After a little bit of a wait, the parts for the front end suspension are all finally here. We ended up getting: Blueprinted Upper Control Arms, Roller Bearing Lower Control Arms, Roller Bearing Spring Perches and a Roller Bearing Idler Arm, all from Open Tracker Racing Products. The roller bearings replace standard rubber bushings and remove some of the give in the suspension while making the movement smoother with less friction.
We also bought new: Polyurethane Spring Insulators, Swaybar Bushings and Swaybar End Links, Strut Rod Bushings and Washers from CJ Pony Parts.
Finally, we have new 4 Piston Disc Brakes of the style used on ’66 Shelbys which we dismantled and powder coated the caliper bodies black.
Today we began dismantling the front suspension. The new disc brakes will install on the ’69 spindles with no modifications. However, we need to remove the spindles and clean and paint them first.
After jacking up the car and removing the wheel, disassembling the drum brakes was easy. Popping the ball joints on the upper and lower control arms is simple but very difficult. The tie rod puller is hard to position in the tight area of the spindle and it slips off easily. We got the passenger side ball joints off without too much trouble, but the driver side was more difficult. On the passenger side we made the mistake of removing the lower control arm ball joint before loosening the upper one. This left the spindle free to rotate and made it very difficult to loosen the upper control arm ball joint.
Getting the springs out and then the upper control arms was also a challenge. We borrowed a spring compressor from AutoZone and after several false starts where we failed to get a hold of enough spring to compress far enough, we finally got the passenger side spring out. Taking out the driver side was much easier with our new found experience.
The new springs are too short so we will clean up and powder coat the old ones and put them back on. We really were happy with the way Donna was sitting, so leaving the original springs makes sense.
Now we have to clean up the spindles and springs and begin putting things back on.
