Handling the Handling (Rear Anti-Roll Bar)

Today, I return from a break with a one-off posting. I remain distracted with non-post-worthy stuff, but I did this work on the bus recently, so I thought I'd post about it. This post covers my reasoning and efforts to install a rear anti-roll bar (called a sway-bar in the US). I could regale you with all kinds of scientific study and test drives leading me to doing this. The reality is, I bought the EMPI kit last Summer ($180US delivered) and it has been sitting in a somewhat large box in my somewhat small garage since. In a way, I installed it because I needed the room. I mean, we just can't keep tripping over, or piling things on, this box, besides I paid $180 for it. That's not a small sum to just not use.

Where Were We

Recall the drive to Leisureland (See Leisureland Road Report) and the drive to/from 4Peaks in the Summer of 2021 (See 4Peaks 2021 Road Report). The wind and passing trucks buffeted the bus, making handling extremely difficult. I had to slow way down on the drive east through the central Oregon desert simply because I could not keep the bus under reliable control. That was scary. I started with the simple: stiffen the adjustable shocks (See Handling the Handling - Shock Adjustment). This helped, but on our next drive out the US-26 for Hapy's birthday, the passing trucks and crosswind still impacted the handling. Consider this quote from that test drive: "he held the road. I needed both hands on the wheel, but it was not (a) white-knuckle experience." <- that is not exactly the description of a solid, love-this-handling suspension that you would want to take for long trips.

I want to see if I could make it better... besides, I have the kit, I need the room on my garage floor and after two months I really need to get my hands on a car with some tools.

Rear Anti-Roll / Sway Bar

CIP1 image has the
bar upside down

Back when I first considered the handling issue, thought through the causes, and was performing my research, I found some other bus owners with similar wind-sheer challenges. These folks were posting on threads talking about the pro/con of a rear anti-roll (sway) bar. RAtwell conducted experiments a few years ago, and most feedback on the interweb is consistent with his findings: the rear bar is great on highways, in windy conditions, going mostly straight, especially when you are burdened with some weight (like camping equipment). Sounds spot-on for my issue, right? Well, there are no upsides without downsides.

For these bars, the downsides include a tendency for over steer (vehicle turns more than turn of steering wheel would imply) while cornering, especially in city driving, and the rear suspension is not as independent so you will feel more bumps. So.. the bar is great on long trips, but around town, where there are speed bumps, sharp turns and potholes, they may make things worse. One point that I found especially interesting is where the long road trip meets city driving: freeway off-ramps. Since you are often pairing rapid deceleration with an increasingly sharp turn, the influence of the rear bar could come into play. This feedback, however, is the opposite of what both CIP1 and EMPI says about these bars. Taken from the CIP1 site: "...These sway bars provide the handling demanded by the enthusiast driver. They help to control body sway and help road adhesion under hard cornering...".

clean rear bar example

So, what about installing a bar and just disconnecting it when you're not doing the loaded-on-the-highway thing? I thought about that. The Jeep and off-road crowd will disconnect one or both anti-roll bars when they go crawling. The fancy new ones allow you to do it from the driver seat with a button. Old-skool involves rolling under your rig and disconnecting the ends, and zip-tying it out of the way. On an old bus, there obviously is not a push-button install option. The bar, however, is not a simple straight bar either. As you can see from the picture on the right, here, that I nabbed from "Goodhand77" who posted it on theSamba, it runs from the mount points at the wheels forward (front is front) and inward to the frame rails. It then dips in the center to create space around the transaxle. So, if you were to disconnect the ends and try to rotate the bar up, the lower center section would rotate up towards the transaxle. More importantly, it approaches the suspension arms. If you just disconnect the ends and let it hang there, it may interfere with the wheel movement. So that doesn't seem like a safe option. In the end, I concluded that the rear sway bar is an either/or: either it is installed or it is sitting in your garage. I got one last Summer and have tried the sitting in your garage option. The handling was unaffected, but the room in my garage was and is, with no value back. So, we're installing it.

Rear Shock Mount Tie-In

instructions

This is the fun part, when we get to put hands on bus. The install is not mentally difficult, but does require boring 4 holes into your beloved, and it can be time-consuming. I have attached an image of the install instructions. The directions start with putting your bus up on ramps (not stands) so you have more room while the suspension is under standard load. They suggest suspending the bar temporarily while you install it, but I didn't. I just let it rest on the ground while I did the rear connections. We remove the lower bolts on the rear shocks, add an "L" bracket, and thread the nut back through. I thought about reversing the bolt so it pointed inwards, but decided that the VW engineers probably had it like this for a reason. Still, when I want to adjust the shocks, it will be a hassle. Into the "L" bracket goes a bolt with a series of bushings and washers, with the bar and the nut completing what looks like a hardware version of a Dagwood sandwich. The bolt through the middle is barely long enough to make the reach, so I had to compress the sandwich while getting the nut to catch a thread. One side was, of course, harder than the other. Slightly longer bolts (provided are 5-1/4") would have saved me an hour of wrestling with the Dagwood, with washer and nut sent flying with each failed attempt. Once the threading caught, I snugged the sandwich together with a few turns on the ratchet: just enough to set the stack and the locknut plastic, without compressing the bushings at all.

 

Frame Mount

p-side frame mount

With the bar connected at the ends, the frame mounts can be test-fit, marked, drilled and mounted. While test-fitting, verify the marked holes with the size of the u-bolt; since these holes are for the u-bolt to go through, this is super-important. I hit the center-points of the marked holes with a hammer and drift so the drill-bit wouldn't wander. My drill bits are getting worn, so the cutting of the holes took many cycles of progressively larger bits to reach the 3/8" target. Once bored out to 3/8", I set the bar up in place and could tell that the inner lip of the frame was going to prevent the bar from mounting flush, so I removed a curved section of the lip with my angle grinder to allow the bar (with the mounting plate in place) to rest against the flat part of the frame. The instructions mention filing, but it would take all day with a file. I shot the area with a quick pass of spray paint to prevent rust. Finally, we're ready to thread the u-bolt through. This is just an exercise in patience, unless one set of holes was not distanced correctly. Fortunately, my triple-checking during the measure-mark step avoided an issue here. The instructions say to put one nut on and to thread the u-bolt through. The nut is to prevent you from losing the u-bolt into the frame. Because of the tight tolerance, the nut needs to be near the tip of the u-bolt, but then it could fall off... leading to the u-bolt disappearing into the frame. Yep, this happened to me on the driver side, but I was able to coax it out with a thin-bladed screwdriver... and more patience.

Tighten Up

rear anti-roll bar installed

Once the u-bolts are dangled down from the frame, use one nut on the u-bolt as you work part of the mount on the other, starting with the base plate. Carefully, push the bar up and then wiggle the u-bolt through the clamp. Once both bolts are through , the nuts are threaded on, tighten the nuts down, shifting from one nut to the other until it is not going to work itself loose while you're doing the other side. Repeat on the other side, and then torque both mounts down. Last, return to the lower shock mounts and tighten everything down. I had left the lower mounts and the sway bar mounts loosely threaded so I had maximum maneuverability while the front was assembled.

