I have all the parts now and will begin work on the van when I'm finished with this bathroom remodel and when the rain stops (or if i can find someone that will let me use their garage or shop).
The only thing I'm thinking I may have missed is the long bar/bolt that goes through the control arms which attatch the control arm to frame. I think I was originally thinking reusing the old ones... Is that fine or Should I get those too?
Okay... i have all the bushings already. So i guess if the shafts need replaced ill return the bushings and get the shafts.
Also unrelated... but have any of you guys had a tire shop dent the bottom of the body of van by improperly placement/use of lift?
When i first got this van 3 years ago i didnt have much money for new tires so i went to walmart and bought their cheapest set of tires (horrible tires couldnt drive on a gravel road without getting a flat)
The "techs" there apparently did something with their lift that put two dents upward on the body of the van on each side. I dont think its a big deal but when looking at the van from the side its unmissable.
I didnt notice it til a couple days later and i was hundreds of miles away (i was kinda bumming around at the time). Still pisses me off sometimes when i see it because those dents are forever lol
Also unrelated... but have any of you guys had a tire shop dent the bottom of the body of van by improperly placement/use of lift? Still pisses me off sometimes when i see it because those dents are forever lol
Years ago I took my old Chevy G20 Van into the SEARS in Titusville for tires. The kid back it into a post and screwed up the right rear door. Costs to repair were over 1200, but SEARS claimed the van wasn't worth $500! I think I wound up refusing to pay for the tires. I should have had more work done first! If the cost of repair exceed some percentage of the Market Value, they can essentially buy your vehicle for FMV instead of paying for the repairs - bummer! But that's our system. Small Claims Court may be an option. Document, document, document.
Also unrelated... but have any of you guys had a tire shop dent the bottom of the body of van by improperly placement/use of lift?
When i first got this van 3 years ago i didnt have much money for new tires so i went to walmart and bought their cheapest set of tires (horrible tires couldnt drive on a gravel road without getting a flat)
The "techs" there apparently did something with their lift that put two dents upward on the body of the van on each side. I dont think its a big deal but when looking at the van from the side its unmissable.
I didnt notice it til a couple days later and i was hundreds of miles away (i was kinda bumming around at the time). Still pisses me off sometimes when i see it because those dents are forever lol
A shop damaged my rocker once - I didn’t notice for a while either. I had to redo it in that spot because of rust anyways, so it wasn’t a huge deal in the end.
As far as your control arm bolts, they are probably fine to reuse in all likelihood.
I had the same thing happen just recently. Had two new tires put on and didn't notice until today. All four spots where they used a two post lift were damaged. The only thing I dislike more than two post lifts are jackasses that don't know how to use a two post lift.
Or probably more correctly, too lazy to make sure they are lifting by the frame and too cowardly to let you know they messed up your car.
If you can't get down to check it, lay off the beer and pork rinds.
I got everything off but the shock absorbers and control arms today.
I was able to find a family friend who let me work on it on a concrete area outside their garage. Its still raining off and on here. So my yard wouldnt work to do this, still too mushy and wouldnt want to be doing any jackstands on anything but concrete.
The driver side idler arm bolts were the toughest thing to get off so far.
That was until i got to the shock absorbers. I have a spare old ratchet and plenty of sockets so i think ill try bending the top bolts til they break because i put my vise grip on the lower end of the shock absorber rod and it keeps slipping. The only other thing i can think of is unbolt the lower end of the shock absorbers, and then when i lower the control arm with floor jack to remove the coil spring, it will give me enough access to hit the upper part of rod with grinder or sawsall. I think ill try snapping the top of first thing tomorrow then go from there...
Ive been soaking all the control arm bolts with pb blaster throughout the day as i was working on removing tie rods, sway bar, brake caliper, etc. Hoping by the time i get to those it has done its magic.
Driver side idler arm bolts were the toughest to remove, applied pb blaster every turn and used a 24" breaker bar. Didn't want to break them...
Old tie rods. I didnt get a pic of the rest of the steering hardware, i will tomorrow. But im replacing all the way from the wheel spindles to the pitman arm (with the exception of the sway bar itself)
My work cut out for tomorrow. Removing shock, spring, and upper/lower control arms. Will be rebuilding upper and lowers on both sides.
Driver side.
Checked the wheel bearings. Both sides seem perfect. I posted videos earlier in this thread and someone said they were sure the wheel bearings were shot on passenger side. I think the play it had in that side was due to bad idler arm...
Pitman arm seems to have no noticable play in it either.
Will update tomorrow, the sketchiest thing about all this is removing and reinstalling coil springs but i feel pretty good about it using a heavy duty floor jack.
Deep socket on top nut of shock and bending it back and forth worked great.
I dont have a ball joint press and the auto parts store in the town in in doesnt have a loaner or one for sale...
