Mikey's new four-door

[1987cp]

I said crimp-and-solder; I meant crimp-and-seal connectors. I've never used any sort of connector with pre-applied solder. That's what I get for posting when I'm dead tired.


What sort of stuff does this Parker Store sell? I do see a listing called just "Parker Store" in Jackson, about a half-hour from me.


Back to the car, I decided today while driving around to get my son a pair of winter boots that fit (the rubber boots I bought him last year are now officially a bit too small ... silly kid with tall arches like his mom) that I should undo the passenger side tie rod tweak I did before doing the control arms to counteract some evil wandering tendencies. Then I need to devise a way to actually measure the camber and caster. Actually, for camber I can probably use the thatching blade I used this morning to measure the backspacing on a few things, but I'll need to device something with blocks of some sort to do the caster.

[P72Ford]

What sort of stuff does this Parker Store sell? I do see a listing called just "Parker Store" in Jackson, about a half-hour from me.

You should try the solder and seal connectors sometime too.

Parker Store is your fluid dynamics connection. Hoses, fittings, etc. They sell anything pertaining, including those AN fittings for fuel systems and stuff. They have all kinds of nice clamps and mounting solutions for tubing, hose and lines as well. I've bought sainless brake line, and that easy to bend brake line there as well.

Plus, if you ever need any type of fitting, thats the place to go.

http://www.fluiddynamics.info/

The one near me is privately owned, but I see Parker Store locations in MI.

[torquelover]

Then I need to devise a way to actually measure the camber and caster. Actually, for camber I can probably use the thatching blade I used this morning to measure the backspacing on a few things, but I'll need to device something with blocks of some sort to do the caster.

Remember that headlight aiming tool I gave you? Worked great for setting camber way back in the day.

[1987cp]

ooh. I could see that!

[1987cp]

Those who keep up with the thread "what are you working on?" will have noted that I did make an attempt at setting camber and caster a few days ago. Took an hour and a half to locate my angle finder, then determined that I needed to take a 1.5 degree driveway slope into account. Long story short, I shoved the rear UCA bolts in basically as far as they would go and set the camber to a corrected -1 degree, assuming I was measuring correctly. It must have been close, because the car did drive better afterward, though the steering was still rather sloppy.

Today I swapped over all the recently-replaced steering parts off the wagon (complete tie rods 5 years old or less, centerlink, and 2-year-old idler arm), along with a brand-new pitman arm. I looked at both old ones and was surprised how much slop was present, so I'm glad I replaced it. I got to fuss with the newer tie rod assemblies a bit because the adjusting sleeves were rusted in place on the outer rod ends, but then I was able to get the toe to a reasonable setting. A quick drive revealed that while the toe-in was acceptable, the steering wheel was off center, so I made a couple more tweak-and-test-drive cycles before deciding it was really quite close to dead on.

I had hoped to make a reasonable attempt at installing the trailer hitch before taking off for the weekend, but ran into issues with the rear bumper. The mounts are pretty well rusted in place (typical in my limited experience when they've never been off the car), and I can't get to the rear mounting locations without removing them. I went ahead last night and started to remove the bumper from the mounts, but wouldn't you know, one of the bolts broke loose from its tab and is just spinning inside the bumper, so this morning I buttoned that all back up with new nuts on the mount cross-bolts and decided to forget it for now.

Attached to this post are pics of the tools I ended up renting (including the 34mm axle nut socket I ran back out for so I could remove the big nut on the sector shaft). This style tie rod remover absolutely rocks (I also used it to get the old pitman arm off the centerlink I used), and the heavy-duty pitman arm puller was specifically recommended to me by the local AZ sales manager, saying "The other ones, sometimes the tabs break off. You won't break this one."

Also attached are:
1) Pitman arm puller in place
2) Old steering linkage
3) Old pitman arm looking sloppy
4) Old idler arm looking sloppy
5) Newer idler arm in place

[1987cp]

... and also, the brandy new pitman arm installed and greased.

Torquing the sector shaft nut to 250 ft-lbs presented a slight problem, and I ended up first torquing it to about 125 ft-lbs with my torque wrench that reads up to 150, and then switching to the breaker bar and tightening the nut further till I was pulling about twice as hard on the bar as after removing the torque wrench. Should be pretty close.


Oh yes, the screw on the HD pitman arm puller had a rather big hex on it. I ended up buying myself a nice new 26mm socket to fit it, though I had been successful using the puller under the wagon with just my gator-grip pliers (the 12" crescent wrench would probably have worked also, provided I had been able to find it). I went ahead and picked up a 1-1/16" socket as well, so that can fill the gap between my 1" and my 1-1/8". One of these days I need to go ahead and buy a set of larger sockets .....


And finally, the test-drive feedback: The steering response is now pretty close to incredible. And well it should seem incredible, as this is the closest thing to an entirely brand-new front suspension I've had on any car I've ever owned!

[johnunit]

Great info, mike.

So the biggest difference, it sounds like, was the pitman and idler arm?


Just to clarify, was the 34 MM socket for the nut on the end of the spindle that you have to take off to remove wheel bearings, or something totally different?

