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Randy Pflanzer
Technology Professionals Consortium
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   What's New?
 
  02/01/13 - Reformatted web page.

 

Front Spindles

I gathered up the front spindles from their box and the remaining ball joints in preparation for mounting them to the control arms.  To orient them correctly, the arm is pointed towards the front and extends from the bottom part of the spindle assembly.  In the picture, right is the left spindle and left is right spindle.

Here is the left front one mounted looking towards the rear.  The instructions call for two washers under the bottom nut and one under the top nut.  Again, I could not find any washers in the box with the ball joints (per the instructions) so I used ones I bought at the hardware store (Grade 8 hardened).  The number of suggested washers worked out right to position the nut to accept the cotter pin.

To get the ball joint nuts tightened down, I had to unscrew the shocks to provide slack.  After tightening the nuts, I re-tightened the shocks as far as I could with my hands.  Another trick with the ball joints is to use pin punch and use it to twist the ball joint around so the cotter pin is pointing front to back.  Otherwise you might not have clearance to install the cotter pin on the top nut.

Front Brakes

All the parts for the Wilwood 12" brake upgrade come in a single box with the exception of the spindle nuts.  I couldn't find them so I had to order those from the local NAPA store.  I also had to buy some high temperature wheel bearing grease specifically for disk brake applications.  The instructions for the brakes are pretty straight forward and there is a parts explosion diagram which provides a good overview of how it all fits together.

First step is to install the caliper bracket to the spindle with the low profile nuts provided and some Red Locktite.  Make sure the nutserts are oriented properly per the instructions.

Next, the rotor is bolted up to the adaptor plate.  Be sure to use your torque wrench to tighten the bolts.  The adaptor plate is aluminum and you can pull the threads right out of it if you over-tighten the bolts.  I also installed the wheel studs into the hub.  The proper wheel stud measurement is 4.5" on our cars.  The hub gives you two options and ours is the shorter diameter.  The plans then call for the bolts to be safety-wired together.  I fortunately have a set of safety wire pliers which makes the job simple.  The idea is to tie the wire so that it is pulling the head down tighter.

These pictures show the safety wire ties.  On the inner hub, I chose to go with one set of wires to make it easier.  This is an acceptable standard and you don't have to tie them off in pairs.

The bearing are then packed with grease and the entire assembly is mounted to the axle.  Once on, the caliper is mounted and centered using spacers per the plans.  Later on, I will probably paint the calipers to match the body color but I won't mess with that right now.

Next part of the assembly is the steering rack and that work is on the next page.