New Shocks for Otto and other winter projects

[mikeamondo]

That's exactly what I'm thinking... I've had the idea since I bought the car that I would eventually do the upgrade to discs... that might be as soon as next winter... so I'm thinking right now I'll just do the shocks and tie rod ends. By the way, can those be done without removing the brakes and hubs?

 

[Joe Schlosser]

For just replacing the shocks and tie rod ends there is no need to remove the brakes and hub assemblies. The shocks are just three bolts to the chassis and a bolt into the upper kingpin assembly.
You do need to support the A arm so that the shock is off the bump stop and there is no load on Kingpin bolt and the hub assembly does not flop over hanging on the brake line.
The kingpin bolt is a little tricky with a notch for a short bolt to hold the shock in place.
The tie rod ends are pretty standard but you need big wrenches and a tie rod wedge tool to pop the tie rod out of the connection to the hub.
Do one end at a time and count turns to get close to the proper alignment. Everyone has a different method for checking alignment from strings, boards, homemade laser systems to actual alignment gages.

 

[mikeamondo]

Thanks for the info, Joe! I'm really thinking that doing those to things will give me a nice primer on the big job... I can study the connections, parts and pieces while I'm in there and then do the big job next year....

For just replacing the shocks and tie rod ends there is no need to remove the brakes and hub assemblies. The shocks are just three bolts to the chassis and a bolt into the upper kingpin assembly.
You do need to support the A arm so that the shock is off the bump stop and there is no load on Kingpin bolt and the hub assembly does not flop over hanging on the brake line.
The kingpin bolt is a little tricky with a notch for a short bolt to hold the shock in place.
The tie rod ends are pretty standard but you need big wrenches and a tie rod wedge tool to pop the tie rod out of the connection to the hub.
Do one end at a time and count turns to get close to the proper alignment. Everyone has a different method for checking alignment from strings, boards, homemade laser systems to actual alignment gages.