Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

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MtnGoat
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by MtnGoat »

Struts showed up, sure enough. OK, so when I'm going for the shimming action (I choose ride height), how do I judge it? Do I want the gland nut tightened down with a thread or two remaining, so I know the insert is firmly placed?
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Byron510
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by Byron510 »

MtnGoat wrote:Oh, and I forgot...major Kudos to Ermish. I got an email that shipping had not cost as much as expected, and they were refunding me $28. Some folks would just shut up and keep the money. I'm impressed, and I want to make sure people know the caliber of Ermish and how they do business. With honor.

That's awesome that you let us all know. It's great to have honest vendors out there, and to let us all know that they are honest so we can repay the favor.

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because the opposite never works.
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Byron510
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by Byron510 »

MtnGoat wrote:Struts showed up, sure enough. OK, so when I'm going for the shimming action (I choose ride height), how do I judge it? Do I want the gland nut tightened down with a thread or two remaining, so I know the insert is firmly placed?
You do want to know you are engaged in the thread. Having at least one thread on the nut proud of the thread in the tube certainly helps on removal the next time around as there is less chance of scaly rust forming on the top thread that the nut would have to plow through. That's just good engineering.

Also make sure what ever you are using as a shim will seat against the bottom of the tube. If you get in there with a flash light, you'll note that the bottom of the tube has a step in it, it's best to have the OD of your spacer smaller that the ID of the step to ensure that your spacer doesn’t collapse into the hollow over time, causing your strut to actually come loose inside the tube.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

Byron
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MtnGoat
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by MtnGoat »

Good tip on paying attention to the bottom of the tube, i might not have thought of that.
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by MtnGoat »

While I wait for the rest of my parts to arrive, my attention turns to the doors I picked up. I can never seem to figure out the trick for properly hanging them. Is it *really* the 50 iterations and adjustments on the hinges and striker plate bidness, or is there some linear process and trick for just getting it right in a couple tries?
510rob
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by 510rob »

If I count right, there are 11 variables involved in getting it perfect, and each variable has some small amount of influence on the other variables...
MtnGoat
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by MtnGoat »

That figures. God I hate door hanging

But, the Ermish parts showed up so I am ready to rock! I'd better find that damned spring compressor
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by MtnGoat »

found a thrust bearing for use with the idler, like Ermish sells. Love those guys...but it and two washers will be ten bucks at McMaster. I think he's recessed the outer bushing to make room for it, I'll gamble with ten bucks and see if I can make it work.
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by MtnGoat »

Found my spring compressor, cool!

Now an odd question .. What is the least number of things I need to disconnect at the bottom of the strut to gain enough motion to access the top and replace the insert?
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RMS
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by RMS »

I think the strut should be serviced on the bench.

jack, block, remove tire, 2 brake bolts, rest caliper on a block, if you have a stock anti sway bar you can easily pop the strut off the knuckle once the two knuckle bolts are removed. larger sway bars often require removal of the top link nut or link. three bolts on the top cap and the strut is on the floor. spring compressors mounted as evenly as possible and as close to the perches as possible, torque down evenly till the spring is lose. use air to blast the nut (if air's not available run the nuts back down the studs on the top cap and use a bar. with the strut in a vice use a big Saskatchewan wrench to remove the gland nut. make sure you have a drain pan handy the strut could be oil filled. clean, inspect,.......you right there ... check and pack the wheel bearings... fording happens
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MtnGoat
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by MtnGoat »

Thanks, those are great tips, it's been awhile. Stopped by the hardware store this morning and got some spacer bits. Some big washers, a small nicely cylindrical pipe fitting, and some giant nuts that are slightly smaller than the gland nut and almost exactly 1 1/8" tall. We'll see which combo works right.
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by MtnGoat »

New strut cartridges are in! The advice helped and of course the other side took half as long. Fought the sway bar a bit, it's a 7/8" from some outfit or another, and boy is it stiff. (IMO the single best simple suspension add on to a wagon.)

The driver's side insert was toast, you can push it up or down at will, but at least it tries to return to neutral. More than can be said for the passenger side. On that one I didn't even need the compressors to get the spring tight before taking off the perch and upper assembly.

When I started undoing the T/C rod and swaybar the control arm kept inching toward the ground as I unscrewed bolts. Didn't seem right so I got a jack under it. Undid T/C and sway bar, then the lower strut bolts, then I let the jack down..the strut followed it on down a couple more inches then hung freely, way more freely than the other side had. At this point I removed the upper three tower bolts, and when I had it in my hand the spring was completely unsprung and the perch was rattling around. I just grabbed the shaft with pliers and undid the shaft nut. This second strut doesn't have a neutral at all. with two fingers you grab it and run it in or out and it just stays. I think it must have been banging the crap out of itself for a long time, wait till you see the gland nut from it.