Start to end, this took me a few of hours, but only because I move slowly, it was 5*C (just over 40*F) when I did it and my dulling drill bits were a challenge. I probably could have moved faster if I really wanted to as well, but even in the cold, it was really nice to love on Hapy for a little while. Since Hapy is off the road for the winter, and his front seats are out (See Hapy Seating), I was unable to execute a test drive. Still, I expect the handling to be much stiffer, and my garage has gained about 3 cubic feet of floor-space. Win-win. Soon, we will hit the highway for a suspension test.

 

That's it for today. I intend to complete the seat install next, but finding time when the puppy isn't underfoot is the barrier. He needs constant oversight or he will eat something he's not supposed to. He's like a goat that way. He has no interest in being, and it has been too cold (4*C) to have him, tied up outside with me while I work for more than 20 minutes. And, he's too wiggly to just hang out inside the bus while I work on him. So, until I can solve for him, thanks for following along. I will disappear for a while again. If I get the chance to do something, I'll post on it-

Handling the Handling (Shock Adjustment)

In my post about the drive to and from 4Peaks in August (See 4Peaks 2021 - Road Report), I mentioned the impact of the wind on the handling of the bus. Today's post covers my initial attempt to address it. I say "initial" because I have not 100% confirmed this is the end-all solution to the issue.

Identify Causes

It makes sense to start with what the possible causes could be for the wind to have such a dramatic, and newly so dramatic, impact. I have thought about this quite a bit, mostly while driving Hapy, and I have come to the conclusion that the root cause is one of 2 things.

My first thought is around a change I made to the bus. Back in Spring, I added a tow hitch. No big deal there, with regards to wind, but I think it looks really good (See Bus Tow Hitch). Starting with the trip to Leisureland I added one of those carrier platform things from Harbor Freight that go into the square trailer hitch thing. I also got the zippered bag that fits it and refer to the pair as "the Boot". I don't put much in the Boot, but it creates lots of room inside the bus... and it creates this little .6m (2 foot) high by .5m deep waggy-tail sticking out the back. I thought, with the loaf-of-bread broadside, that this addition would not have an impact. I could be wrong. If that is the cause, I would still like to keep using it so I need to improve the handling to compensate.

My next thought is around the adjustable Koni oil-filled shocks I installed years ago. I was part of the first group purchase that triggered Koni to start manufacturing them again. I didn't write that for kudos, rather to illustrate how long I have had them. That purchase was, like, 15 years ago. I didn't do anything with them other than pull them out of the box and install them. Now, so many years later, I realize that out-of-the-box they are set at their softest setting (face-palm). That setting might be great for an unloaded bus tooling around town, and when the shocks were new, maybe they even had a little stiffness in them as they broke in. Well, it's been many years and while I haven't driven Hapy around much (less than 20k miles total since I bought Hapy almost 20 years ago), the last few years would have definitely gotten them past the break-in period if he wasn't past it already. With all the camping gear, plus the Boot, I am asking much more of those shocks than when I used an empty Hapy to get to/from work back when I first installed them.

So, I figured I can start with stiffening the shocks.

Adjust Shocks

Koni 80-series shock

The 80-series Koni shocks were designed to be easily adjusted. Of course, I neglected to do anything with them after install. After doing some reading, I have found others with a similar vintage bus and similar need: better handling when loaded for camping. The consensus is to stiffen the ride. The lack of consensus is by how much. Because of the extra tail created by the Boot, I did a full turn in the rear and a 1/2 turn in the front. I expect, that with the heavy duty 7/8" anti-roll (sway) bar in the front, even the 1/2 turn is more than I need, but I would rather feel the bumps a little more and have the bus hold steady than the alternative. Shout out to RAtwell for his page on these shocks. It's an older page, and hasn't been updated in a while, but there is some great, still relevant, information in there.

Adjustment is relatively simple. The videos from Koni show the shocks uninstalled, and some of the verbiage seems to say opposing things. I don't want to remove the shock entirely from the bus to adjust them anyway, and I don't think anyone else does either. So, I did it like this:

Rear's first. With the bus on the ground, just crack both the top and bottom bolts enough to remove any torque (19mm). It may be too difficult to get to the top one, and it may not be 100% necessary. I didn't loosen the top bolt on the driver side, and it wasn't an issue. Regardless, completely remove the bolt from the bottom. Notice that there is a nut on the other side (wheel side) that requires a 17mm wrench while you work the ratchet from the inside. With both hands, push the lower end of the shock (you have them installed with the thicker section on top like the picture above/right, right?) up into the upper section. When you are just about bottomed out, start rotating the end of the shock you're holding a little bit. You are looking for a click to tell you that the adjuster has engaged. When you feel that click, you are ready to adjust ad you can completely bottom out the shock (but do it gently). I did not feel the click on all 4 shocks, but once fully compressed, I could only rotate the shock 2 full turns, so some (older) models may not have that satisfying click.

original image
from RAtwell.com

From below, rotating it clockwise will stiffen the rebound of the shock. Rotating it anti-clockwise will soften the rebound. That is the only adjustment you can make on these red 80-series oil-filled adjustable Koni shocks. You should be able to get 2 full turns from most soft to most stiff. Consider that you do not have to adjust in 1/2 turn increments. So, you can really dial in your rebound, if you have the time. Once you have the setting where you want it, let the shock out a little bit to release the adjuster. Now, you can orient the bolt hole with the lower mounting hole. Slide the bolt through, finger-on the nut and torque it down.  Re-torque the top bolt, if you loosened it. Repeat on the other side to the same degree of rebound (same degree of turn from most-soft or most-firm). The rears should match each other and the fronts should match each other, but the fronts and rears do not need to be the same. Still, I would encourage you to keep them within the same ballpark. I mean, 100% soft fronts and 100% stiff rears could make for some unpredictable handling performance.

 

The front shocks mount a little differently. The lower mount is a stud that is part of the wheel assembly. So, I loosened the nut to release any pressure, and then removed the upper bolt instead. Unlike my rear's, the nut behind the upper mount point is 19mm. Otherwise, the process is the same (free one end, compress, adjust, de-compress, align, re-bolt).

Once I made the adjustment, I had a new challenge of finding a way to test whether it helped. I live a few miles from the nearest freeway, and if I'm not loaded for camping the test isn't really valid anyway. So, I delayed the loaded-for-camping, freeway test. I did execute the mostly-empty around-town test, though. Around town, the ride is definitely stiffer. I can feel more bumps, but the steering feels about the same. The true test, however, is loading the bus for a weekend of camping and hitting a freeway.

