The Suspension Rebuild, Part 3 - Removing and Cleaning

Once the springs were out, it was time to start taking the suspension apart. Since I was learning as I went, it took me a couple weekends to get it all apart, cleaned, bushings replaced, and parts painted.

Having never used a pickle fork, and not having a true understanding of how tight the ball joints hold on, removing the knuckle was a learning experience. I tried some of the tricks I had read, like hitting the ball joint bolt with a hammer to try and vibrate it lose. When the tie rod end attached to the knuckly finally went, it popped so hard it actually hurt my elbow. I learned a trick by accident with the inner tie rod. I was hammering the pickle fork onto the ball joint to try and get more leverage, and that actually popped it off. And, for those who are not aware, the steering knuckle is very heavy, with not only the knuckle but the rotor and caliper as well. Kinda catches you off guard when you aren't ready for it.

Cotter pins... seriously, they shouldn't be this hard to remove! Watching the how to videos on the internet made it look so easy. And if you see it on the internet, it must be true! I had to fight some out with a punch, others I could pry out with pliers. And talk about some hard to reach places...

The other tricky part was removing the lower wishbone, specifically the lever support shaft, from the body. A lot of the bolts have needed a braker bar, and these were particularly brutal. Then, to top it off, you have to acces the nuts from the engine bay, and while it was probably easy for the dwarves that must have built these cars, my normal sized hands found this task hard. There were wedged socket wrenches and extensions utilized.

Once off the car, I thought I was home free, but the Alfa gods had other ideas. I learned about tab washers, as well as how to hold vice grips under my foot as I cranked on the nut holding the arms to the lever support shaft.

It wasn't all hard though, and a lot of it was just a matter of learning curve. What took me 3 weekends to get done on the driver's side, I got done in 3 hours on the passenger side. Of course the spring and shock were already out, but I was able to crank through the rest of it pretty quickly.

I was expecting the wishbone arm bushings to be really hard to replace, since everything I had read on the forum said it had to be done in a press, and I am sans press. So I went the "hard" route, and pounded them out with a hammer and a socket. They came out really easy, and I was able to install the new ones with the same method.


The old bushings definitely needed to be replaced.


The old bushings used a metal washer, the new ones use a felt pad.


And the new bushing installed.


The wishbone cleaned and painted.


Actually, posting the picture of the painted wishbone reminds me of something else. As I was working on cleaning parts up, my friend talked to me about getting an angle grinder. So we went over to Tool King, found they had reconditioned Makita angle grinders for $35. That, and a cup brush, made my life a lot easier! Much better than trying to brush the parts by hand with a wire brush....