  before you start a job like this, smarter to annihilate about 10 cans of Gunk and hog the quartersucker car wash while you crawl over under and through getting feelthy.  I didn't because I figured I had bigger worries with the wasted steering etc....it would have saved me time in the long run........

 

[payaso del mar]

I wasn't sure about whether to post this pic in the RV chow section......IPO spaghetti, with expandofoam sauce.  what, you mean the wiring for the ECM isn't supposed to look like this?

[payaso del mar]

steering.  very simple.  there are only five "pieces": 

1.  the steering box, which converts rotary motion of steering wheel and shaft to lateral motion that will move the wheels.  this is bolted to the left side frame rail, and the steering shaft connects to it via a rubber cush connector and two bolts.  it's possible to connect this 180 degrees off, where your steering wheel will be upside down at center of travel until you remove and remount it, so get the box to more or less center of its travel and center the wheel before connecting.

2.  the "idler arm" which like its name, just provides an 2d attachment point for part #3

3.  the center link.....connects the steering box arm to the idler arm and provides the linkage the tie rods bolt to

4 and 5.  tie rods.  connect the steering linkage to the steering knuckle and wheel hub.  for a complete steering system rebuild, you normally replace the entire rod rather than just doing the inner or outer end.

the steering linkage is held together with ball and socket joints using tapered pins.  you have to use a "pickle fork" wedge tool or a ball joint puller to get the pin out of the tapered hole, and either method will usually destroy the boot.  when the nut is torqued, the pin seats into the tapered hole very tightly....manual cautions that you should ensure that the tapers are free of grease.  a clamp is often helpful to pull the joint together while tightening the nut, until the tapers seat on each other.  Harbor Fright, baby!  nuts will be either nylock or castellated (looks like a rook in a chess set; cotter pin goes through hole in bolt and one of the "notches" in the nut) to keep em from loosening.  if castellated, be sure that after you hit the specified torque, you tighten (not loosen) the nut to get the hole and notches to line up for cotter pin insertion.

NOTE that the tie rods have a "short" and a "long" end.......the long end goes toward the center and the short one is the outboard end, so the adjusters don't run into the other bits when the alignment shop sets toe-in.  be SURE you have this right before you torque the bolts, or you may find yourself pulling out the pickle fork again and ordering a new set of ends.  don't ask how I know this....been a long time since I did a front end, and the new tie rod ends were only $42.........

[payaso del mar]

front suspension is back together....whee!  but it looks like we still have a LITTLE work to do on adjusting the toe-in............

also went to start reassembling the cleaned calipers and found that I had some pitting on the piston bores, so I guess i'm buying the pre-built calipers and keeping the rebuild kits for next time. 

[Maineah]

Man you are having way too much fun!

[jjrbus]

Thanks for taking the time to take and post the photos and explaining what you are doing.  When I get into something I always get too involved to take photos!   Jim

 

[payaso del mar]

yeah, it is kinda fun now....perfect weather lately cept for the dust storms, I could work 24 hrs/day if aging body (and day job) would allow.  wasn't so much fun when I was doing the scrubbing and prepping subassemblies part....and our lows were in the 20s.

Jim, glad to do it.  I figure even if someone doesn't plan on doing any work themselves, it's good to know what parts are under there and how "dem bones" fit together.....helps to interpret what the mechanic is telling you.  i'm also trying to post potential pitfalls and my frequent screwups in hopes anyone else doing this job can avoid em.  and for humor value.........

started assembling the rear brakes this weekend and hit another snag:  the damn starwheel on the adjuster is all hashed up, with about half the teeth missing.  never seen that before.  good thing it was the left, since rockauto don't have no more of the rights.   

not much else done....got the mesh armoring for turnsignals on and grille off (so I can swap headlights....replacing the sealed beams with replaceable-bulb lights with Sylvania "Silverstar ultra" bulbs......much whiter light without the reliability issues and cost of aftermkt. HIDs)  (lights are another area like tires, where, IMHO, you can gain a lot of improvement over 60s-70s tech, and as my eyes age, I really like a lot of light on the road).  the lights were another area where I cheaped out and went with Chinese ones off fleebay instead of dropping the $ for Hellas, and I suspect I may be buying the Hellas anyway....not impressed with the beam pattern in prelim tests.

ordered the calipers etc from Rockauto yesterday morn.  i'll bet it's all here by Friday eve.  those guys are consistently beyond awesome in their shipping speed.

