front leaf spring bushings & sway bar bushing replacement

[merrill]

hello
i was going to just replace the sway arm bushing on my 66 and thought while i am down there maybe I should replace the leaf spring bushings.
is it possible to replace the leaf spring bushings with the car on the ground?

I understand i need to keep track of the bolt locations for the leaf springs on both ends.  I was thinking of maybe locking the brakes on to prevent the car from shifting when all is un bolted....

thoughts?
matt

[GGR]

Yes it is. Best is to mark the position of the cam bolt and put it back in the same position before tightening. You may have to do an adjustment anyway, especially if your bushings were already worn last time an adjustment was made.

[Shvegel]

That strap locates the axle fore and aft as you are aware.  Even if you chock the tires I would  be concered when you are under it unbolting it it might get away and fold up.  In a contest between doing it with a jack and stands or risk getting the life slowly crushed out of you I gotta go with the jack and stands.

[Benz Dr.]

That strap locates the axle fore and aft as you are aware.  Even if you chock the tires I would  be concered when you are under it unbolting it it might get away and fold up.  In a contest between doing it with a jack and stands or risk getting the life slowly crushed out of you I gotta go with the jack and stands.

Yup. Anything that has weight behind it or a compressed spring can have the ability to make for a really bad day when something goes wrong.

[Shvegel]

Learned a lot about safety the hard way.

[GGR]

If the leafs are not removed both at the same time, and the bushings replaced one side at a time, I don't see how the car could collapse. That said, I never did it this way. I usually put the car on stands both sides, remove both front wheels and work with best access on the linkages and leafs. One cannot lift one side at a time as otherwise the sway bar does its job and the space is too big to reconnect the linkages.

[JamesL]

Ouch
What happened to the finger-tip?

[Shvegel]

Cutting a piece of aluminum in a rush on a table saw.  It caught and pulled my finger over to the blade.  Sawed it right up the middle to the first knuckle. The worst was a friend who grabbed a trailer by putting a couple fingers in the socket and yanked.  The tongue wheel folded up and he lost the ends of two fingers between the trailer hitch and the driveway.  I learned from his mistake and never grab a trailer like that.

[merrill]

Installed the new leaf spring and sway bar bushings over the holidays

Since I replaced these bushings with all 4 wheels on the ground I did the following
1.   E brake on and car in park
2.   Put 4x6 blocks of wood under the body frame behind the front wheels
3.   Locked the brakes by placing my steering wheel lock between the seat and brake.
4.   Put a floor jack under the front sub frame just in cast.

Overall an easy job

Some tips
1.   Only do one side at a time
2.   Mark the cam bolts so you can ensure they are in the same position when tightening. (mine did not move)
3.   Loosen the 13 mm nuts and bolts on the leaf spring while in the car.  It’s easier to loosen them in the car then wrestle them on the work bench.
4.   Install the sway bar bushings last that way the bar is free to move up and down on the ends. I built up the bushing / washers on each end and used a floor jack to push the bolt up into place in the sway bar.  Then I could build up the last bushing and washer.  Then jacked up one side of the car, removed one front wheel and with a pry bar as a lever I was able to compress the rest of the assembly and install the nut.
Once once side was bolted then sway bar compressed the other side and I was able to install the nut on the other side.

I may need to go back and compress the sway bar bushings some more. They are not quite compressed to fill the washers.      The old ones were flattened, dry and were tearing a little.  (attached photo)

[GGR]

Congrats!

Unless these are polyurethane bushings, you need to tighten the nuts on the links until they lock (end of the thread).

[merrill]

GGR
thanks for clarifying.   tightened both sides down this weekend.

matt