Suspension thread

[newracer]

I'd just cut them off.


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[Great-Kazoo]

takes 2 days due to rusted on parts.


CRC or PB blaster is your friend. Like good tools, invest in some.

[3beansalad]

CRC or PB blaster is your friend.

PB Blaster is great, and works really good on heated bolts. Smokes like a mother, but seems to be drawn into the threads.

Just finished shocks, brakes, and leaf springs on my Ford Excursion last night. Hard work, but a huge sense of accomplishment when done.

[Irving]

About to tackle the upper and lower ball joints and the CV boots. I've removed things in the order I thought would be most helpful to me at the time. Quick side note, on the Amigo/Rodeo/Passport, you can't just take the knuckle off, you must disassemble the hub in order to even get to the brake discs. This makes the front brakes a several hour job (for me anyway) instead of an hour or two job.

Here I've disconnected the steering arm.


I've removed the caliper and hung it on a piece of wire attached to the shock tower. This relieves any tension on the brake lines that you leave attached.


This is a pickle fork (wife refers to it as a Dinglehopper) and it is used to separate ball joints. Remove the cotter pin from the bottom bolt of the ball joint and loosen the nut a bit, DO NOT REMOVE all the way. Place here:


Pound the pickle fork in with a sledge hammer. The ball joint won't usually just pop off, you'll have to pound and pound, long after you think you should have stopped before it will actually separate.


Once the joint separates, you can remove the bolts holding the plate to the upper control arm. Oh yeah, the pickle fork will ruin the boot on the ball joint, so have a new ball joint ready to install. There are other methods of removing ball joints (especially on unpowered axles) but since this is a 4wD, the front axle is in the way and a pickle fork is the preferred method.


Here is a shot of the driver side knuckle from the back, looking toward the front of the vehicle. You can see that I've temporarily reattached the upper ball joint, just to hold the knuckle in place while I work on the lower ball joint.


All the pounding kept vibrating the brake pads off, so I decided to remove the caliper bracket altogether. Then I decided to keep going with removing the hub and brake disc just to get it all out of the way to access the axle. The method shown in the photo is not the best way to hold the axle from spinning.


This method of holding the axle is easier on you, and doesn't risk damaging the threads with metal on metal contact.


Skipped a step here because the photo of me removing the snap ring was not in focus. Remove the three screws and then pull use a pick to loosen and remove the ring behind the screws.


Here are the components holding the hub and brake disc onto the knuckle.


Once those are out of the way, it's a simple removal of the three 13mm bolts to remove the disc shield.

[Irving]

Here you can see that both ball joints have been removed, and the knuckle is still attached to the vehicle by the 4WD vacuum actuator, so I hung the knuckle off to the left side. We can see the exposed CV boot now. The boot closest to the camera is the outer boot. The outer boots on both the driver and passenger side are torn all the way through at the small end, and both inner boots don't look like they have much life left. Neither axle is popping on turns, so I thought I'd just replace the boots only. In retrospect, it wouldn't have cost much more to have just purchased remanufactured axles and replaced the whole unit as a whole. For some reason I had assumed it would be easier to just replace the boots, but it is a lot more work that way.


In order to remove the axle shaft from the vehicle, there is a snap ring on the inside of the collar of the inner boot. I had to look at the picture in the manual 10 times and mess around with the axle for several minutes before I figured it out. The axle is completely covered in grease, obscuring everything, so cleaning some out is helpful. Also, the inner joint slides in and out a good 4 inches or so and it took me a while to figure out I needed to push the axle in, wipe away grease, then I could pick that snap ring out with a small flat blade screw driver. Here is the removed axle. I'm pointing to the outter side, where the brake disc and hub go.


This is the inner joint with the previously mentioned snap ring. You'll need to clean all of this grease out to inspect everything. Have fun (new boots recommend using warm soapy water).


Here is a shot of everything removed and cleaned up. That snap ring holds the inner race onto the axle, but once removed I found it didn't just easily slide off. I used a block of wood and a hammer to gently tap the race off the end of the shaft. Your manual will be more specific, but you gently use a screw driver to pry the balls out from the inside out, then tap the race off the end, then the cage can slide off as well. It is a good idea to clean the cage and race while still on the axle, and mark them so you can put them back together in the correct orientation.


Race sits inside cage, balls between to allow rotation, grease to lubricate everything and make sure it doesn't bind up. The entire purpose of the boots is to keep the grease in, and the dirt and grime out. Once your boots are torn, the grease leaves, dirt comes in, and all that shiny smooth metal gets torn up and the whole joint quickly destroys itself. This is the cause of the clicking you hear when turning one way or the other when your CV axles go out.


Here is a shot of the outer (non-serviceable) joint with everything (grease included) in place.



So back to my original question, do I just try to flush the outer joint out as best I can and pack in the new grease that was provided with the boot? I imagine the grease provided is going to be similar, if not the same as whatever is in this one.

[Irving]

I've been spraying Luquid Wrench, then PB Blaster on everything since last week. I'm about to start my third can tonight. The issue is that the shock piston rotates with the top nut. Not nearly as big of a problem on front shocks where there is better access though. Poly insert and bushing are too wide on new front shock, requiring trimming. Easy fix, after an hour or so of struggling to find the easy fix.

Edit: I took a photo just for you. I'll post it tomorrow. One more shock than I'm going to bed. I barely have to work early tomorrow morning.

[Irving]

Front shocks are installed.


New are surprisingly only about 1" longer than factory.


But factory aren't even trying anymore, so the new ride will be very nice. Once compressed, a shock will slowly return to fully extended length. My factory front shocks were so blown they didn't even move once compressed.

[Irving]

The poly insert and bushing on the new shock were too long.


I decided I'd press out the bushing in my old shocks, since I knew it was the correct length and inner diameter.


To press something out, you can use a socket the same diameter as your bushing on one side, then a socket with an inner diameter (I.D.) that is larger than the outer diameter (O.D.) on the other side so you can press the bushing through.


I got the bushing out, but the rubber came with it and I couldn't pull it off, so I decided to try and melt it away.



It was taking a long time, so I tried to persuade it some more.


I eventually got it out, but there was still rubber all over it, and the outer diameter was much larger than what would fit in the new shock. After all that work, I just used the old bushing as a guide and used a hack saw to trim the new bushing to the proper length. Next I used a pocket knife to trim the sides of the polyurethane insert. I initially started with the hack saw, but sawing a bushing doesn't work well and a knife is much more easy and controllable.

[Irving]

In reference to the Great Kazoo's comments, this first picture is actually how the manual describes the method of removing the top nut. Vise grips on the "flats" of the top bolt.


Then once you break the top of the nut completely off, you move to stage two like so. This takes all your strength in one hand to clamp the pliers hard enough to stop the piston from rotating, while it takes all your strength in your other hand to turn the nut.


I grew tired half way through and discovered that a pipe wrench does a great job of tightening against the rotation and I didn't have to squeeze anything.

[Martinjmpr]

In reference to the Great Kazoo's comments, this first picture is actually how the manual describes the method of removing the top nut. Vise grips on the "flats" of the top bolt.

The front shocks on my Suburban were like that. What a pain in the a$$! Fortunately we had two people so we would take turns, one holding the pliers and the other turning the wrench to remove the bolt. Took us a while though.

Not sure why manufacturers use that design. Maybe it saves money or weight? Sure makes it a chore to change out shocks, though.