Hapy Birthday

pic from Bend: note
the Boot in the back

My first opportunity to perform a freeway loaded-for-camping test was for the celebration of Hapy's 50th birthday, the weekend of 3-September. I will post on that later, but suffice to say, we had fun. The drive to and from our destination was a perfect test. We hosted multiple camp sites at LL Stub Stewart State Park, which is about 40 minutes west of the greater Portland metro area, between Manning and Vernonia. Access is from Oregon state route 47, by way of US-26. US-26 pre-dates the interstate system, but it is a multi-lane highway that passes through the open farm country between the western suburbs and the coast mountain range. A perfect test. There was definitely a wind, and I could see the greenery bending to it and feel it pushing on Hapy, but he held the road. I needed both hands on the wheel, but it was not the white-knuckle experience I had on I-5 nor US-26 east of Mount Hood on the 4Peaks return. I could not tell what angle the wind was coming from, but it was partially head-on, pushing Hapy's temperature up. Still, the handling was much better. Boo drove a chase car and reported that Hapy did not appear from behind to be all over the road. The return drive was even easier (tailwind on-angle), so I think, at least for now, the suspension can handle the road. I hope for another run down to Eugene or Liesureland before the very end of the decent weather, for one more test, on the road that started it all (I-5) to prove the suspension before winter.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Car Ports and Car Noises

What a difference a week makes. In my last post, I mentioned that I had helped T moved some stuff out of the one garage bay. Since then, K got the rest of his stuff, so Oliver is back in the garage. Also, the 2 carports from Harbor Freight arrived. So, I quickly moved from all cars out in the open and no sheltered space to work to 3 cars under some kind of roof, creating all kinds of work space. So, today's brief post if about getting the car ports up, and some diagnosis into the noises coming from Nemo.

Car Port Assembly x2

400 sqft of not raining

I have a small 2-car garage. I underscore small because Oliver (1978 MGB) barely fits between the garage door and the walkway along the opposite wall. Considering the MGB is one of the shortest cars out there, I couldn't imagine parking a Caddy or one of those big pickup trucks. Simply put, it wouldn't fit. So, when I think about how I'm going to complete Zed (1979 280XZ) this winter, I shudder. It's way too small to shoot paint, and with the gas furnace in there, I couldn't paint while heating the house, so the plan unravels fairly quickly. So, I got a couple of those 10' x 20' car ports that Harbor Freight sells (~$120US each). My driveway has a slight tilt towards the garage, but it's otherwise fairly flat.

V between

While I would have preferred a purchase ship-to-store option, the harbor freight website doesn't offer that. Instead, they offer $7US to ship it by FedEx Ground. That sounds like a cost-loss on their part, especially for a pair of these car ports, but they arrived before the primer from Eastwood (which still hasn't arrived). The assembly is actually very easy. The instructions have only a handful of steps and the exploded drawing is not as bizarre as IKEA furniture. I used a rubber mallet to get the pipes to fit together quickly. I was able to get each one assembled in about 2 hours, measured from when I walked out my garage door with a full box to walking back in after set-up and recycling/throwing away the packaging.

I set one over the top of Zed, and the other right next to it. I would rather not have a 20' dripped seam between them, and pushed the posts right next to one another. I took the 8-inch-or-so hangdown from one, and flipped it up over the top of the neighboring car port. The other hangdown, I pulled across and clipped to the tie-down seam, which runs along the inside, above the bottom rail. Then, I forced the pipes together and cable-tied them. This created a small V shape of car port tarp between the rails, running all the way front-to-back. My plan is that this will direct the water down to the lower end of the carport. I think this will work except for those super-heavy rain events we get sometimes. We'll see.

A4 Front Clunk

top of front strut, example

Now for some car content. After getting all the little things fixed on Nemo, I took him for a short test drive to see how he felt. He felt pretty good. Lots of boost, and plenty of power, but he made lots of noise. I could hear a clunk pretty much on every little bump. I figured it was the sway-bar bushings and replaced them: 13mm bolts hold the clamps on, and the bushing has a slit in it so you just need to remove the clamps, pull off the old bushing, slap on the new one and put the clamp back on. Times 2. The noise got a little better, but after pushing the fenders up and down, I believe the problem is in the strut-mount. From what I've read, after market struts that lower the front end (like Nemo has) put more pressure on the strut-mounts than the stock ones do, transferring some of the burden from the springs to the mounts to hold the front end up. This causes them to wear prematurely. So, I will be looking to replace those. Since I have a very healthy fear of strut springs, I will probably remove the struts and have new mounts installed by one of the shops around here. Better to pay with some hard earned cash than with some body damage.

A4 Rear Hum

Also on that test drive, I noticed that the rear end would make a humming noise once I got above about 30mph. I figured it was the wheel bearings, so I put the back end up on jackstands to confirm. The wheels had no play in them. None. Curious, I pulled it out of gear and spun the wheels, listening for noises (that would translate into a hum at speed). I heard clicking coming from the inner CV joints. So, that means at least removing one or both rear axles. Fun. Of course, with the AWD, I can't be 100% sure the bearings aren't bad. I may not have gotten the wheels spinning fast enough to make noise.

the diff oil fill, example

I intended to drain and fill the rear diff while the rear end was up in the air, but the fill plug is stripped. While I was under there, I got to see just how much caked on grease could remain attached to the outside of a differential without falling off. The answer: a LOT. I am really concerned about the health of this diff, and the whole rear-end, for that matter. Before I go any further with it, I will collect a second opinion. After that, I think it will have it's ass-end in the air for a while as I replace CV joints, and/or wheel bearings and fight off the fill plug so I can refresh the fluid. I'm not sure a 20+ year old 230k+ mile A4 is worth terribly much, but this is how we learn, and this could be a useful daily-driver for someone, maybe, eventually.

Well, that's it for today. I have not gotten back into the Zed paintwork since I put up the car ports. I really wanted to get Nemo road-able first. With the car ports up, I have more paint prep to do, and I need to figure out some sides for the car port space so I can heat and paint. Thanks, as always for following along-

Drag Link and Tie Rods

At the beginning of the Summer, I had this great idea of getting the alignment done on the bus before festival/camping seasons started. I realized I hadn't posted on that odyssey, so, since I just did the last little bit of fixing, I'll cover the whole thing today.

Mis-Aligning

Like I said, I started with the simple goal of having my alignment set. I had been describing driving the bus as a "full body experience", requiring the dexterity of a kit drummer to keep it on the road and motoring along. The biggest issue has been the degree of play in the steering wheel. I figured maybe the alignment was a good place to start. These old buses have a special way of setting camber requiring a thin 36mm wrench on what is called the "eccentric bushing". This bushing is integrated into the ball joint, but off-center, allowing for the camber to adjust as you move the wrench side to side. These bushings scare off many alignment shops, which I find almost amusing. They have these fancy computers to get things dialed in perfectly, but lack a 36mm wrench. Whatever. I did find a place here locally that would do it: HM Motorsports. They are a spin-off business from the local VW dealer, so they have the VW smart-guys plus the high end computer stuff. They were able to tell me that the camber was good, but one of my tie rods was bent, so they couldn't do a full alignment without replacing it. They asked me for $400US to replace that arm. Uhh... no thanks, but they did charge me the full $90US for the alignment anyway. I guess they tried, but they probably should not have once they saw the bent arm. In fairness, I should have noticed that at some point over the last 15 years myself and not taken it to them before replacing it.

Tie Rods

JBugs image of a tie rod

I ordered a pair of tie rods from Discount Import, and had T pick them up for me while he was there getting parts for Nemo (the A4). They charged me $35US each. The replacement was fairly easy. I started with getting the wheels as straight front-to-back as I could, centering the steering. Then, I replaced an entire arm, one at a time. The arm runs from the swing lever to the steering knuckle across the rear of the front beam. Each end of the tie rod has a 90* "end" on it that allows for controlled rotational movement. If the end can move at all any other way, it's bad. Since one of my rods was bent, I replaced the whole assembly, ends and all.

