Ok, we're in it to win it now. Front end is apart! The lowers were wasted. Good news is I'm 99.9% sure the lowers were original. The new ones pressed in perfectly.
Rotors are off. I took the bearings and cleaned them all in mineral spirits. Cleaned all the old grease out of the rotors. The grease that was in there was brown. The spindle nut was a little too tight for my liking. I repacked all the bearings and filled the inside of the rotors with fresh grease. I snugged the spindle nut down and backed it off to the first hole. With the wheel on, it's got just a very slight amount of play. Topped it off with a fresh cotter pin and good to go! Plan is to finish the ball joints monday/ Tuesday. The big 140 mile round trip on next weekend! Next up is my enclosed trailer maintenence thread!
85 a can. I bought 2 for Mike but he doesn't want it because he thinks its too much octane. I tried explaining he can cut it with premium but....anyway, if you want two of them let me know
Did you put the copper coated cotter pins back in for the upper/lower ball joints and the outer tie rod locations? …..and did you put them in like the Factory did? Duane Actually they used copper pins in 70 and copper coated pins in 71-72.
Someone had already installed replacement upper ball joints as they are the bolt in variety. So the cotter pins for the upper, lower and outer tie rod ends are not original cotter pins. I was going to install the cotter pins thst csme in thr kits as far as putting them in like factory....i put cotter pins in one way- I take one leg and bend it over the top of the bolt and cut it so the leg extends just past the threads, the other leg I leave straight and cut it just past the castle. I think thst looks the neatest too. How did the factory do it?
For the upper & lower ball joints as well as the outer tie rod locations the Factory slide the cotter pins all the way in and then bent both ends over the top of the nuts-studs. They basically look like a “U” shape when done. They spent zero time trying to make anything look nice. Also, the cotter pins at all other locations were installed by a machine and look totally different then what I described above. The steering linkage was sent to final assembly as a sub-assembly with the center link, inner & outer tie rods, pitman arm, and idler arm as a single unit. The cotter pins were installed before final assembly. Also GMAD plants did things differently then Flint, but for 1970 Flint used copper pins at all locations. You are getting into the territory we use to judge the “Concours” cars at this point. Duane PS, I used to sell the cotter pin kits for the cars and plated them appropriately for year and assembly plant. I also included an installation sheet showing locations and how they were installed. Plus, for the guys that bought the kits I would also explain how to “mimic” the factory look where required. Sadly now if you buy a kit from a vender they send you the pins with no instructions at all. It’s a shame they don’t do their “do diligence” with getting the customers what they need to do the job right.
I knew about the copper pins, I just didn't know they bent them so sloppy. I'm not sure I can allow myself to do that I might have to take the deduction! It's no show car, it's just a "used GSX" lol
You can look at the other location cotter pins and see if they are original. I’m glad you’re drawing the line somewhere and keeping with your original vision. Did you ever find the other 2-place spark plug wire retainer? Duane
Jason I really like that you made the GSX a reliable car you can enjoy and drive. To many are just sitting inside a garage with little to no miles on them and worse than that they are not making any memories with them. PS I also dig the hood holder that is so nice
Thanks Ryan. It's nice to just be able to jump in it, have it start right up and not have to worry about it leaving me on the side of the road. I have complete confidence in the car now.
Got home from work and got it done. All 4 ball joints are in and shes pretty much back together. I didn't paint or touch up anything. Once the ball joints were out, the control arms got a scrubbing in mineral spirits. Whatever finish was under all that grease and mung is still there. This is how I bent the cotter pins- And here are the losers lol Here's a question- the end links. The rubber is shot, but I'm trying to figure out if they are the originals? The head of the long bolt is marked "71 E" . I'm thinking about getting a moog ending kit and just using the rubbers And just as an FYI- I HATE front end work! It's what I call grunt work. Least favorite job. Oh and one more thing- here's a handy little thing I picked up front the retail arm of the communist Chinese government- a little tool caddy. For those of us that have to work on the garage floor. After your done on one side of the car, you can just roll it over to the other side. Makes life a little easier
Here are pictures of original cotter pins installed on the center link, including the pitman and idler arms. I believe that the whole assembly was shipped to final assembly. The cotter pins for the outers and ball joints were installed on the line. Pictures of the cotter pins in the ball joints and outer tie rod ends.
