sehaare
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- October 25, 2008
- Messages
- 454
- Reaction score
- 174
- City, State
- Chicagoland, IL
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 98XLT 4WD SOHC,94XLT gone
Over the last year and a half I've replaced everything on the front suspension on my 98 with moog parts. There are some great How to's in the stickies here on this site. You should read those first but here is some addition things that I learned.
1) for the upper control arms - you should use the one piece design on the passenger side. Doing that gets you new bushings and it can still be aligned fine.
2) For the upper control arms - taking the bolts out on the drivers side sucks but knowing that going in and knowing that it has been done by several of us now means that you know to just take your time and eventually they will come out. I had to loosen up some of the hard lines in the way but it really was easier than I expected
3) For the upper control arms - you will more than likely (I'd say 99%) need to install the Caster Camber Cam Bolt kit, I learned the hard way by not installing it and then having to pay the alignment guy to do it. I also think that it would have made it easier to get the bolts back in, since on the original bolt one of the cams is welded to the head and can not be move up and down the bolt in an attempt to make insertion easier. On the kit the cam can be moved up and down the bolt
4) For the lower control arms - you can just replace the ball joints and can use the larger ball joint kit at autozone to do it. I had never done it before and I was able to do it pretty easily. But see #5
5) If your bushings are wearing out on the LCA's then just replace the entire LCA's. I did the ball joint first only to have to come back about a year and a half later to do the entire LCA. wasted time and money.
6) you might be able to just press out and in bushings on the LCA's but I couldn't find anyone on the internet who had done it. And once I saw them off the car there was no way in hell that I was going to fight them instead of just replacing the LCA.
7) If you live in the rust belt the torsion bar will NOT just slip out of the adjustment arm or the LCA as shown on some videos on the net. I had to take the LCA out with the Torsion bar still attached. I had started soaking the LCA with Kroil about a week before I went to work on it and the torsion bar still was rusted in place. What worked for me on the first LCA was to put the LCA in a bench vise hit it with a butt ton of kroil and let it soak in for a few hours and then use a BFH and big punch and drive the torsion bar out of the LCA. For the torsion bar adjustment lever I put the torsion bar in the vice and knocked the lever off. For the second LCA I did all of that and also had to use a propane touch to heat the LCA and torsion bar adjustment lever both up. I'm not a big fan of using heat, due to the potential of melting some nearby rubber parts, but in this case there was nothing to damage and the heat really helped.
8) Rock Auto has a kit that has everything for the front end with the exception of the caster camber bolt kits. I wish that I had just bought that from the start. as old as these vehicles are now you will eventually be replacing everything soon so you might as well do it all at once and just pay for one alignment. https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=5646801&cc=1304413&jnid=506&jpid=1
9) get your self a good ball joint separator instead of using a pickle fork otherwise you will tear the dust boots on you ball joints. I used this kit from Harbor Freight and it came with the ball joint tool and the two arm gear puller that you need for the torsion bars (and it's on sale right now) http://www.harborfreight.com/5-piece-front-end-service-tool-set-60306-9402.html#reviews
Hope this helps someone else and Good Luck
Steve
1) for the upper control arms - you should use the one piece design on the passenger side. Doing that gets you new bushings and it can still be aligned fine.
2) For the upper control arms - taking the bolts out on the drivers side sucks but knowing that going in and knowing that it has been done by several of us now means that you know to just take your time and eventually they will come out. I had to loosen up some of the hard lines in the way but it really was easier than I expected
3) For the upper control arms - you will more than likely (I'd say 99%) need to install the Caster Camber Cam Bolt kit, I learned the hard way by not installing it and then having to pay the alignment guy to do it. I also think that it would have made it easier to get the bolts back in, since on the original bolt one of the cams is welded to the head and can not be move up and down the bolt in an attempt to make insertion easier. On the kit the cam can be moved up and down the bolt
4) For the lower control arms - you can just replace the ball joints and can use the larger ball joint kit at autozone to do it. I had never done it before and I was able to do it pretty easily. But see #5
5) If your bushings are wearing out on the LCA's then just replace the entire LCA's. I did the ball joint first only to have to come back about a year and a half later to do the entire LCA. wasted time and money.
6) you might be able to just press out and in bushings on the LCA's but I couldn't find anyone on the internet who had done it. And once I saw them off the car there was no way in hell that I was going to fight them instead of just replacing the LCA.
7) If you live in the rust belt the torsion bar will NOT just slip out of the adjustment arm or the LCA as shown on some videos on the net. I had to take the LCA out with the Torsion bar still attached. I had started soaking the LCA with Kroil about a week before I went to work on it and the torsion bar still was rusted in place. What worked for me on the first LCA was to put the LCA in a bench vise hit it with a butt ton of kroil and let it soak in for a few hours and then use a BFH and big punch and drive the torsion bar out of the LCA. For the torsion bar adjustment lever I put the torsion bar in the vice and knocked the lever off. For the second LCA I did all of that and also had to use a propane touch to heat the LCA and torsion bar adjustment lever both up. I'm not a big fan of using heat, due to the potential of melting some nearby rubber parts, but in this case there was nothing to damage and the heat really helped.
8) Rock Auto has a kit that has everything for the front end with the exception of the caster camber bolt kits. I wish that I had just bought that from the start. as old as these vehicles are now you will eventually be replacing everything soon so you might as well do it all at once and just pay for one alignment. https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=5646801&cc=1304413&jnid=506&jpid=1
9) get your self a good ball joint separator instead of using a pickle fork otherwise you will tear the dust boots on you ball joints. I used this kit from Harbor Freight and it came with the ball joint tool and the two arm gear puller that you need for the torsion bars (and it's on sale right now) http://www.harborfreight.com/5-piece-front-end-service-tool-set-60306-9402.html#reviews
Hope this helps someone else and Good Luck
Steve
