back to the front suspension

[Deleted member 21878]

i got my swivel pins back from the surgeons yesterday and started putting in the driver side this afternoon. it is a slow process with getting the right amount of spacers under the top trunnion but i finally got it. just a little over .001 play.
now the questions i have....

first:
my travel was nice and smooth until i tighened up the lower inner bushings. i did set the 2" block in and then tightened them. after doing so it is a little tough to make the suspension travel the full distance. i can do it but it is tight. these new fulcrum pins use a lock nut and not a castle nut so i torqued them to 40 lb/ft. that was enough to jet get the threads to come thru the nut. sound right? guess it will loosen up as the bushings get worked in?

second:
speaking of travel there is not a lot of it to me. i wonder if i should mybe have some more? my spring pan bump stops are app 3-5/16". i believe that is what Moss says goes in the BT7. Now there is another set of them that were in a box i had. they seem to be about a 1/2" shorter. do you all find the travel enough or would you advise putting in the shorter bump stops?

third:
the one thing i could not get right was the bolt thru the upper trunnion and the shock arms. i can not get the nut tight enough to get a split pin in it. i stripped one castle nut trying to torque it up enough. is there something i did wrong? wrong procedure? i am not having any luck. now i did just order some offset bushings which should be here tomorrow so maybe they will have as big a lip on them. but i could not get this one. i thought for a while i may not have had the upper trunnion lined up with the half moon in the swivel pin and maybe the bushings were not in all the way. but they shure look like they are up tight. i also pulled the bolt out and tried another one. but same issue. suggestions?


as always much thanks for the help. one thing is for sure. it is a good thing i did not work for BMC on the production line. i would have starved to death.

 

[red57]

Seems like you are doing good. The inner A arm bushings are not supposed to move when tight - that is why the 2" block before tightening, this theoretically is about the mid-swing of the suspension and then you tighten the inner A arms the rubber bushes are now pinched and don't move so that the flexing/twisting of the rubber bushes is what allows movement. This is why you don't need any lubricant in them. If you tightened them with the suspension in full drop, the bushes would be over-twisted when you hit a bump and would self-destruct quickly.
I don't remember the upper trunion details in the stock bushings because I have nylon/polyurethane/plastic offset bushes which do need lube because they don't flex like the stock rubber ones so can't help there.
I did not know there were different height rebounds so no help there.
Dave

 

[Deleted member 21878]

thanks i also have the offset bushings coming tomorrow so i will wait until then to go any further. See how they look.

a question about those bushings. how did you set them and adjust them?

 

[Deleted member 21878]

got the offset bushings today and with them i can get the nut up tight enough to get a cotter pin in. So it was the rubber bushings that were the issue.

Now on to the passenger side.

 

[Deleted member 21878]

passenger side seemed to go much smoother. usually the second time thru does. i changed the procedure a little, like fitting the upper trunnion before putting on the lower a-arms. just easier without bouncing them all around. a couple other small changes; finished the hook up and installed the springs. one thing about the swivel pins that were with this kit. i had to grind off the back of the top part of them so they would go past the shock arms. would not have been an issue with the regular bushings but these offset ones had the top of the pin hitting the shock arms before the arms hit the bump stop. other than that all went pretty well.

a couple of small things to do and then on to the brake calipers.