Camber eccentric bolt kit procedure?

[rgafitanu@gmail.com]

Hello,
My right camber adjusting bolt is frozen. I have the opportunity to replace it with a kit. Anybody knows the procedure for this? There is nothing in the BBB. I have a feeling the spring will get loose and I hate to have to compress that spring (again).
Thank you.

[George Des]

This job is pretty straight forward to do without a spring compressor. You can do this by jacking up the car, taking off the wheel, blocking the lower wishbone, and lowering the car to compress the spring. You will then be able to remove the eccentric bolt assembly since the top wishbone is not directly connected to the spring. Be aware you may be in for some surprises though. The first time I did this job was on a 1971 280S which has the same kingpin set up. I got as far as removing the top pin, but try as a I may, I could not remove the threaded insert. No amount of force or heating would get it to budge. In the end, I had to remove the entire front hub/kingpin assembly and have the kingpins replaced. Years of ignoring lubricating the top kingpin assembly had “welded” the parts together. Hopefully, you won’t run into this, but it is a common issues especially on those cars where regular lubrication was not followed. Good luck.

[rgafitanu@gmail.com]

If the upper wishbone is not connected to the spring then I don't have to lift the lower wishbone? I intend to do this on my lift so I wouldn't necessarily prop up the lower wishbone if not required. How do you take the threaded insert out anyway? Does it have some notches to hammer against?

[Benz Dr.]

Leave the shock in place so that it will support the lower control arm. Raising the lower arm a bit will remove any tension from the upper control arm so you can slide the upper pivot bolt out. Odds are you won't be able to remove it and you will need to resort to cutting it out. Expect to replace the king pin and lower pivot assembly. In fact, you might as well bank on doing everything because it likely needs it anyway.

[ja17]

Yes, good advice from Dan and George. The king pin wears also. The rust is taking up all the slop right now. As soon as the rusty pin is replaced you will notice how much slop and wear is present. The upper pin kit, the king pin kit and the lower "trunion" kit are usually the minimal parts needed for this job. A cutting torch is sometimes needed on badly rusted parts. A "saws-all" with a good quality metal blade can also get those stubborn upper pins out by cutting them in half. Selecting the correct width shim for setting up the new king pins can be tricky. This is a dirty and difficult job. Expect to spend some serious time on it if you have never done it before.