Rods Out
The ends are nutted down with castle nuts which are held in-place with cotter pins. The cotter pins may have rusted into place on yours, requiring more coaxing than mine did. Even as original parts, I was able to bend the pins back and push them out. Then the nut comes off. Last, the end needs to be separated from the knuckle or swing lever. This usually requires a pickle fork and a hammer, which will destroy the rubber boot on the tie rod end, so be sure to plan accordingly. I was able to free the tie rods by hammering away on the pickle fork. The passenger side released from the swing lever with just a couple whacks. In contrast, the driver-side steering knuckle took many many more. I have read of some needing to apply heat with a torch to get these to separate, so be prepared. Once removed, I cleaned up the holes with some WD-40 and a rag. Then, I scrubbed them with some sandpaper to make sure there weren't any sharp edges left around the holes from my removal efforts.

Rods In

Nicked from Interweb,
shows swing-lever end
and steering dampener

Oftentimes, the supplier will sell/send you two adjustable rods. This may be correct for some cars, but for the old bus, one of them is supposed to be fixed length. Discount Import only carries the adjustable rod, so the opportunity to do this wrong goes up. I followed this process for the not-bent side: measure the old rod from end to end on the top side (opposite where the threaded bolt comes out). I then adjusted the replacement arm to that same length, and then tweaked it until it dropped right into the holes. For the bent arm, this process wasn't effective. Measuring a bent arm wasn't going to get the exact length, so instead I matched it to the not-bent arm on the other side. Rather than touch the steering wheel or the tires, I adjusted the arm until it dropped into the holes. With the arms in-place, I could do a ShadeTree front alignment. Replacing the arms took less than an hour, so even at my "my free time is worth $50 an hour" rough math, I saved over $350 doing it myself versus having HM Motorsports do it.

Steering Dampener

Jbugs again

Before I put in the new rods, I took the opportunity to replace the steering dampener. This is a small shock-absorber that helps cushion the driving experience at the wheel from sudden jarring affects of road hazards. Consider how much the steering wheel hops when you hit a pothole. For a car with a working front-end, it's not too bad. If your steering dampener is shot, the steering wheel gets a mind of it's own for a second. That's dangerous at any speed. In the bus, with the higher center of gravity, it's downright scary. I highly recommend replacing yours if you have no idea how old it is. I got mine when I got the tie rods for $30US. It's held on with 2 bolts (17mm, if I remember right), like a shock absorber, and it is actually pretty easy to get at when the tie rods are off.

ShadeTree Front Alignment
With the steering dampener and tie rods refreshed, I was ready to get the alignment roughed in for a test drive. All cars are a little different, so the measurement below may not work on yours, but it worked on the bus.  Measure the distance between the front-most part of your front tires (looking at the front left tire, at 9 o'clock). Now compare that to the distance between the rear-most part of your front tires. The measurement from the front should be between 0" and 1/4" smaller than the measurement from the rear. The varying length depends on your tire size; I'm running stock diameter, so this works. Ultimately, this effort should be sufficient to get you to the alignment shop. This is not an ideal permanent setting.

PartsPlace.com image

If you have just one adjustable tie-rod, the adjustment is more straightforward. Since I had two, I adjusted both sides one turn at a time until I hit the 1/4 inch number. Based on how the arms adjusted, I used to have no-toe or a slight toe-out. In my experience, the steering becomes less predictable with toe-out, so I'm good with a slight toe-in. I test drove the bus first slowly in the driveway, then into the dead-end street and finally around the block. The steering held much more firmly over bumps and when the street was level, and there were no bumps, it held a straight line with my hands off the wheel. There was still 3-4 inches of play at the wheel, though, when I did want to change direction.

Drag Linking
To resolve the remaining play at the wheel, I asked Boo to sit in the driver seat and turn the wheel left to right while I laid-hands on various parts of the steering system. I could see the steering coupler turn, and feel the arm move, but the drag link didn't move right away. It had a significant delay, and made a clunk noise when she changed direction from right to left (not left to right, which was weird). I rested my hands on the swing lever to see if it had any up/down movement. I couldn't feel any, so that lever and the pivot pin should be fine, unless my novice hands couldn't feel well. Other than the steering box, the swing lever was all that was left if replacing the drag link didn't fix the steering play. I resolved to replace the drag link, and bought one at Discount Import ($50US). If they had had a swing lever kit, I would have bought one since the 90 minute round trip can eat up a day if you need to do it more than once.

old drag link,
broken pickle fork

The drag link removes just like a tie-rod: pull the cotter pins, remove the castle nut, and apply force with a pickle fork to pop each end free. The drag link removes and installs from the front with the non-adjustable end pointing to the rear. I broke my pickle fork as you can see in the picture to the right. I guess the Harbor Freight fork isn't made very well.

Similar to the tie-rod, you want the replacement to be the exact same length as the old one. In the PartsPlace.com image above, you can see an adjustment lock-nut on the right end. I placed my old and new side by side to get the length correct. Take care as you pass that rear "end" through the hole in the support so you don't damage or tear the rubber boot. I left the plastic shipping cover (visible in the picture) on the end during pass-thru so it wouldn't get damaged. To get the end to fit into the swing lever, I put a socket extension onto the bolt and used that extra torque to position the bolt to easily fit onto the hole. The front end slid right in without any extra fiddling, so I knew I had the length right. If you aren't so fortunate, repeat the measure and fit steps otherwise your steering will not align properly. Last, I threaded and torqued on the nuts, inserted the cotter pins and closed up the belly pan.

Test Drive
This final test drive was quite different. The steering is genuinely responsive, with less than an inch of steering wheel movement before the bus starts changing direction. When combined with the steering dampener, it drives like a completely different vehicle. I know I should take it to have the alignment done, but honestly, I probably won't. It handles so well, holds center during acceleration and braking. Since the caster and camber were within spec before I started replacing parts, and the parts I replaced have no bearing on those settings, I may let it ride as it is.

So, Hapy is fully operational again... just in time for winter. I have plans to address rust this winter, after I complete the interior of the MGB. And, of course, there's the 280ZX that neither C nor I have given much attention to. Clearly, I have lots of content waiting to be generated.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

MGB - Front Suspension Refresh (Part 4)

This post finishes up the front end rebuild I started in Parts 1 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 1), 2 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 2) and 3 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 3). At this point, the front beam is back in the car. The front shocks (and upper control arms) and lower control arms are installed with the spring pans. Today we will get the springs in, the swivels mounted and the front sway bar attached to the lower arms. By the end, the car could go back on the ground. The how-to for the springs I lightly touch on because it is pretty well documented around the internet. Not so much with the sway bar, so that's a little long.

