[Amc-list] American suspension

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Well I finally got a sense of what everyone with a worn-out early
American suspension. I took out the passenger side today.

This weekend I'll put the head back on the car (for the second time)
while the gas tank is cooking. I'll buy tank liner on the first of the
month. 

In the mean time the suspension is bad enough to prevent it from being a
reliable driver, so out it comes. The steering linkage parts (rod ends,
etc) are OK so I'll leave those for now, but the A-arm bushings are
shot, the trunnions won't take grease and the shocks are crap.

I wonder if this thing has EVER had front-end service! 

No part removed OK. Everything was a total battle. The shock top stud
totally frozen; the bottom mount (lower A-arm brace and shock mount)
totally frozen; I was only able to take off the front arm on-car, the
rest will be disassembled later.

Extracting the spring was very scary; it kept shifting to one side or
the other, threatening to pop out of the caps. Took some care to get it
to stay straight for extraction. 

Then I couldn't drop the upper A-arm enough to extract it, since the
shock was still in place; I got enough swing by removing the bump stop.

The upper trunnion is totally 101% frozen immovable. The nut came off
OK, but the trunnion bolt would not budge even with full body weight and
a 18" ratchet. Sounds like fun later. I ended up extracting the whole
assembly (those bolts frozen too).

What a mess!

I get to do the driver's side tomorrow. Why is it we do this stuff?

Otherwise, all the parts look OK, nothing bent, torched, etc. A-arm
bushings are still assembled at least, unlike my '70 Hornet when I got
it. Once I get that upper trunnion apart and replaced/repaired it'll be
good forever (eg. I have been known to occasionally grease things).


The rattling was the shocks, bottom rubber blown out. The shocks
actually have a bit of life left. They're solidly rusted though.

There's no chance of finding good replacements. I'm thinking that a real
fix is to replace that lower spacer with a part that allows fitting a
normal shock (stud, probably). It's just a simple spacer so it shouldn't
be hard at all.


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