I've been thinking about the axle twisting and the only reason I could come up with was the spring causing the twist. Maybe using some sort of spring compressor would take the pressure off. OR dismounting the shocks. My experience with Chevy Chevelles tells me the only thing holding the springs in place are the shocks.

 

Okay, I need some help here. I've gotten the passenger side lower control arm off, the new one will not line up in the front with the wheel in the air, which I expected.

The problem is the drivers side control arm front eccentric bolt/nut. The nut will not come loose. I've used a breaker with a pipe and lots of PB Blaster and it turned some but not much. I strained my neck and shoulder so I gave up on the pipe and breaker. I removed the tire/wheel and turned the front wheel to get on it with my impact, figuring that would do it. It will not turn with the impact (Snap On). I have a fairly long air hose on the compressor for my tire filler and I know that's not good for use with an impact so I'm headed off to get a short air hose.

That's my last resort, a shorter air hose for the impact. Next, I'll be cutting off the bolt and trying to find a new eccentric bolt.

I even looked at the manual to see if the stupid thing was reverse threaded and it isn't.

Any other suggestions?

At least I think I've found my problem. The bushing in this lower control arm appears to be completely shot. Now all i have to do is try to fix it.....

Thanks

Joe

 

Never mind, I'm to the point that trying to loosen it any more via pipe and breaker is going to shear it off and the impact isn't budging it. I'm cutting it off and ordered Moog replacements for monday.

I'm guessing the bushing being soft has worked the threads or something like that. I've never seen one this bad.

 

What you've probably got is the bushing sleeve has rust-welded itself to the bolt. I've had this happen several times on leaf springs bushings. On those, the nut is usually not welded to the bracket, so it's a simple matter of cutting off the bolt head and using BMFH to drive it out. Wait! Now that I think about it, that bent the inner part of the bracket. We cut both sides of the bolt with a Sawzall like stated below.

The WORST case scenario is to use a Sawzall to cut the bolt on both sides of the control arm and then drilling the rest of the bolt out, or with the pressure removed, an easy-out.

This same type of problem crops up anytime a bolt goes thru a sleeve, like on shock absorbers. I've seen a GOOD torchman blow a bolt out of a nut without even damaging the nut's thread, although I cringed when he did it. NOT the recommended procedure! This same torchman removed the lower balljoint's shell from my ZJ and the new joint was still a good press fit. He never even scratched the bore! This guy scared me because he was about 75 years old with poor eyesight and had the shakes, until he had that torch in his hand! I guess that goes to show you shouldn't judge a man by what he looks like, but what he does.

 

You called it. The bolt seized to the bushing so the control arm is pinned between the axle flanges by the bolt/bushing, which is spinning inside the LCA. It appears that I need to cut the bushing and bolt on both sides inside the axle flanges to get the control arm to drop out from between the flanges. I can't drill anything from the inside because the differential is in the way, this is on the drivers side. Once the control arm is out of the way, I can see what I have left to deal with.

I've tried a cutoff wheel and a Sawzall, the Sawzall and a 14 TPI blade seems to give me about 2 minutes of good accurate cutting before the blade goes dull. 18 TPI blades dull immediately. The cutoff wheel bounced around too much and I'm worried about the flange.

So it looks like I'm headed out to get a crapload of blades and spending some quality time laying on the ground tomorrow.

Do you have an opinion on Sawzall blades for metal cutting? Hahaha!

I hate suspension work.

 

I have an opinion on Sawzall blades. The Milwaukee "torch" brand in 10 TPI made relatively quick work of it. A friend from our VW site who cuts up cars and welds them back together in new and unusual ways recommended them. Took two of those blades and 10 minutes to do one and a half bushings/bolts. Three Bosch metal blades and a cutoff wheel and an hour to do the other half a bushing.

Control arm fell right out the bottom, the other pieces of bolt/nut fell out of the sides. Like most things, duck soup with the correct tools.

Should have the new eccentrics tomorrow. I think I can transfer the marks from the old ones and go from there.

 

Those bolts ARE grade 8 after all. I have a couple of blades from Fire Rescue that seem to last longer than anything else. I got them from a fireman after they'd used them a while so I can't say who made them, but they are great! I've cut 1/4" thick steel plate with them.

If you went to 16 TPI, they might last longer, and lube and keep the speed down. WD40 works for lube if you don't want a lot of oil on your project.

I'm happy you got the job done. When I talked about drilling, I was thinking about the upper CA frame-end bolts because I think the nuts are welded to the brackets.

 

I got the new eccentrics in last night, matchmarks on the old ones got obliterated by PB Blaster and Sawzall so I'm starting from scratch. Hopefully, it will be good enough to drive somewhere for an alignment.

As with the upper control arms, lining up the lower to get the bolt through was a bear on the passenger side. The axle had shifted to the rear enough that the CA bolthole wasn't even visible. Adding weight via lowering the Jeep down on the tire helped a little but I still had to use a tapered punch and some prying force to get it done.

Looking at this, I think it may be because the drivers side has the differential and drive shaft that limits how far the axle can move back when the control arms are exchanged, there is nothing on the passenger side to do this. Just a guess.

On to the track bar. This will be my first use of the harbor freight ball joint separator with the jack bolt. They are supposed to be pretty nice, guess I will find out. Hopefully exchanging the track bar doesn't involve the Sawzall. Also, hopefully, the steering is better than it was when I started all this.

 

I don't want to open another fish locker, but have you checked your rear track bar?

 

Not more than shaking everything by hand and looking at it, at least on RWD Volvos that have regular rear end bushing problems the feel is a lot different than what the Jeep was doing. The Jeep has a darty front end that hyperactively follows the road, my Volvos had the feeling that the back end was always ready to come around, the driving on ice feeling.