Riveted ball joints came out easy, drilled the rivets out. I hammered the pressed in ball joints out.
Drilled out the lower control arm bushing rubber, collapsed the outer shell with a hammer and cold chisel, seemed to work good.
5 hours in on the control arm rebuild and i still have the upper control arm bushings to get out. They seem a lot trickier with the connecting rod/bolt going through them.
I watched a YouTube video of what looks like some guy in the 80's showing how to get those out with a beveled chisel. Ill give that a try tomorrow.
Id say the most difficult part so far was unbolting the driver side control arm ... not a lot of room to work in there, had to get creative with my breaker bar angles.
A pair of the control arms before rebuild
My method of keeping track of shim packs
The rest of the steering assembly i pulled and forgot to take a pic of yesterday. Everything theres is getting replaced except the long bar, cant remember what its called.
While i have all this off im going to take advantage of all the room in there and replace spark plugs and wires lol
EDIT: removing the coil springs was a breeze, large floor jack under the control arm and slowly lowered it down the once it was down all the way and the jack was out i lifted the spring out with a crowbar. When i pried the spring out it had a tiny bit of tension from lifting it an inch but not enough to cause concern. I feel pretty good about repeating this step reinstalling them.
Today all i did was remove the upper control arm bushings, clean up all the control arms and paint them.
The upper control arm bushings I was able to use that cold chisel method. I think having soaked them with pb blaster last night also helped.
Some of the old bushings.
After washing the grease off and hitting them with a wire wheel, brush, and sadpaper on the hard to get areas. Wasnt trying to do a perfect job just slow down any rust.
1 coat of rust stopping primer
One coat of rustoleum enamel.
Interesting thing, the upper ones were rustier than the lowers.
The lower ones get washed and dried more often than the top.
The wind, while driving, dries them much quicker than the relatively less windy upper table with the front of the van blocking air flow.
Spray some rust proofing over and under the tables after final assembly. It will keep rust-free and new looking for a while.
Well i thought i could install the lower ball joints without a press but i was wrong. The youtube video where the guy used a bearing race and a hammer to put it back in didnt work. It worked for everything else. I have all the bushings installed.
I have the moog problem solver ball joints which i read are a litte bit tighter...
Theres no press to be had in this town (im not at home), and i ordered one on amazon but it wont be here for two days.
Ill install the upper ball joints and upper control arms while im waiting for the press to come in mail. This is frustrating i wish i would have bought one before i started this but i figured i could get a loaner if i needed one, but no one here has one.
Wow! You need to replace some stuff. That vehicle wouldn't pass inspection in that condition! Have someone else move your wheels while you look and it should be obvious which parts need replacing first. If you can afford the parts and have the time and tools remove the front-end components from the Upper Control Arms down and replace the bushings, bearings springs with MOOG or equivalent. If you purchase all the parts at once, you should be able to do the work over three days max - then send it out for alignment. You will not believe the difference it will make in handling!
No one can say for certain how dangerous driving it as-is will be. But you know how fast shit happens at sixty mph, right? Be careful.
JUST REALIZED HOW LONG ITS BEEN SINCE YOU POSTED THE VIDEOS!!
I hope so lol. Im just going off of youtube videos and my haines manual.
I took the lower control arms to a shop here in the town my folks live in (i went across the state to get away from the rain where i live and my dad has a friend with a concrete slab i can work on).
Shop guy pressed in both lower ball joints for $40.
Got control arms, coil springs, spindles, shocks, and all steering linkages from the pitman arm to spindles minus the swaybar installed today.
It wasnt supposed to rain today but it did. Thankfully on this side of Oregon its a little drier and when it rains it doesnt rain like crazy like where i live on the west side of the cascade mountain range.
Lower control arms took some beating to get back in and the coil springs were tricky to get positioned. I had to jack it up a little then lift them into place with a crowbar. I guess today wasnt my day to die... lol.
Some pics.
Yeah the steering was pretty scary and i was sketched out driving it this far to work on it, but it was either that or wait til later in the summer when my yard dries out. I still wouldnt feel comfortable jacking those springs in and out on anything but a concrete slab.
I am unsure as to how bad the old ball joints were, but the tie rods and idler arms were pretty shot.
I keep asking myself why the hell am i doing this and the answer is if i took it to a shop to have all this done it would cost me more than the van is worth I imagine. I also prefer to do my own mechanci work, but hopefully not anything this extensive anytime soon.
Edit... i dont know where the leak is, but i have this nasty leak from what i think is my power steering pump that has really crudded up the driver side of the engine bay. Im guessing its power steering cause thats the general area its coming from and ive had to top off the power steering fluid a few times in the last year. Guess thats the next "big" thing ill have to figure out on this van after i get the suspension fixed.
Also decided to skip the spark plugs and wires for now, i need to get it back on the road and get home to my wife lol.
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