Order of operations: front suspension Options

[rjames]

I'm replacing all of the fuel lines with Gates Barricade lines and made my own elbows for the pieces that are connected to the injectors. Pretty happy with how they turned out.

[rjames]

Hopefully you never have to return something to Sierra Madre. Exchanging the torsion bars for replacements should've been easy, but 5 weeks later I still had a bar that wouldn't fit because the splines weren't cut correctly and no go ahead to return them. Another call to Sway Away (they are great to work with, BTW) and the support tech there told me that he'd exchange them directly, but said that I could try to file them down more if I wanted without fear of losing the chance to exchange the bar should it not work out. So out came the file...

After 30+ minutes of significant filing of the sides of each spline several times with a triangle file I finally got the bar to fit into the end cap. Can't believe how much work it took. Maybe this bar was machined on a Friday?

Regardless, I finally got the bars installed, followed by the tie rod ends. For the tie rods, I had to use both a jack and a c-clamp to keep the shaft from spinning when tightening, but I got them buttoned down without too much difficulty.


Next comes replacing the front wheel bearings and getting the rotors, brakes and wheels back on the car and off the jack stands. The bearings don't have that many miles on them, but with the rotors off the car I figured I might as well replace them and keep the theme of 'installing new parts' going.

The summer has been super busy, so I haven't had much time to be in the garage, but the end of this project is in sight!

[rjames]

Holy crap. I just realized that I started the front end refresh in November of last year. I thought it had just been a few months... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

A productive weekend. After installing new wheel bearings, I got the rotors and calipers back on. Not an easy task to remove and reinstall the front calipers without disconnecting the brake lines because there's barely enough slack to get the lines mounted on the strut housing.


Gas tank is back in with a fresh coat of paint and all fuel lines replaced.


Next comes getting it off jack stands so I can set the ride height in front and set the toe post-tie rod install. I don't expect the camber or caster to have changed since I didn't mess with adjustment plates up top. I'll do my best with verifying it's all close to spec, but will still likely take it in to a shop for a popper alignment.

[DennisV]

Holy crap. I just realized that I started the front end refresh in November of last year. I thought it had just been a few months... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

A productive weekend. After installing new wheel bearings, I got the rotors and calipers back on.

I empathize. Celebrate the small victories!