Re: [Amc-list] New toy ...I need a TSM

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 1 Jun 2008, WILLIAM SERCKIE wrote:

>   Tom Jennings stated that this entire front end job is a real pain...any thoughts on it being different than any other front end overhaul ?  Out of all of the Ramblers that I have ever owned, I have never had to perform any sort of front end repair with the exception of an idler arm on my 1970 Rebel, back in 1979.

With one AMerican rebuild I'm hardly an expert, though I did "big
car" rebuilds a bunch of times back to high school in the 70's.

The American was hardest, and easiest. The frozen trunion bolt
is not really doable in a normal home shop unless you get lucky,
but deal with that when you get to it.

The American spring is VERY tall and skinny. You NEED! a special
compressor. I didn't use one and it was almost a disaster. Most
springs are wide enough such that you can compress them by
jacking the car, and a pair of retainers or chains with hooks
will safely extract it. Not so the American -- it's tall eough
and small enough diameter that it will pop out sideways from
the restraint and KILL YOU.

It wouldn't be hard to make a remover if you can weld. A pair
of largeish angle stock with pins for the hat holes, and a band
around it would do.

The last "hard" part is the weird reassembly of the lower
trunnion. It's not hard, just really weird!


Difficult spring, frozen trunnion: that's the hard stuff, and
with the right tool, the springs are easy. The rest is easy!
The good news is, you can and should assemble the suspension
on a work bench. It comes off with 4 bolts! Nice!

I do blame Nash for the inability to lube the upper trunnion,
especially as the fix turns out to be easy. But it was 50+
years ago, I cut them slack! And it's othrewise a nice system.

The "big car" trunnion has none of these problems and for
a street car, is superior to all-ball-joint suspensions in
quality and friction.
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