Spring Thing
Back in Part 1, I described the concerns about how the springs were under load when the lower control arm was to be removed and that some level of care was needed to prevent it from launching across the garage. That concern returns as we approach the install. I followed the exact same routine: zip-tie the upper end of the spring to the top of the beam. Getting the zip-ties in the right spot may take a few tries with the jack (during the Jack Be Nimble step), but for now, just get the spring all the way up in the beam pocket and zip tie them so they are mostly in the right spot. Once the springs are suspended from the beam, we move on to the swivels. I did one side at a time, but I don't think there's a compelling reason to other than I confuse easily.

Swivels, bottom mount
The swivels are really nicely balanced lumps of steel, when they are mounted to the suspension. When you are holding them in your hands, or trying to attach them, however, they feel unwieldy. So, to protect yourself from, uh, yourself, put something soft under the end of the beam to catch the swivel when it inevitably topples over. It will topple. Since I had a bunch of things shipped, I took a larger flat box and filled it with the crumpled newspaper and air-filled bags that arrived with the parts. I highly recommend it. The alternative is a damaged swivel. Anyway, take the swivel for the side you're working on (caliper is on the rear), and fit the lower mount into the lower control arm. Thread the bolt from the kit from the front to the rear, minding the order of the washers (nut - washer - rear arm/bushing - swivel - front arm/bushing - washer - bolt head). Once you thread the castle nut on, you may feel driven to crank it on tight. Don't do that yet. Get is on pretty well, though; finger tight.

Jack Be Nimble
With the swivel attached at the bottom, it will want to fall over, especially when you start lifting the lower control arm with your jack. To prevent that, I looped a stretch of bailing wire around the top of the swivel and then around the shock absorber. This loosely held it upright, but didn't restrict movement. Now the fun part begins. Lift the lower control arm under the spring and set the inner edge of the spring inside the spring cup. Now, set your jack as we did in Part 1, on the outer edge of the underside of the spring cup. Slowly start raising the jack. I did it in spurts and then wiggled or rubber-mallet'd the bottom of the spring so it would shift in the spring cup. My thinking was that the cup was rotating 90* so the spring would be under weird tension as is was set into place, putting more pressure on the inner edge than the outer edge of the spring. I don't think it did much other than create more danger of the spring flying out, so consider that optional.

As I got closer to fully-installed, I found that the spring tension was greater than the weight of the car. I mean that the car started lifting off the jackstand before the top of the swivel was within an inch of the holes lining up. If you have a friend, not even a very heavy friend, have him or her sit on the wing over the wheel well. I was flying solo, so I stacked tires on the wing instead. Yes, that actually worked.

Swivels, top mount
As I alluded to in Jack Be Nimble, most of the top mount work is getting the jack positioned right, and raising the swivel while keeping the car solid on the stands. Once the holes in the upper control arm / shock absorber align with the hole in the top of the swivel, it's easy. I found that getting the top of the swivel to sit in the arms wasn't simple though. I needed to loosen the bolts that hold the top arms together a little bit so the swivel top could fit. You may need to do that same, just don't forget to torque them back down when you're firming up all of your fasteners.

Now do that again for the other side. I found that the first one took at least twice as long as the second side. Ironically, I had more spring slippage on the second side, but that didn't slow me down as much of the fear of that happening on the first side slowed me. Interesting.

Anti-Sway Bar
With the rest of the suspension put together, all that's left is the front (anti-) sway bar. In my searches around the internet, all of the articles I found about replacing the sway bar had the classic "install is the reverse". That is not helpful, so I'm documenting what I did that worked. If you're using your original bar, clean it up and paint where it's been chipped when you're doing your other parts. It is so much nicer, and the bushings go on much easier. We start with those bushings. The graphite-poly bushings are a solid trapezoid, so you will need to cut along the seam so it will wrap around the arm. I tried sliding it on from either end, including removing an arm-end, but that doesn't work. You have to cut it parallel to the path the arm would take through it.

Get the bushing onto the bar. This can be hard, but with some window cleaner (or plain water) as a lubricant, and a little force, it pops on. Use the little locks on the bar as a guide for where they should be located (just to the outside of the lock/clamp). Now test fit the bar with the new brackets. For the MG, there are 2 small black pieces of steel that hold an air deflector that need to fit between the bracket and the frame. Just test fit that it will roughly fit and that the bar is pointing the right way (ends pointing rearward).

With the brackets now removed you're ready to start the install for real. Hold the bar in the rough spot where it was during the test fit and wiggle one end of the bar into the lower control arm. Since nothing is preventing complete movement, this should be relatively easy. If the sway bar end is not making it through the hole no matter what you do, you could be experiencing a manufacturing defect in the arm. I had this happen: the rearward hole was too small for the sway rm end to pass through. I had to widen it with a drill.

Once the first one is through both holes so a bunch of threading can be seen/felt on the rear side of the control arm, switch to the other side. You may need to work kind of hard to get the second side in. I did. Lots of pulling and pushing before the bolt passed through both holes. Set the ends all the way in with a couple of whacks with a hammer. Place on the lack-washer and the 3/4" nut, but don't tighten it all the way down. Now shift to the brackets, the metal thing, and the bushings. Thread in the 2 pairs of 1/2" bolts, but again, don't tighten. Now, push/pull on the bar left and right to makes sure it is centered and there isn't any torque holding it out of center. Now, tighten the bolts and nuts down. Again, I recommend new fasteners.

Now, we can lower the car. I set the jack under the rear edge of the front beam, lift the car just enough to get the stands out and set the car down. After so many months of the front being in the air, it really looks kind of weird. Really low. For fun, I jumped up and down on the front bumper. Where there used to be considerable bouncing both on the initial jump, but in aftershocks as well... the MG barely responded to my jump and didn't bounce. It just returned to it's ride height. So tight. Once I get back on the road, it is going to hold the road like a brand new (or better) MGB.

That's it for today. This has been an incredible marathon, but feeling the difference bouncing on the front bumper tells what it will be worth. The front end should be in solid operating shape for another 40 years. Thanks, as always, for following along. I will get the festival review, the bus improvements, another road story, etc. posted as I can get to finishing the stories.

MGB - Front Suspension Refresh (Part 3)

I'm continuing the front end rebuild I started in Parts 1 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 1) and 2 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 2). At this point, the front beam is stripped and removed from the car. We've evaluated the parts, and made determinations about which to keep and which to replace. Today starts the work of putting it all back together again. WooHoo!

Pivot on the Swivels
There some things really are best left to a shop. I want to do as much as I possibly can myself, but it's not a religion. It's just a strong preference because I want to learn and because I find it fun. I read through the process for removing and replacing the king pins and bushings within the swivels (wheel assemblies). This requires a shop press, which I don't have nor do I have the space for, and a trained eye for determining the viability of the wheel assembly as a whole. So, I contracted the fine folks at British Auto Works to do it. Like so many things, I expanded the job from just swapping the king pins and bushings to also include replacing and grease-packing the wheel bearings. Doing the wheel bearings didn't really increase the cost, and it gave me the peace of mind that the entire front end had been updated. British Auto Works completely strips, and then chem-tanks all of the wheel assembly. after testing and measuring everything, they assemble the wheel and finishes the job with fresh paint. All told, it took them three days, and most of that was because they wanted extra time in the chem-tank. The finished product looks fantastic and delivered that piece-of-mind that they were properly done.

