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Lower Wishbone Fulcrum Help Needed!!

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srickss said:
Got the passenger side off finally. The front lower fulcrum mount would not budge so it got the sawzall treatment. The rear mount came right out with little pressure. Go figure. Now on to tackle the drivers side. Never ending project!!
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I had a similar experience. The front ones get all the water exposure and do the rusting. The rears are protected by years of greasy grunge.
 
All I can say is this is a never ending project and nothing comes off easily! I am trying to get the upper wishbone off of the shock. I split it apart and the side with the pinch bolt came off easy. What is the best way to get the splined side off? Im assuming some kind of puller? Anyone know of where to get/rent one, or any other ideas? Thanks.
 
A few years ago, I asked the same question about removing the splined side wishbone and what tool to use, etc, and got a big 'DON'T DO IT' response from someone. It seems you can bugger up the internals if you mess with that shaft and don't know what you are doing, which I didn't. Advise was to send the shocks out to Peter at World Wide Auto and get them re-built. So I did.
My 2 pence. No financial interest, etc.
 
If you don't have the gear to recondition the shocks then don't take the shaft out as you'll only open a can of worms. The bearing surfaces in the diecast body where the shaft goes through wear and this requires some very careful machining or various pilot tools to properly re-bush them. Plenty of guys doing reco/exchange shocks.

Use a press if you are determined to get the shaft out- they are splined and staked in quite firmly. Andy.
 
To late. I got them off with a puller. I hope i didnt do any damage. It doesnt appear so. I wanted to take them off to freshen the whole front end up as it is all original as well as paint and clean everything. As bad as this job sucks i dont want to do it twice so i figured this was the time. The shocks were not leaking and appeared to be fine but frim what you guys are saying I guess i should get them rebuilt to avoid any problems?
 
What was the oil like inside? Was it dark brown sludge or still very oil-like? The four shocks I took apart to recondition all had dark brown sludge and were not leaking- probably because any oil that was going to leak out had done so many years prior.

There are a few discussions in the archives on who does what sort of reco work but I'd choose somebody that will overhaul your shocks rather than exchanging them. Other things that are desirable are the use of plastic for the bushings rather than brass/bronze and fitment of modern rotary lip seals rather than the rubber packings.

Some suppliers fit a single seal into each side and these can get pushed out when the shock gets hot and the oil expands. I put two seals in each side because there was room and the outer seals come very close to the arms so can't go very far if the pressure tries to move them. Andy.
 
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