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December 27, 2002
3.5 hours

Front Suspension Removal

I originally planned to get ready to pull the motor this weekend, but then I got some great advice from my new Buick friend Wayne Murray, who is restoring a '39 Special sedan. He said that without the weight of the engine in place, it would be difficult to get the springs compressed sufficiently to remove the front suspension. He's exactly right, and I was able to remove the entire front suspension along with the front brakes in about three hours today.

The entire front suspension was covered in a mess of dirt and grease that was more than an inch thick in some places! I scraped it away where I needed access to fasteners. I began by jacking up the lower A-arm and relieving pressure on the spring. As Wayne said, the spring compressed instead of just lifting the frame off the jack stands. Looks like that was the right call.

The entire front suspension was covered in a mixture of grease, dirt and
asphalt. It made just finding the bolts difficult! There's a bushing nut
under there where the grease zerk is located...

Then I removed the brake drums, bearings and backing plate. This was easy, since everything was fresh and new from when I rebuilt the brakes a few months ago. I kept all the pieces, and put my new wheel cylinders into plastic margarine containers to keep them clean and rust-free. I added some desiccant packs to the containers to eliminate moisture. They should be as good as new when I go to reinstall them in a few months.

Next up, I removed the upper pin and bushing from the steering knuckle. The '41 shop manual is pretty vague on the whole subject of disassembly, instead concentrating on adjusting and maintaining the lever-action shocks, but by looking at the assembly, I was able to deduce how it was held together. The end caps unscrew from the pin, which is threaded into the knuckle. Using an Allen wrench, I then unscrewed the pin from the knuckle. A neat assembly.

Removing the outer bushings. One side is secured
with a clamp apparatus on the shock arm. Make sure
you loosen this before turning the bushing or you'll
damage it!

With the outer bushings removed, the pin can be unscrewed
using an Allen wrench.

With the pin removed, the spindle can be removed from the
shock absorber bracket.

Then I removed the lower pin and bushings from the lower A-arm in much the same way. Loosening the bolts that held the brake backing plate on also loosened the radius arm from the knuckle, so disassembly was easy. I then removed pressure from the jack slowly and the spring just dropped out once the A-arm was low enough. I cleaned the spring off a little bit to check it out, and found that it still sported its original blue and white paint daubs, which indicated that it is the standard spring (not the high-riding spring, which offers 5/8" more ground clearance for rough roads) for the Century and Roadmaster chassis. Pretty cool. I'm going to reproduce the paint daubs after I strip and powdercoat the springs.

Front spring removed. Note the blue and white paint daubs
indicating a standard Century/Roadmaster front spring.

Then I removed the sway bar end links. This was a piece of cake with my new air ratchet (thanks, Julia!). Removing the sway bar bushing clamps was a matter of 4 bolts. These same bolts also held the radiator gravel guard in place, so I removed that, too. Then the sway bar came off without a fight. I wonder if it will fit in my blast cabinet?

With everything else out of the way, I was able to remove the lower A-arm by unbolting 4 bolts holding it to the frame. The tops of these bolts were where the crud was thickest--I really had to dig to even find the bolt heads, and then dig some more just to get a wrench on them. I found that they were recessed slightly, so it took quite a bit of digging...

Voila! Everything is off. Not a difficult job at all once you know how it is all assembled. My friend Wayne says that removing the lower bushings from the steering knuckle requires a torch, so we'll see how that goes on Saturday.

I guess I can start removing engine accessories now, and get ready to pull the motor...

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E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net

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Last modified on 02/06/2005

Thanks, Fidget!