Paint

While the swivels were at British Auto Works, I started working on the beam. For being exposed to the elements, and road debris for almost 40 years, I would have expected more damage or rust. In truth, it was in pretty good shape. So, I cleaned it up, first with a power washer, then by hand with Simple Green. Once cleaned, I could see a few scratches, but it was in really fine shape. I threaded the rusty old bolts which held the front shocks back in. I did that so paint wouldn't gum up the threads. Then I sanded it, wiped it down with mineral spirits and shot it with high-gloss black paint. Since I had the time, I let the paint cure for a week, light sanded it, wiped it down and shot another coat. At this point, I removed the old shock bolts so the paint would cure without them. While I had the materials out, I cleaned up the spring pans and springs, sanded and painted them too. Truth be told, I had lots of other parts around that I intend to re-install, so I cleaned them up, sanded, wiped and shot them too. I'll share some of the tear-down and re-assembly of those things in other posts. Everything got high-gloss black except the springs. Those I shot burnt orange which from afar looks like the vermilion on the body, but its not an exact match. I decided it wasn't a deal-breaker so I also sanded, wiped and shot the underside of the frame where the front beam mounts to it. I figured I wouldn't have that exposed again any time soon so why not?

Beam Me Up

Once the paint has been shot and cured, I was able to start assembling things. First, was the re-install of the bare beam. Since I was working on this by myself, this was a great deal harder than the removal. Why? The beam is held on with 4 bolts. Each bolt has a nut on both ends, and it passes through 2 poly/graphite (or rubber of simply poly) bushings, one on either side of the beam. The drawing on the side, here, with parts labelled 1 through 7 show the front bolt. The rear is similar. Note the orientation of the bolt in the drawing: the lump is on the bottom. This is important since the thinner stretch of the bolt runs up into the frame. If you try to send the lump up, it will not make it through the frame. Yes, I did try it that way. If you're doing this on your own, I fumbled my way into a process that works:

Get the beam onto your jack, and roll it under your front bumper. Looking from above, roughly align the rear of the beam with the rear frame holes, but still a few inches below it.
Pick a side. It doesn't matter which. Take the shorter, rear bolt, and load the bolt, stacking from the bottom: nut, plate, bushing. twist the nut onto the bolt a few turns. Slide the bolt up through the rear hole from the bottom of the beam, placing the top bushing onto the bolt. I found that these bushings sort of held the bolt in place.

With the bolt held in with friction, get more precise with your alignment, but just worry about that one hole and bolt. Raise the jack and re-check. Repeat until you have the bolt and hole lined up. Then, while holding the bolt to the beam, raise the jack, pressing the bolt into the frame. Once the bolt peers through the top of the frame, put the top nut on. Again, thread the nut on just a few turns so the bolt can hold the beam, but there is still a couple of inches between the top of the beam and the bottom of the frame.
The one bolt creates a pivot point so you can align another hole. I did the other rear bolt, following the same routine. With the rear bolts loosely in, the fronts are much easier. Stack the front bolts again from the bottom: nut, plate and bushing. Set the upper bushing, and set the bolt through the frame hole. Thread on the top bolt.
Now you can start tightening the nuts. On all 8 nuts you want some threads to peek out from the nut. If you don't see threads, you may not have enough bite on the nut to withstand the pressures during intense driving. Then, torque to spec (54 to 56 ft/lbs).

Shock Me

Once I had the beam in, I shifted to installing the front shocks. If you remember, the removal was only difficult for the rear bolts because of how close they are to the wheel well. The install is also challenged by this. If you painted your beam, did you paint with the bolts out? I accidentally left one out: the one I took to the hardware store. That bolt hole was a real pain to get a bolt into at this stage. The others just took a little windex on the bolt, and it threaded right in. Once finger tight, it doesn't take much to torque it down... except getting a torque wrench in there is impossible. You'll need to feel it, as you're aiming for 43 to 45 ft/lbs. I actually came back and torqued after I did the lower control arms because the torque settings are so close, I got a good feel for what 45ft/lbs is supposed to feel like.

Lower Control Arm
Now for the fun part. Whether you bought new arms or cleaned up your originals, there are two different arm shapes: one for the rear and one for the front. The "front" has a hole specifically for the sway bar that's reinforced. Pick a side. Grab a spring pan, three sets of spring pan fasteners (1/2" nut-washer-bolt combinations) and your lower control arm bushings. If you got the fender washers like I did, grab them too. You don't need the lower trunnion kit nor the spring yet. On each arm, press in the bushing. If you got the poly bushings, this may require a press. The rubber and poly/graphite fit in without much difficulty.

Slide a fender washer onto each front-back side of the pivot (the thing on the beam that the lower arms attach to). Then fit the rear and front arms on that same side, making sure to have them pointing towards each other and making sure you're using a front and a rear arm in the right spots (rear on rear, front on front). Yeah, that sounds obvious and all, but once you get on the ground all those arms start to look the same. Consider that the flat side on the arm faces the pan (see the picture).

Let the arms hang down and grab the spring pan and one set of fasteners. Holding the pan with the dish facing towards you, lightly thread the bolt through from the outside of the arm through to the pan. Set a washer on the bolt and then finger a nut onto the bolt. Do not tighten yet. Do the other 2 fastener set the same way: 2 on the rear, one on the front. With the spring pan loosely held to the arms, slide the other fender washers on and follow with the castle nuts. Once everything is on, but loose, start tightening things, moving from castle nuts to spring pan fasteners so no bolt gets hung up because it has been left untouched for too long. When everything is snug, torque to spec: 22 ft/lbs for the spring pan fasteners and 45 ft/lbs for the castle nuts.

For the castle nuts, align the castle with the cotter-pin hole and put in the cotter pin (or bailing wire, if you're like me). Better to torque a little too much than not enough, IMHO, but you shouldn't need to go higher than 50 ft/lbs. If you do, re-check your work. Maybe something is hanging up.

That's it for this time. I should be able to finish this up in just one more post. I'll get the swivels and springs on, and then the major efforts are completed. Thanks for following along. This has been an incredibly rewarding effort.

MGB - Front Suspension Refresh (Part 2)

Continuing from my last post, I'm focusing this group of posts on the rebuild of the MGB front end. Today, we get down to the beam, and get it removed from the car. I'll evaluate parts, and talk about replacement bushing options. Part I can be found here.

Shocking
While the beam is in, and you have access to your front shocks is the best time to evaluate them. On the right side, the shock responded relatively well to my efforts to move the arm up and down. It resisted in both directions, but not as much as I would have liked. Still, I probably could have left it alone. The shock on the left (driver) side, however, offered virtually no resistance to my attempts to move it. In fact, I could push it to the top of it's motion and it would slowly drop down. That shock is shot. Suspension shops usually recommend replacing both fronts and/or both rears at the same time. For a front-end like this one, where the shock absorber is also playing the part of the upper control arm, it is all the more important. These are held in place by 4 bolts. The two against the inner wheel well can be difficult to get to, but you can address them with the most basic spanners and ratchet/sockets. Similar to the engine mount replacement (see MGB - engine mounts), a good supply patience is welcomed here.