[Nathan in MI]

As far as the rear bumper thing goes, I remember pulling the rear off my '89 once, for the same reason as you yanked yours. I ended up having the same problem - the bolts twisted off, the plates that hold the bolts broke all to pieces, etc. I ended up having to make new mounting plates, put new bolts into the plates, weld them in place and then try putting the whole thing together again. The final product wasn't pretty, but it was hidden inside the bumper anyway, and it was quite functional. I never ripped the hitch off while pulling a trailer, so I must have done something right.

[1987cp]

Great info, mike.

So the biggest difference, it sounds like, was the pitman and idler arm?


Just to clarify, was the 34 MM socket for the nut on the end of the spindle that you have to take off to remove wheel bearings, or something totally different?

Pretty much. Both the pitman and idler arms had a good deal of slop, which in turn led to, in a nutshell, sloppy steering. The tie rod ends were acting a bit loose, but they were probably less of an issue. I replaced them in part because I once had a tie rod end let go while driving; dragging my right front wheel a few blocks back to my apartment was more than a little annoying, and I'd like to avoid that sort of thing in the future if at all possible.


The 34mm socket was for the huge nut that holds the pitman arm to the sector shaft coming out the bottom of the steering box. I measured the nut at about 33.39 millimeters, or around 1-5/16 inches (making my 1-1/4" socket too small), and the AutoZone crew said they had a 32 and a 34, and people needing a 33 normally just used a 34.

I keep a 1-1/8" socket around for the spindle nuts, though considering that most of the chassis connections are actually metric, I should probably try my new 26mm socket on there and see if it isn't closer. I've honestly never thought to measure a spindle nut because I already have a socket that does an adequate job.

[1987cp]

As far as the rear bumper thing goes, I remember pulling the rear off my '89 once, for the same reason as you yanked yours. I ended up having the same problem - the bolts twisted off, the plates that hold the bolts broke all to pieces, etc. I ended up having to make new mounting plates, put new bolts into the plates, weld them in place and then try putting the whole thing together again. The final product wasn't pretty, but it was hidden inside the bumper anyway, and it was quite functional. I never ripped the hitch off while pulling a trailer, so I must have done something right.

How did you end up getting the bolts off? Three ideas have occurred to me so far: Sawzall, cutoff wheel, and air chisel (see if I can't chisel the nut off). If all else fails, I can always cut an access hole in the bumper core that would allow me to reach in with the gator-grip pliers and hold the bolt still.

Incidentally, I've never had this problem yet with a wagon rear bumper. Perhaps it has more to do with the different mounting system than with luck.

[Nathan in MI]

You mean how did I get the bolts loose from the bumper mounts on the car, or how did I get the bolts out of the bumper itself? As I recall, I burned the bolts off of the mounts with an arc welder, and then when I took the inner core off of the bumper, they came right out. Your bumper core bolts in, doesn't it?

[1987cp]

Arc welder ... you cheater! I don't have an arc welder ... looks like I'll just have to resort to some combination of force and destruction. I know it'll be plenty easy to fix once the bumper's off (same routine you followed), but I'm annoyed at the silly bolt deciding to just spin. First bumper bolt I've had that's done this.

[1987cp]

Fuel hack



Well, my worries about the vibrating canister-style fuel filter proved more founded than I had imagined, as this morning the aluminum hardline broke off entirely from the filter inlet. Got doused with fuel whilst discovering the nice forward-spurting fountain in the engine bay, then patched it for the trip home by hooking the still-temporary rubber hose from the regulator to the carb, directly to the broken pressure hardline. Odd that the negligence of never having finished the aluminum-hardline project saved me having to get towed home, or else tried to talk my wife into bringing me tools and parts. Still, I lost at least a quarter tank of gas to that incident, just spewed out all over the ground and header panel.



I realized later that it may also have been fortunate that I'd paranoidly swapped to a passenger-side ignition coil arrangement; since the old coil and wire seemed to be leaking a little voltage, this may possibly have saved me from getting to test out my fire extinguisher.



After I got the piece of junk back home, I scared up some random surplus fittings, along with my old crappy Spectre see-through fuel filter, and cobbled together something that at least runs the fuel through a filter and through the regulator. I realized that I probably should have done this arrangement with the regulator before, only I couldn't have since I originally pressed it into service *before* I had modded the carb lid for the driver's side 3/8-NPT inlet. Thinking I may end up leaving the regulator right where it is and doing something different filter-wise. Note that the arrangement pictured here is only temporary, until I decide what exactly I'm going to do (like mounting the Fram HPG1 to the fenderwell like I should have done to start with) that won't sort of up and break.

[1987cp]

One concept that occurred to me might be to install the huge HPG1 *before* the fuel pump. I wonder if the pressure drop across the filter would be little enough to make that a reasonable thing to do .....

[1987cp]

As far as the rear bumper thing goes, I remember pulling the rear off my '89 once, for the same reason as you yanked yours. I ended up having the same problem - the bolts twisted off, the plates that hold the bolts broke all to pieces, etc. I ended up having to make new mounting plates, put new bolts into the plates, weld them in place and then try putting the whole thing together again. The final product wasn't pretty, but it was hidden inside the bumper anyway, and it was quite functional. I never ripped the hitch off while pulling a trailer, so I must have done something right.

..... and here's a thread on how to make said mounting plates. http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?t=39979

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