| [GMCnet] Progress on the 1 ton front end [message #135808] |
Sun, 24 July 2011 10:09  |
glwgmc
Messages: 1014
Registered: June 2004
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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Hi Karen,
Your instructions are vey good and a great help for anyone doing this conversion. One thing that would help would be to emphasize the need to use the new ball joint nuts that are included with the kit. The old ball joint nuts will fit the upper ball joints but are too thick and will cover the hole for the cotter pin. On the lower ball joints the old nut appears to sorta fit, but it is a slightly different thread than on the new one so the user must use the supplied new nut there. I would also suggest adding a part about unbolting the tie arms at the front and swinging them out of the way. It just makes things easier to get to. A note about how the boots over the outer CV joints barely clear the bolt heads holding on the lower ball joint would be good. I had to look long and hard at that to make sure I had not installed something incorrectly. I even called Manny to confirm that I had the knuckles on the correct sides! Finally, a note would be good to tell the user tha
t the tie rods should be installed with the long arm to the knuckle. They will go on either way, but that is the correct way.
I found that the bushings could be pushed out of the upper A arms with just the 1.5" socket needed to remove the drive shaft end bolt on the receiving end and a piece of rod the same diameter as the outside of the steel sleeves (16mm) on the pushing end mounted in a large vise will push the sleeve out quite nicely. The rubber comes out with the same 1.5" socket on the receiving end and a 17 to 19mm socket on the pushing end. To remove the steel shell on the end where the new offset busing will go I followed your suggestion of cutting it in half and then mashing the non-flanged end with a chisel. That did not work for the end with the flange. There I found it best to cut the flange and the tube to produce a clearance area for that piece to collapse worked well. I also found that sockets in the 1/2 to 9/16 size fit in between the sides of the arm to keep it from collapsing inward while pressing in the new offset bushing worked well. No need to hunt up a curved piece of me
tal, just place the sockets about 180 degrees apart up next to the new bushing and mash the thing in with the vise.
The hardest part of the project for me at this age was getting up and down from the concrete floor that many times! I just don't do that as well as I once did. Even though I pressure washed the whole front end before starting it is still a messy, dirty job lifting all those heavy gunked up parts off the coach. The even heavier, but clean parts are much easier to put back in.
A rattle can of any color paint works well to mark the position of the torsion bar adjustment bolts and the location of the torsion bar to lower A arm position. I was able to unload the torsion bars without the unloading tool by allowing the lower A arm to rotate all the way down with a floor jack once the shock was removed. At that point a pry bar could be used to force it down even further which unloaded the adjustment bolt enough to take it and the nut out safely. At that point I could remove the pivot bolts and pry the A arm down off the frame. Once free I could wiggle the old A arm off the end of the torsion bar. The new A arm wiggled back on the end of the torsion bar and I could lift the assembly back into the frame mounts. A bit of fiddling to get the holes to line up and the pivot bolts went back in. After tightening those to torque spec the lever bar was used to force the A arm to rotate down far enough to get the adjustment nut and bolt back in under the por
k chop at the frame end of the torsion bar. Just tighten that bolt to match the paint line and you will be close enough. The jack will rotate the A arm back up to reattach the shock. I actually used two floor jacks, one on the outer tip of the A arm and the other as a safety under the A arm. Once the shock was in place I put a jack stand under the A arm just in case the shock should break under the load of the torsion bar. You do need the unloader tool to adjust ride height if needed. I did need to adjust my ride height a bit after driving the coach over some bumps to settle everything in place.
One thing left off of your very complete list of "tools" required is a hot tub. I found that really useful to keep my old bones from getting too grouchy at the end of the day..........
Hope this helps.
Jerry
Message: 5
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:00:03 -0700
From: KB <kab7@sonic.net>
Subject: Re: [GMCnet] Progress on the 1 ton front end
To: gmclist@temp.gmcnet.org
Message-ID: <4E299E83.5030607@sonic.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Hi Jerry, glad to hear the front end is coming along.
If you or anyone else who is installing the kit has feedback on the
instructions, please let me know. You can help other GMCers by making
them better.
Again, they're at:
http://www.machinesoflovinggrace.net/gmc/frontend
thanks,
Karen
1973 23'
1975 26'
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Jerry & Sharon Work
78 Royale
Kerby, OR
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