I'd like to think the front end will take care of it.

I did get the track bar off last night. It decided to be as much of a pain as possible on the way out, the piece of the cotter pin facing outwards broke off flush with the castle nut. There was too much to go out the back without hitting the bracket flange and not enough to grab from the front. So that was fun.

The bolt at the other end of the track bar was squealing as it came loose so I soaked it down with PB and left it for tonight. Don't want to break that off.

On a positive note, the threaded ball joint remover I got from HF worked like a champ. I hadn't needed to remove a ball joint before and this made it pretty simple. Just need to figure out how to get the new track bar ball joint back in there.

The monsoons start tomorrow so I'd like to think I'm getting this back together tonight.

 

One thing I did notice last night as I was rolling over to get out from underneath and go inside. There are D shaped bushings mounted sort of below the radiator area for the stabilizer bar. They are usually behind my head when I am under the front end working on anything so I don't see them.

The one I happened to see on the drivers side looked to have been wallowed out a bit, either that or it was a shadow. It was dark and getting late so I went inside, forgot to post about it this morning.

Could this be part of the problem? Looking at Rock Auto, there are a number of different diameters of bar so I need to sort that out.

I'd almost like to drive it as is to see if the track bar and control arms did anything before doing anything else.

Any suggestions on a good starting spot to set the eccentrics? They can move that axle caster all over the place. As mentioned, the matchmarks are mostly shot.

Thanks

 

Set the eccentrics in the middle of their range of adjustment. That's where the factory punched the holes and should be PFC to where it should be.

The roll bar/ stabilizer is there to limit body roll in a corner. It shouldn't have any effect on steering direction. When I had my 67 Camaro, I went from a 7/8" front bar to a 1-1/8". I used the original bushings by just crushing them with the bolts. My major problem was adding a 7/8" rear bar. I kept breaking the links and tore the frame mounts out because the frame wasn't designed for a rear bar. That car cornered so flat I used to chase Corvettes around the pylons at autocrosses.

 

Thanks for the reply. I got out my reading glasses and a bright light and found enough matchmarks to put it back where it was. No idea if it's correct, but I guess the alignment process will deal with however much I'm off.

Got the track bar on, so everything is back together, my torque wrench was at work so I left it blocked up in the air, should be able to finish torque everything tonight.

Those stabilizer bar bushings are truly shot. I can see light through them, I would guess there is an additional 1/16 to 1/8 clearance in them both, they are egg shaped. I should replace them on general principles, I was planning on having my son learn to drive in this thing so it needs to be as stable as possible. Based on the condition of the front bushings, I probably should check/order the rears.

That was the golden era of Camaro to me, I had a HS teacher who had a 68 Camaro I always wanted. A co-worker had a mint 69 Rally Sport 4 speed V8 car, I think he ordered that one new. It was a beauty. The closest thing to anything cool I had was a 68 Mustang with the pony interior, it was a notchback 3 speed on the floor with a roaring 200 inline 6. Loved that car, mechanically it was indestructable, rust eventually ate it.

 

I was always a Mopar man, UNTIL I got a ride in a hot 67 Z28! I told myself and anybody within earshot, "I've GOT to get me one of these!" I found a 67 SS 350 6 months old and traded in. Then I became a Chevy man until I bought my 97 ZJ. Then I discovered the new Mopars are nothing like the old Mopars. It was a steep learning curve because the ZJ was a POS! After spending over $4000 in repairs, the frame crumbled. However, my WJ is a cream puff and I intend to keep it that way.

The only Mustang I liked was the 69 Mach 1. My friend and co-worker had one and we raced many times. We were about egually matched and had respect for each other, but I had 4.10 gears and he had 3.23s. Mine was a hole-shot car, he had long legs.

Jeeps are fun, however you've got to be able to twist wrenches or afford to have them worked on because they need TLC. The twin live axle suspension is about the most stable there is. It's a good platform to learn to drive on. Just remember that because of the heavy front end, it tends to understeer when it's slippery.

 

Dang! My torque wrenches didn't go high enough to deal with anything other than the track bar so I'll have to borrow something from work. That's really okay, I had some quality time last night getting the castle nut and cotter pin aligned correctly. Took me about an hour with a mirror and a flashlight and by that time, it was pitch dark and the rain had started.

Hopefully get the rest torqued this evening. I don't mind wrenching on stuff, I just don't like to do the same things again and again because the design sucks. I've got a 48 Ford 8N tractor and a 72 VW bus in the barn with the Jeep at the moment, both are in pieces.

The only Mopar I owned were (3) early square body Dodge Dakotas, one got bought back when it crapped 3 head gaskets in 3 months. I had a 94 Shadow I bought new when they were giving them away when the Neons came out, and a DOHC Neon that was a hoot to drive but spent all it's time in the garage so I ended up selling it. The one I wished I could have bought was a stripped down shortbed V8 Dakota with a 5 speed manual, it was the last year of the square body version and I saw it behind the dealership. I think someone ordered it that way, it wasn't for sale. I had the same truck with the Magnum V6 and it was pretty quick, I would love to have driven that truck with a 318.

I currently have a 92 Dodge 3/4 ton with the Cummins diesel and a 5 speed manual, around 270k on it. Waited 12 years to buy it from an old toolmaker I've worked with for 25 years, trying to fight the rust battle right now. It runs like a new one, though, and gets 20+ mpg. Also have 2 VW Jetta TDI's, just put a timing belt on one of them earlier this year, the Jeep is the first gas vehicle I've owned in a while.