Went camping with the Barracuda for the 4th of July. Did a bunch of work on the car before and after - mainly on the suspension. I wasn't going to do a full suspension rebuild, so it happened in stages.
I started on the lower control arm bushings, because the Proforged bushings were torn. I did some research here on FABO and it appeared that people were most happy with the Bergman Auto Craft Delrin bushings. I got their pins too and they are very nice. I had read that you can use a 1-3/8" tap to get the shells out (the BAC bushings work without the shells). It sounded a lot easier than it was in the end. I don't have a press, which makes it even more complicated. I dropped a couple of washers in there before I started tapping. When I got it in far enough, I started hammering on it from the back with a punch. Didn't work that well until I got a bigger hammer haha. Eventually it came out a little at a time.
The instructions said to lightly press in the new bushing. I thought that could be done by hand, but no. So it turns out you can turn your engine hoist into a shop press in a pinch haha.
I noticed the boots were torn on the upper ball joints, so I decided to replace those too. These are the Mevotech Supreme, which were also recommended on FABO. It's easy to get them on cooked, so I took a couple of photos to double check that they were square.
To get the boots on I used the ball joint tool, some exhaust repair thing and a clamp. Worked great. Oh yeah, at some point I also installed the swap meet disc break dust shields.
The lower ball joints also had torn boots, so I replaced those too. I couldn't find any that were actually for disc brakes (one of the bolt holes is smaller on the drum ones), or they were crazy expensive, so I went with the ones from PST. Apparently PST doesn't make them, they just sell them and they arrived in unmarked packaging. I think someone suggested that they are in fact Mevotech Supremes.
Another reason that I wanted to get the suspension refreshed is that the front tires were almost down to the belts on the insides. Before going camping I had new tires put on.
I had damaged the passenger side tie rod boot and also broke of the grease nipple. On Amazon I found a Moog Made in USA tie rod for 12 bucks! Yay! When it arrived, I took the old one out, just to find out that it was the wrong side (it's reverse thread). I assumed that the shop that installed these put them on the wrong side?! That sucked, because I had to put it back together without replacing. I figured I could use that one on the other side and ordered one for the driver side. Somehow that one is 28 bucks... Anyways, it arrived and it was shipped just in a bag and the bag tore open and the nut was missing. I could have used the old one, but I'm stubborn, so I complained to get a new one. Finally got the replacement and to my surprise on the driver side was the same as the passenger side - also reverse thread. Anyways, luckily I had two of the ones I needed now, so I was able to put it back together. I noticed that the passenger one was actually bent! That must have been from the fender bender that I was in a couple of years ago (that's why that fender is black). And these are actually the beefier C-body tie rods.
I had just replaced that gasket (?) that goes between the idler arm and the center link, but it's already torn again. These were from DMT, which is the only place that I could find that had them. They are foam and I guess not made to last.
I wasn't even sure if these are needed, but the manual shows them below. Does anyone have a good source?
I still have to take the car to the alignment shop. I adjusted the toe with a tape measure and it's pretty good, but there is a slight pull to the right.
Anyways, I also took off the 500 cfm AVS and put the 600 cfm Performer back on. Turns out the gas mileage is better with the Performer. I watched a David Freiburger video, where he explains that a notch in the divider on the dual plane manifold could help with tuning the carb or instead of notching it, you could also just use a (square bore) carb spacer. Until now I was using this one, which is a 0.32" thick insulator gasket spacer:
I also had one like this:
Same thickness, but open. Installed it and indeed I was able to get the idle much smoother than before.
Now that the car is in great shape mechanically, will I finally paint the "new" deck lid, fenders and hood? We shall see...