Set the shocks aside with the lower arms and pans. To protect the threaded holes, finger the old bolts back into the holes. I took one with me to Orchards and found replacement grade 8 stainless steel ones for the reassembly. I strongly recommend replacing fasteners with stainless steel or zinc coated to reduce the rusted-on effect.

Beam Down

image swiped from 'net,
but that's a stock beam

Now, the front beam should only be connected to the car by 4 bolts. Nothing else should be tying them together. No brake lines, steering bits, etc. but it never hurts to stupid-check (so-called for those moments when you don't check, something bad happens and call yourself stupid for not checking).

I used an ATV / transmission jack, but a more standard wheeled floor jack should work; it will just take more patience with balance. The ATV / transmission jack is nice in that it has two long arms to spread the weight, and improve the balance. Still, with the front end way in the air, and the rear on the ground, the bottom of the beam is not parallel to the floor. So, I slid a 2x4 under the front of the beam when the ATV / transmission jack reached the underside of the beam to make uniform contact. Raise the jack until it is holding some weight, but not much. You want the car stable on it's jack stands.

Relieve the torque on the 4 bolts by cracking the 4 bolts on top. you shouldn't need to hold the bottom nuts at all for this. I used the breaker bar with an assortment of extensions. Once cracked, do the same on the bottom nuts, just so they are not rusted in place. Whether you remove the nuts on top or the bottom or a mixture doesn't really matter. In the end, all 4 bolts need to be un-nutted on both ends. You would think that once the nuts have been removed from the bolts, they would just fall out. Fat chance. How about lowering the jack a little bit? Nope. To free the bolts, the top nut needs to be removed. Then, using a socket extension so you can address the bolt, rap the bolt from above with a rubber mallet. When this doesn't work, use a framing hammer, but be very careful with those bolts. They are not normal and if the threads are damaged, you'll need to order new ones.

Once the bolts fall out, either through banging or playing with your jack or maybe you got lucky and they just fell out... you'll see that these bolts are 2 different lengths and that the longer bolts (that fell out of the front) have a lump in the middle like a poorly rolled spliff. I retained all of this hardware, choosing to not try to find replacements, though I thought about it. Simply lower the jack, and the beam will lower with it. Pull out the front under the radiator and bumper.

Parts and More Parts
At this point, I was pretty spent. From the start of the prior posting to the beam on the ground was at least 2 days. Now that I've done it once, though, I could do it again in 1/3 of the time or faster. As I set with a beer, I looked at the pile of parts and the zip-lock baggies of fasteners. The fasteners were all bare steel, and they had plenty of rust on them. I chose to replace all of them except the beam-to-frame nuts and bolts. I added 4 fender washers to fit between the beam and the lower control arms. I felt this would help the bushings last longer. The fasteners probably put me back $50. Then, I turned to the pile of parts:

front shock absorber /
upper control arm

Front Shock Absorbers (2) New, these are crazy expensive. Moss has them for over $330 each. Instead, I found World Wide Auto Parts in Madison, WI who rebuilds originals. After some research I bought a pair from them at $99 each plus core which was returned when I sent my old ones back to them. They really look great, and if they work as well as they look, I just may go back for replacements of the rears instead of doing the swap-out for non-MGB rear shocks that so many folks do. The paint chips off without much effort, so if you're going for a show-car experience, I'd recommend repainting them.

Lower Control Arms (4) These looked okay, but without tight tolerance measuring tools, I couldn't tell if any of the important holes on the ends were out of round. Replacements for all 4 was $70 with OEM British steel, and the originals could have been worn from the bad seals, so I coughed up the $70.

lower control arms

Spring Pans (2) Like the arms, I couldn't tell for sure if the mounting holes were out of round, but on very close examination none of the holes looked oval. Since no pivoting happens with these pan holes, even a little out of round probably wouldn't matter so I chose to keep the spring pans, and just clean them up instead. New-steel replacements are $32 each at Moss, so they're a little steep cost-wise compared to some of the other bits. Still, if the spring pan won't firmly attach to the arms, your suspension won't be safe, so spend the $64. In the end, there was 0 play after everything was put back together, so my assessment was correct.

Front End Rebuild Kit (1) This was the whole point of this work. I found a few different suppliers for this kit, and resolved to buy from British Parts Northwest for $120. While their return policy is crap, their price is $35 less than Moss. These kits include:
- king-pin set and bushings. These run vertically between the arms and through your swivels
- upper control arm nut/bolts. They call them "fulcrum pin and hardware" and they attach the top of the swivel to the control arm / front shock absorber.
- upper control arm bushings (rubber or all-poly). These pair with the upper control arm nut/bolts to complete the set. I ended up swapping out the kit-supplied ones with some Poly/Graphite bushings I got from a new friend, Basil, in California ($6)

- lower control arm to swivel bolt/nut and bushings. They call these "Lower Trunnion Kits".
- lower control arm to beam ("A-Arm") bushings and bolts (rubber or all-poly). Again, I went with Poly/Graphite ($20) from Basil instead of the kit-supplied ones.

To do the front end rebuild, that's really all you need. I decided, though, that as long as its open, replace the beam-to-frame bushings.... and the sway bar bushings. Again, I sourced these from my friend in California. frame bushings ran $23 and the sway bar bushes were $10. When I consider there was no extra labor for the beam bushings, and very little on the sway bars, this was a very low cost to get the front end as rock-solid stable as possible.

Rubber, Poly and Poly/Graphite
Just for an aside, I wanted to touch on the differences between these three types of bushing. As a general rule, it's best that you pick one and stick with it through the front end. Since they behave a little differently from each other, the front end could be less predictable if your lowers and uppers are not the same material and respond to stresses differently.

Rubber - this is what you had originally. When squeezed between two pieces of steel which want to twist, the rubber twists with it. This smooths out the twisting motion, giving an easy, forgiving ride. For a cruiser, this is great material.

beam to frame bushings

Poly - this is the more common "upgraded" bushing. Unlike the rubber, the poly does not twist with the steel; it resists the twisting motion. This resistance reduces the degree of the twist, allowing more of the force through to the ride. This is a much less forgiving ride, but gives you a much stronger "sense of the road". Installing these bushings can be very difficult, requiring water-based lube or other tricks, maybe the use of a shop press. Once installed, most owners report loving them.

Poly/Graphite - this is in-between the Poly and Rubber in terms of road feel and difficulty of install. Basil described this far better than I could, so I will quote: They look like black plastic that has some give to them. You can put one between your thumb and forefinger and feel it give a little. The polyurethane matrix has a slippery substance called "graphite" (a crystalline form of carbon) in the polymer matrix so a slippery bit is always exposed and thus self-lubricating the bushing. No special install efforts needed.

This post got long again, so I'll continue in another post. At this point, we have the front beam completely torn down, our parts are ordered, and fasteners sourced at the local hardware store. We'll start next time with some painting and then assembly. Thanks, as always, for following along...

MGB - Front Suspension Refresh (Part 1)

Before I took the little British car to a shop for review, I did the brakes on all 4 corners (See MGB - Brake Job). While I had the front end on jack stands, I noticed some weirdness with the front end suspension. Today's post starts the documenting of that work.

