Suspension Question For John Hinckley

[Brad H.]

John,
You were kind enough to respond to my 69 suspension lean thread yesterday. In response to your suggestion to make sure the A-arm bolts etc were torqued with weight on the wheels, I have a question. If by chance this was not done correctly upon original installation, is it possible to loosen the on the jacks and then let it down for weight on the wheels and then torque them, or is it at this point too late and the bushings, etc have taken a "set" so to speak.
Thanks again,
Brad

[Joe L.]

Re: Suspension Question For John Hinckley

John,
You were kind enough to respond to my 69 suspension lean thread yesterday. In response to your suggestion to make sure the A-arm bolts etc were torqued with weight on the wheels, I have a question. If by chance this was not done correctly upon original installation, is it possible to loosen the on the jacks and then let it down for weight on the wheels and then torque them, or is it at this point too late and the bushings, etc have taken a "set" so to speak.
Thanks again,
Brad

Brad------

It's not too late, particularly if new bushings were used. However, what you need to do is to loosen the bolt/nuts AND THEN NORMALIZE THE SUSPENSION by moving the car some distance. If you just let the car down off the jack stands, the suspension will NOT be normalized.

If you make the mistake of tightening all the suspension bolts while the car is still up on jackstands and you have old, brittle bushings installed in the car, you may damage the bushings and then you'll need to replace them. However, if all the bushings are new, I don't think you'll have done any damage by tightening the bolts/nuts prior to normalizing the suspension and you can "re-do" it as described above.

[Rich W.]

Re: Suspension Question For John Hinckley

Brad I may assume that you haven't gotten an alignment yet with all the new parts on the car..it is actually very easy to do the bolt set..or tightening..on a alignment rack..you drive it there and they put it on the rack..before they lift up the wheels to measure for camber and caster the arms can be loosened up and tightened where they have settled..the only thing that may throw this off is if you also replaced the springs and they haven't settled in yet..

[Brad H.]

Re: Suspension Question For John Hinckley

Joe & Rich,
Thanks very much for your thoughts on this. I had the front and rear alignment done immediately following the completion of the suspension work. Think maybe I should loosen the bushing bolts, "normalize" the front end and then retighten the bolts? I don't see how this could throw the front end alignment off, but I suppose its a possibility and I don't mind having it rechecked afterwards.
I really appreciate your help!
Brad

[John H.]

Re: Suspension Question For John Hinckley

Joe & Rich,
Thanks very much for your thoughts on this. I had the front and rear alignment done immediately following the completion of the suspension work. Think maybe I should loosen the bushing bolts, "normalize" the front end and then retighten the bolts? I don't see how this could throw the front end alignment off, but I suppose its a possibility and I don't mind having it rechecked afterwards.
I really appreciate your help!
Brad

Brad -

If your control arm bushing bolts were tightened with the arms hanging, the rubber in the bushings is now "wound-up" in torsion with the car on wheels. If that's the case, you can loosen all four of those bolts on each side about 3 or 4 turns, then bounce the front end of the car up and down (so the serrated teeth on the ends of the bushing inner sleeves no longer "bite" into the shaft shoulders and retainers), then re-torque them.

Measure the ride height at a convenient point before and after; if it's lower after loosening and "bouncing", you know the bushings were "wound up" when you started, and it's a good idea to re-check caster, camber, and toe.

No part of the bushing moves relative to the control arm or the control arm shaft. The outer steel sleeve is locked in the control arm by its press fit, the inner steel sleeve is locked to the shaft shoulder and retainer by the serrated teeth on both ends, and the radial motion as the control arm moves up and down is absorbed in the rubber, which is bonded solid to both the I.D. of the outer sleeve and the O.D. of the inner sleeve.

[Rich W.]

Re: Suspension Question For John Hinckley

Brad the upper can be done by opening the hood..the lower would be a little harder on the floor..but I guess if you loosen them on jack stands..with the stands under the a arm and lowered using the arm it may work about as close as you can get..

[Brad H.]

Re: Suspension Question For John Hinckley

John and Rich,
Thanks a million for the help. I have access to a 4 post lift so that sounds like it will be necessary for this. I really appreciate all the info. I'll get after it and let you know what comes out.
Thanks again,
Brad