complete hd front rebuild

[tyler_s18]

on my 75 scamp with the 360 i am looking at rebuilding the front completly. i saw the thread with the c-body tie rod ends. but what all parts will i need? i was thinking inner and outter tie rod ends, upper and lower ball joints, pitman arm, idler arm, control arm bushings, lca boxing and sway bar bushings. what else would be a good idea. its not for a street racer just a daily driver that i will have fun with and hit the strip ocasionaly. i have been thinking of going manual steering. what would be different? and where is the best/cheapest to get this from?
thanks tyler

 

[Longgone]

You might add solid tie rod sleeves with jam nuts to your list. Tubular UCA`s? For parts ,PST is cheap but better parts can be had through other specialty companies.

 

[tyler_s18]

ok anything else that would help give it a solid feel? and go straight? it is really bad right now and make wierd noises like clunking, and like a tire grinding when not moveing and bumping and clunking when goin straight that gets worse when goin and turning. we checked it out and it looked ok but something is way bad. im gonna try lowering the t-bars and see if that helps cuz its pretty high right now.

 

[Longgone]

Check your wheel bearings both inner and outer and their races, make sure they`re in good condition, greased well, and adusted correctly. Replace them if necessary, it`s cheap insurance. The clunking and grinding you`re experiencing may be coming from there. Check the adustment and function of your brakes too. If you want a real firm ride then install larger diameter torsion bars (I think there`s a .920 bar out now) and add a sway bar to control roll.

 

[tyler_s18]

ok. we tuged on the wheel off the ground and the bearings didnt wiggle so blew it off but thats a good idea. i will pull it apart and at least repack them and how they are done right.

by boxing the LCAs will that stiffen it at all? or just not gonna bend onder severe load?

 

[Longgone]

If the car is pulling to one side ,the front end may need aligning. Wait until you install your new parts though. It also may be you have a brake sticking or low air pressure in a tire. Reinforcing the LCA`s will help on hard corners but I think you`ll see the biggest difference in heavier torsion bars and a sway bar. The first thing to do would be to rebuild the front end entirely and then go from there. Clunking can come from bad ball joints among other worn out front end parts. Some of the early 70`s crossmembers have had a problem with the welds breaking where the LCA shaft goes through it. That would be another thing to check. If you go with manual steering, you`ll need to change your steering column out too because your column will be too short. If you don`t get another column you may be able to find a coupling through a company like Flaming River.

 

[tyler_s18]

ok. we are in alignment class at school so i will try to align it. i am still overwhelmed on all the names of the parts and all so i get confused lol. so thank you for all your help

 

[Longgone]

You`re welcome, that`s what these forums are here for. You`ll soon learn the names of everything on there as you work on it. Good luck with it.

 

[tyler_s18]

ya thank you. just courious if the frame is bent or the uca is loose would that cause all this? the front was messed up so it had bad positive camber. found out the mount for the uca and shock. kinda the shock tower was bent down and the frame was somewhat dented. i dont think the frame is bent but maby that is it or part of it

 

[Longgone]

Do you know if the car was ever in an accident? Worn out UCA bushings and ball joints could cause a lot of problems. If you`re in school for this vocation now ,ask your teacher to take a look at the car or better yet ,see if the teacher will let you bring the car in and let the entire class take a look at it. You might be able to talk your teacher into using your car as learning tool. Do an entire rebuild at school! It couldn`t hurt to try.

 

[2 Darts]

Longgone got it good in frame 6. Suggest that when tires are off, check the wheelwells for any rubbing. A-bodies are notorious for not being "true", especially rear ends being off-centered. Completely agree that bushings and ball joints be replace before alignment. Get the basics to work right, first.

Was the car originally a 360 car? You may want to clean off a section of each of the torsion bars and put a micrometer to them. First, they should be installed on the correct side. Check rear of bar for L/R marking. There may be too much crud and not enough light for you to see it. Second, the bars should be .870 in diameter.

Both torsion bars and leaf springs tend to be self damping which can make using the bounce on the bumper test a poor way to identify bad shocks. If you pull a shock off and can extend and compress it easily with your hands, it's shot. There should be considerable resistance and unless you are a gorilla, you should have a great deal of trouble compressing a gas shock.

Manual steering is fun above 20 mph. Parallel parking with manual steering is good exercise and will make you sweat like any good exercise should. Factory manual steering has better road feel at speed but is slower than power steering. There are kits to speed up a manual box, but look for effort to increase further.