Well, That's Not Right

weather stripping?

So, I had the front end in the air and the front wheels off, trying to get after the bolts which hold the calipers onto the front swivels. On my back, lying under the front right (passenger) fender, or wing in British car parlance, I noticed that the front of lower control arm was attached to the front beam, but it looked like the bushing had been replaced with a strip of window insulation. Huh? I pushed and pulled up and down on the arm and it wiggled. Yikes. I looked at the point where the front shock attached to the top of the swivel, and that bushing looked old and tired: brittle and cracked. The top connection didn't wiggle, but something that brittle was at end-of-life. I slid around to the left (driver) side. There, I found more dust and more surface rust, but both the top and bottom bushes on the swivels looked like the top of the passenger side: old, brittle and tired. This front end needed a complete re-bushing before being driven very hard.

Getting Down to the Beam
I had a few weeks between jobs around the holidays, so I thought it was a perfect window of opportunity to do the front end. I did spend some focused time during those weeks, but I also took advantage of an amazing snow season by hitting the mountain a few times, I visited with family, etc, so I didn't exactly get this done within the window. As usual, this took me longer than it would probably take most folks to do.

Since we're working on the front end, we start with loosening the lug nuts and then putting the front end on jack stands. This time, get the front end as high as you can get it without getting nervous about how high it is. The key here is having it high enough so the lower control arms can hang straight down once disconnected. Figure, that's at least 16 inches at the rear of the lower control arm. Once on the stands, remove the wheels and stow them out of your way.

Disconnect the brakes. Start with loosening and then removing the calipers. You may need to pull the pads before the calipers will come free. I was able to remove everything as a unit but I just did these pads. I ultimately needed to disconnect the front brake lines so I'd suggest you completely remove the calipers from the car now. Once the calipers are free, disconnect the brake hard-line from the front beam. Remember that brake fluid is corrosive, so wear gloves, use a catch-pan and dispose of safely. Its nasty stuff on your paint too, so basically, have it avoid everything but the pan.

get it way up in the air

Remove the steering rack. I already had mine off (See MGB - Steering Rack), which was one reason why I jumped into this over the winter.

Disconnect the front sway bar from the control arms. In the picture above, you can see them still connected to the lower control arms out near the wheels. Once the nut is removed on each end, coax the threaded end out the front. Sounds easy, and the second side is. The first side can be a bear.

Orienting on the Lower Control Arms
If you have ideas about doing more than just replacing the beam-to-frame mounting rubber, there's more to do. If not, I get to dropping the beam in my next post. Since I aim to refresh the whole front end, I kept going.

First, pick a side. If you are space-constrained like I usually am, pick the side where you have more room first so you get a feel for the work and don't lose your patience as quickly. If you consider the lower control arm is a capital "V" lying on its face, there are 2 bolts holding it on: one at the bottom and one across the top. The one at the bottom attaches the arms to the wheel assembly (often referred to as the swivel). The one at the top attaches them to the front beam. Extending our capital letter metaphor, the spring comes from above and lands into the middle of that "V", making it more of an "A". Where the spring reaches the arm there is a round cup for the spring to sit in. It is not held in place by any fasteners; this last bit is an important safety consideration during removal.

Pop Goes the Front Spring

bottom of the "V"

Start with putting your floor jack under the spring cup in the lower control arm. Set it far enough to the outside where it will grab the cup edge but not so far out that you can't get a spanner or socket onto the bolt/nut because the jack is in the way. Raise the jack just enough to take some of the energy out of the springs. There is a debate on the internet about how pressurized these springs are and whether there is reason for concern for them launching when the arm is removed. They are under reasonable pressure and there is reason for concern. Take a couple of zip-ties and zip-tie the top of the spring to the beam. If you don't, it will take off in an unpredictable direction when the lower arm is lowered.

Back to the removal... there is a cotter pin running through the castle nut, so remove that. Take note that replacement cotter pins are NOT included in any of the rebuild kits available out there, so either get some independently or do like I did and use bailing wire at install-time. Crack, loosen and then remove the nut/bolt that runs across the bottom of the "V" I described above in Orienting on the Lower Control Arms. The bolt can be hard to remove. Unlike the cotter pins, replacement castle nuts are included in the kit so you can use your old castle nut on the end of the bolt as a target for your hammer. The castle nut doesn't take punishment as well as a standard nut, so you still need to be careful: once the bolt breaks free, you still need to be able to thread the castle nut off the bolt to get it completely out. With the bolt out, the jack is all that is holding the spring under pressure. Make sure the top is zip-tied to the front beam! Slowly lower the arm until the spring pops out of the cup. If you raised the car high enough, you will be able to completely lower the jack and the arm will hang straight down. Sometimes the swivel gets hung up in the arm, so you may need to coax the 2 pieces apart. If you find this necessary, be mindful of how much spring tension is supported by the jack. It will unload quickly if not contained by the jack.

Once the arm is hanging free, cut the zip-ties and move the spring out of the way. You may choose to paint or powder coat them as long a they're out. I shot mine with paint, thinking I didn't have time (nor money, the paint was free leftover in my cabinet) to powder coat.

Spring Pan
Removing the rest of the arm assembly isn't terribly difficult, even for me. The spring pan is held to the arm with 3 nut:bolt combinations. If I remember correctly, they are all 1/2" drive. There are two on the rear and one facing front. The front one was paired with a threaded end of the sway bar which we removed earlier. With the bolt:nut combinations removed, the arms and spring pan should fall to pieces. Set the spring pan aside.

Remove the Lower Control Arms
The inner end of the control arms are held to the front beam with large castle nuts. The nuts are held in place with cotter pins. Like the pins at the other end of the arm, these do NOT appear in any of the kits available out there, so either acquire some elsewhere (local hardware store) or use bailing wire like I did for install. So, remove the cotter pins that hold the castle nuts, then remove the nuts. There are replacement nuts and washers in the kit. Set the arms with the spring pan for inspection.

Upper Control Arm... Er.. Shocks

left swivel top

Unlike lots of other cars, these little British cars don't have a traditional upper control arm and piston-style shock absorber. Instead, the shock and upper control are are one kinda weird unit, but it works. They are oil-filled, and for space purposes, it makes the most of what's available. The top of the swivel is attached in a similar way to all of the others in this job: castle nut, cotter pin,
long-ish bolt that needs to get banged out with a hammer. The rebuild kits also provide parts the same way: all bolts, washers and nuts are provided. NO cotter pins. The swivel is kind of heavy, so put something kind of soft to catch it when you get the bolt removed. If your experience is like mine, you'll be banging away on the bolt and then without any real sign it will suddenly pop out and the swivel will topple. Without something to cushion it's fall, a drop onto the concrete of your garage could damage something.

Now, do the other side. Whee!

At this point, your lower control arms are removed, and your front swivels are as well. Your front shocks are still on the beam, and the beam is still in the car. This is when I will pick it up next time where I'll cover removing the front shocks, evaluating them, the spring pan, and control arms for re-use, buying parts and of course, lowering the front beam.

Thanks for following along. This series of posts represents one of the longest, biggest things I've done since I rebuilt the front end on the bus: the post that launched this blog.