Suspension

Part 1

Installing Tokiko Struts First, the Rears

This is the beginning.   Above is a pair of rear struts...one finished, on the ground, and the other is apart in the workstand.  It's the first week of January, 2007.  We're about to have the driest January in about 10 years or so.  A week or so later, I had to go out and turn on the sprinklers and drip system for the back yard terraces.  We were looking at a serious drought situation until the first week of Feb, when it started raining.  I always like rain, since it cleans the air, in addition to watering everything.  But I sure enjoyed the dry, warm weather we were having during the time I was putting BD together.

"Obsolescence" Strikes Again

The strut to spring insulators  (I have 2 pair) for the front struts are the only ones I had...I forgot that there were two sizes for front and rear.  I checked my auto parts store, and just for fun, the Ford dealer....no luck.  So I used some heavy duty fuel line hose, slit with the die grinder, to take the place of the obsolete rear insulators.  It was a bit hard to get on the spring, but that means it will be more likely to stay in place.  Sorry for this pic where the camera focused on the house (or the mountains, 5 miles away).  I couldn't see that in the small viewfinder.

That "creaky" guy showed up again.  I guess he was hungry or something....needed some work.  He said he knew how to do this job...said he could swap struts in 20 minutes....25 if he was adding Koni inserts.  I said he was full of it.  He tried to prove it to me, but then started complaining about his shoulders.   Sure....all just hot air!!! One front strut was installed on the first day, along with the two rears, but then Creaky's shoulders gave out, and it got dark.  The other strut went on a week or so later, after lots of Tylenol and Motrin.  The grinding of the first knuckle-guide occured on the first front strut at the time the Wilwoods went on.  Until that time, one strut was farther into the knuckle than the other one, and the car pulled rather badly.  Now that they are even, it is just fine.  I'll give it a 4-wheel alignment before it is considered finished.

Creaky tried to install the rear springs upside down.  He tried to tell me that it didn't make any difference....that they would support the car whether the close coils were on the top or the bottom.  I said that he didn't design them....someone else who knew what they were doing designed them, and THEY said to put the close coils on the top.  So he had to take one of the struts apart and do it that way.  He was complaining, but I told him he wouldn't get any Starbuck's muffins if he didn't shut up and do it right.

Now, The Fronts.....Well, At Least One Of Them

Here the compressed spring is going down over the new strut.  I was able to use all the old parts---the springs, bumpers and covers, from the old strut.  The cover is a bit dingy, but it is complete and flexible.  The front springs are in good enough condition that they should last the rest of the time I use the car.  It won't be used daily like Lowrider was.  The rears seem to wear out faster than the fronts.  I do have a new set of Cargo Coil fronts, but I think they would raise the front of the car too high, and it costs quite a bit of money to have them recurved.  I did that once already, and my shoulders aren't quite into going in and out on the front struts, even though they are easier than rears to swap out.

Thank goodness it was fairly obvious which way the front springs go on the struts.  Creaky got that part figured out fairly quickly.  Also, the spring insulators I got from Ford about 10 years ago were for the fronts, so I have two extras.  When I got them I totally forgot that there were two sizes....and the parts guy did not ask me which ones I wanted.....at least I don't THINK he did......!

Creaky thinks he's getting pretty good now.  He's been using my tools for the last 25 minutes or so, and thinks he's an expert.  Look at that "almost" grin on his face!! This car had Koni inserts on it prior to this strut swap, and the nuts were the devil to get off the tops of the struts, especially the rears.  I had to use the die grinder to cut the nuts off in thirds.  I might have offered the Koni inserts to someone else who had totally shot stock struts, but they were damaged beyond repair by cutting the nuts off.

Here's the (first) finished front strut.  I checked Creaky's tightening, and it was adequate.

Here, Creaky is grinding down the weld on the strut where the knuckle tab was, so that it will slide farther down into the knuckle and lower the car a bit over the tire.  Lowrider drove around for 6 years and 150,000 miles with these tabs off, and there was never a problem with the strut slipping in the knuckle.  I'd suspect there is a lot of pressure in that pinch, where the knuckle is gripping the strut.  I'm not worried about it slipping.

If the knuckle tab were there, the bottom of the strut would be just barely beyond the base of the knuckle.  As it is, I can let it down an inch or so, and the car isn't quite so high overe the front tires.  After a month or so, the spring will settle a bit, and it will look even better. Amazingly enough, I was able to find in the garage a couple of spacer plates that I had found earlier on a SHO at the PnP, and I put them on BD to help insure I wouldn't have to listen to creaking struts down the road.

The other front strut went on a few days later.  Its installation was the same as this one, except that Creaky went somewhere else, and I was able to install it in peace.  He sure does nag and complain a lot!!  I did hear a bit of a commotion at a neighbor's house that day....he might have been trying to help with some gardening....he told me he was good at planting flowers.

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