 

[WME]

The key for headlights is "E-spec". Gives a most excellent pattern.

http://classicgarage.com/

Check out Hella and Neo

[payaso del mar]

that stands for "euro".  Europe has had a standardized beam pattern since before there was an EU....sort of a modified "Z" shape, Cibie used to call their flagship line "Z Beams".  I fell in love when I first installed a set of Cibie 7" headlight conversions in my MG in '78.....like night and day compared to the sealbeams of the Bad Ole Daze. 

have gotten to where I leave a lot of stuff stock on my vehicles because I have a hard time improving on Toyota's engineering, but I always swap out the bulbs for silverstars or PIAA superwhites.  It's kind of weird being back to where I have to swap out the lenses too........these Chinese ones are trying to look like modern headlights, where the beam focusing happens through computer designed reflector rather than facets ground into the lens.....passes more of the light produced by your bulb, whereas the facets eat up a certain percentage.  Correctly designed, they produce the same "Z" shape beam that cuts off the light in oncoming traffic's lane.  the Chinese ones, however, ..........we'll see.  i don't want to be like the guy in the butchered civic who's blinding everyone else on the road.........

here's some good poop from Susquehanna Motorsports, the most hardcore aux-lighting place I know of:

Parabolic Lamp
This design has been around since before the development of electricity. These lamps have a parabolic reflector and a lens with fluting a.k.a a Fresnel lens. The reflector collects the light and the fluting in the lens does the beam control. They put about 27% of the light created by the light source (bulb) on the road where needed. The balance of the light is lost to refraction and stray light.

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Free Form lamp
With the advent of the computer came the first real improvement in lamp construction in decades. The reflector is not a parabola but rather is a computer designed complex shape. Hella uses over 50,000 calculated points to define this shape. The reflector collects the light and shapes the beam while the clear lens simply keeps the dirt out. The lack of fluting on the lens reduces defraction of the light and increases output. Free form lamps typically collect about 45% of the light available.

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Projector or DE Lamps

The next generation of lamps was developed not only to improve the output of headlamps, but also to reduce the diameter of the package for styling reasons. They have a free form reflector that is very deep. This results in a large surface area that collects a lot of light while having a small overall diameter. Unfortunately, the reflector is so convoluted that it takes a special projector lens to collect the light and get it going in the right direction. These lamps put as much as 52% of the light the bulb makes where it belongs. While this package is small in diameter it is by its nature, very deep.

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Bi-Xenon and Bi-Halogen

A projector lamp can not produce both a high and low beam using a twin filament bulb as Parabolic and Free Form lamps can. The only system that seems to work well is known as a Bi-Xenon or Bi-Halogen. This lamp uses a shield that produces the low beam cutoff and then, when signaled, lifts to allow the full high beam. This system allows the use of Xenon (HID) high beams as well as low beams in one lamp without the loss of "Flash to Pass" and the detrimental effect of turning an HID ballast on and off quickly. A number of new cars now incorporate these lamps including Audi, VW, BMW, Mercedes, Ford (Mustang) and more to come.

[payaso del mar]

maybe the Chinese lenses will work after all.  here's a quick shot of beam pattern....they seem to have the clean beam cutoff whereas the old sealbeam (on the left) is just a "blob" of light.

another reason I hate sealbeams:  look at the size of the spare you have to carry, compared to an H4 bulb.

finally, what are these two rectangular holes in the bumper for?  i'm assuming they're not so critical to cooling that i'll be overheating if some auxiliary lights fall into the holes?  Hella FF75s fit almost perfectly......