Rear End almost out

[Jim_Gruber]

The past couple of nights I've been working on pulling the rear end on Bugsy IV. He's getting a 3.9 pumpkin, upgraded brakes and wheel cylinders, back to lever arm shocks, new bushings, spring paint and cleanup, the works. Doing it slow and methodical and trying to be safe. Down to radius arm removal and then the two axle to spring bolts are all that remains to do. Time to round up a helper to complete this job and to help me get it onto a dolly so the rear end is mobile, pressure washing, and painting outside.

the hardest part of thus job so far has been removingto axle rebound straps. I actually have fully functional not frayed OEM rebound straps and after some degreasing and cleanup, some dunking in black RIT Dye will color the straps back close to OEM look. I'll assume black was original color. The top nuts on these straps were absolute bastards to remove. The OEM Locking nut proved to be more than my 12" 1/2" drive Craftsman Ratchet could handle. I got out the HF Electic Impact Wrench which has hammered apart everything I presented it with. And no it hammered away for a moment and stalled out. Rather than let the smoke out of this very useful tool, I fired up the compressor and my 600 Ft lb. I pack wrench made short work of both of the top bolts. Man is it nice to have a real working compressor back in the garage again.

Got tube shocks removed with a quick touch of the impact Wrench. Actually those bolts were so loose on the Tube Shocks I know why John Twist made a video on why tube socks and BE's do not make a good match. Anyway both tube shocks are out. Once the differential is out of there, I'll remove the adapter plates and clean things up. I 'all recruit a helper tomorrow and armed with my trusty impact Wrench that diff is coming out tomorrow.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Discretion Being the Greater Part of Valor I pulled both Radius Arms off tonight, Axle Rolled backwards until Bump Stops hit the body underneath. Not a big issue but taking off those last two bolts and pounding out the Pins made me nervous. Decision "this is not something to do without another set of hands." So will need to wait until neighbor is available and the guy I normally call on for help has been out of town for two days. Jacked the rear end up as far as I could to take pressure off of the springs and so it will sit until I find a helper. Working from home tomorrow I might just find one then. At this point, probably 5 minutes on each side to unbolt and remove the pin. More PB Blaster applied. I'll let it marinate some more. Coming out appears pretty each, getting this bad boy maneuvered back into place may well be a challenge, especially connecting the radius arm rods to get things stable.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Help lined up for tonight. The rear end will be out of there this pm. Hopefully the bolts will be able to be punched out easily.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

My buddy Tim Bosse a fellow BE Ownerand neighbor Luther came over around 5:45 and gave me a hand in getting the DifferentialUnbolted and sitting on the dolly. Next step will be getting all of my friggingtools picked up and reorganized and after that removing the Tube Shock AdapterBrackets. Tube shocks were totally shot, I can move the shock back and forth withease. No wonder the back end of the car was moving around with ease. On top of thatthe bolts holding the Tube Shocks on almost turned off without a wrench.Insufficient torque. Glad those babies are on their way out of here.

Pressure Wash
Take Brakes apart
Remove Axles
Put brakes back together
Rerig E- Brake Rods
Install the new 3.9 Diff
Install EN-17 Axles – The Tough ones
Reinstall the Diff along with atleast 2 friends
While they are there, get help toinstall Front Tilt Kit and reattach Bonnet.
Reinstall Gas Tank,
Add Fluids to Dif and Gas Tank
Charge up the battery and go drive.
Oh and order new tires and havemounted 165/60/13
Then go and drive.

1326 and 5-speed come late in the Summer. I need to drive for a while. And sort out new suspension and brakes and wheels and fatter tires.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Tube Shock Mounts are out. Springs with help from my my Impact Wrench simply unbolts even the top spring bracket with the 9/16" bolts going into iy somply dpumn he screws out and it is reusable Just dirt packed into the spring cavity. No rust no perforations, just dirt. Into the EvapoRust for a while and then springs will get taken apart, wire wheeled, painted , new bushings old bushings look pretty good on DS I may think about leaving them in. They knew how to make rubber back then that lasted. Now on to PS to see what awaits me.View attachment 48237will see what it's like after cleanup. I love California Cars that have never seen salt!!!

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Second Spring Out same results. Mud Packed in there but no Rust, Again, to get this far on Bugsy II it took 2 weeks of cogitating and work and Dremel cutting tools and Angle Grinder with a cutting blade to persuade the springs out. Here I did it in a little over 2 1/2 hours. If you ever have the opportunity to buy a Rust Belt Car or travel a whole lot further for one from CA or AZ. MAKE THE DRIVE, You have no idea how mush easier this one is to work on.