Anyway...
a comparison of the old and new. Sure enough, I'll lose some travel I think. Oh well. I'll get the number off the old one for archive purposes.
old vs new sm.jpg
old vs new sm.jpg (117.88 KiB) Viewed 3377 times
Here's my spacer plan. Seemed to work fine. Left one thread at the top. I didn't use the F/F pipe fitting, it was about 1/8" too short. Too bad, the right sized one would have been ideal, no muss no fuss no multiple pieces.
spacer plan sm.jpg
spacer plan sm.jpg (113.89 KiB) Viewed 3377 times
I reversed the order and put the huge nut at the bottom, then the washers on top. To get them to seat nicely, get something thin and long enough to reach the bottom of the strut interior. Put the spacers on it in the order you want them. Get the strut at a slant on the bench. Hold the spacers in place at the top of the rod while you get the rod seated in the bottom of the strut. Now let go of the spacers and they slide down the rod without flipping over or getting at a weird angle. Get it vertical, vertically tap the entire works gently on the bench to seat 'em, then pull the rod. Peer down in there and you see them stacked all nice and lined up.

I filled the gap around the insert with gear oil. I don't know if you're supposed to do this, but the wrench turner I learned from said it transferred heat out of the shock, and that sounds dead right to me.

Ok, now the weird part..the gland nut from old passenger side strut
old gland nut - shot.JPG
old gland nut - shot.JPG (123.82 KiB) Viewed 3377 times
I took it for a spin down to the corner and back, wow. I forgot what it was like to drive a car that wasn't all springs. The rear shocks of course made a big difference, and this last bit is the wow. The chuckholes in the driveway no longer slam the front to the stops. Weird.

Next up..all tie rod ends, both ball joints, idler arm, drag link, alignment. I think on this one I'm just going to haul the parts up the hill to my alignment and muffler place and let them do it, they're fast and reasonable. They'll be aligning it anyway, what the heck.

I'll do the steering box brace at the end. Ya know, given the difference the shocks have made, and what is going on next, I might actually have a nice riding and steering rig when I'm done.
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bertvorgon
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by bertvorgon »

I filled the space in my strut with antifreeze, seems to have worked well for 32 years now. Transferring heat is necessary, as shocks generate a lot.
"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty" - Peter Egan

Keith Law
1973 2 Door Slalom/hill climb/road race / canyon carver /Giant Killer 510
1971 Vintage 13' BOLER trailer
MtnGoat
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by MtnGoat »

During my hunt for the spring compressors I'd run across not one but two milk crates full of NIB parts I'd forgotten I even had. Stock roadster shocks, a clutch master (510), all kinds of hoses and bushings, a rear wheel cylinder (510 likely, but i'm hoping against hope it's a roadster one), all kinds of stuff. Also three sets of disc pads, a tranny rear seal, and a fresh U joint. Well, I've been having that telltale clunk from the driveline for a couple months lately, and figured if I've been all eager beaver about the wagon lately I might as well deal with that.

So I jacked her up, dropped the driveline. Wiggled the joints. Front is tight, back one, not so much. There's my hollow clank noise. Then while I'm wigglin it, I notice one of the end caps is rotating. Oh that's right, I remember I some yoke damage to one side back there. So I went to the bonepile and found I had an old diff from a wrecking yard, cut the driveline with a torch style...yoke attached. The yoke damage was on the diff flange, not the DL, so I got lucky since I could change it out. Of course, this meant partial dissassembly of one more joint.

So I got out the big bench vise, got the appropriate sockets, and went to work. What a pain in the ass. The joint from the wagon came apart OK, but first I had to get the flange off the old diff, all bolts messed up (had to chisel one off), then remove the flange half of the joint..and that's where it got nasty. that thing was rusted in there like, well I don't know what. Soaking it with penetrating oil, pounding on the handle of the vise with a mallet to get it to tighten, all the idiotic 'fun'. Took an hour.( I'm done with this. I'm buying a press. )

Then of course reassembly was all of 10 minutes. grabbed the new rear seal (evidence of oil around it underneath) and DL, crawled under, got it squared away.

It was only 10 and I decided to try putting one of the doors I picked up on the drivers side. Getting the old one off, easy. Getting the new one on, lots of swearing. Not a one person job. A datsun front door may not be all that light, but at least it's super awkward to lift and hold while you're trying to turn a bolt with the opposite two fingertips crammed into the gap behind the hinge. Wound up balancing the door on a chainsaw box and a block of wood and 45 minutes of swearing later, I had the first bolt started. After that, easy.

Then I crossed my fingers, swung it shut...and bingo. It shut!! OK, happy now. Well, sorta. Turns out the window doesn't roll up quite square, so now I get to learn how to adjust that. But still...having a door that doesn't need the three slams to shut routine is pretty neat.

So now I"m eyeballing this mess...what does one do about this?
dash.JPG
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bertvorgon
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Re: Adventures of the Deathmobile (II)

Post by bertvorgon »

There are two tracks in the doors, they are the adjustments for getting the door window to roll up square.

Maybe take a look through my window thread....

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.ph ... ent#p61831
"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty" - Peter Egan

Keith Law
1973 2 Door Slalom/hill climb/road race / canyon carver /Giant Killer 510
1971 Vintage 13' BOLER trailer
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