Rear A Arm Bushings

BD,

Before you start you need to check the ball joint for wear while it's still together. the best way to do this is to jack the back of the car until the rear wheels are nearly off the ground and then get a friend to put a large lever bar under each tyre and jack it up and down while you look to see if you can see any play in the upper ball joint and also put you hand around it to feel any play. While you are there you also need to check the lower shaft and wheel bearings for wear. To do this jack the rear so that both wheels are off the ground and the hand brake is off. Then hold the wheel at 9 O'clock and 3 O'clock and try to rock it side to side. You will need a friend to watch and feel for play while you do this. If you fell any play at all it will need rebuilding. It only takes a tiny amount of rear wheel steering (play) to make the car feel unstable under braking. Now hold the wheel at 12 O'clock and 6 O'clock to check for any play in the wheel bearings.

If your lucky the upper ball joint will still be in good condition. Mine have never been replaced and have no play at all. Your first challenge is to pop the upper ball joint taper out of the upright. Dont use a fork type ball joint splitter because this will destroy your rubber. From memory I had trouble getting my lever type splitter in there so I made a tool using a 12mm stud connector like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M12-...&hash=item3f1d0e2d6b
I them put a dimple in the top of a 12mm bolt on my lathe so that it can press against the bottom of the ball joint stud without slipping off. The bottom of the stud connector sits on the drive shaft coupling, you may have to wedge a peice of metal under it so make it sit straight and then wind the bolt out pressing upwards against the ball joint stud. You have to wind it very tight and then tap the side of the upright casting with a hammer while holding a heavy lump of steel on the other side, this have always worked for me.

Once it's off you will be able to asses the condition of the ball joint further - it should not be loose. Assuming it's in good condition you will have to refinish the arm with the ball joint still in place. I dont think it's possible to remove the ball joint from the arm without grinding the top off it. Strip the paint and rust off without using a sand blaster and wet paint the top arm (powder coating ovens get too hot for ball joints!) You would be wise to powder coat the bottom arm because it gets hit by stones from the front wheel.

If you solder a piece of 3/16" brake pipe into the threaded end of a grease nipple and then flatten the end you will be able to stick it down the side of the rubber boot and fill it with grease.

If you need to replace the wheel bearings dont do anything until you have asked the forum, there is lots to know!

Johnny

johnny, i love the red color of your car. is it possible to let me know the name,paint code and manufacture of the paint. thanks, mike mayberry

... just wondering - is #1386 a pushbutton door car or does it have the usual square doorhandles?

It must be within a few numbers of where they made the switch.

Hi Mike,

My paint is House of Kolor UK1 Brandywine over BC-01 Solar gold base. It changes quite a lot with different light as you would expect from a candy. Here's a pic of my car on the Classic and Sports car magazine stand at the NEC Classic car show last year. It looks very dark in these conditions. The people running the stand said they had the same question over and over for three days "What colour is that?"

If I lived in a nice sunny place like you I would probably have a slightly darker candy in the same colour.

Johnny

Thanks very much. i love the color and Im in the process of painting a 72 Pre L. I picked a color very close to yours from house of color. I will send some pics when Im done...thanks for the reply, mike

Square door handles.

BD, to answer your question about difficulty, it IS hard to pry the bottom of the upright out from the lower a-arm for bushing work. A crowbar or other big pry-tool works well. To get the thing back in, you'll likely need a big c-clamp to force the uprtight into the a-arm opening. And be careful- if the upper ball joint is first removed, the complete upright assembly weighs aabout 50 lbs and can/will hurt you in many ways if it suddenly comes free in your lap.
It will also be MUCH harder to assemble/disassemble if the thrust washers inside the two ends of the upright sealing assemblies have slightly shifted. They are located by very short dowel pins and I've found many thrust washers that have indentations from being forced together while the washers were misaligned. This effectively makes the lower end 1/8" wider between the a-arm bushings than the already tight press-fit that a properly assembled stock unit has. What Johnny said about the upper ball joint is valuable, as well.

Johnny and Bosswrench -
Thanks for your advice.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny Woods:
BD,


Once it's off you will be able to asses the condition of the ball joint further - it should not be loose. Assuming it's in good condition you will have to refinish the arm with the ball joint still in place. I dont think it's possible to remove the ball joint from the arm without grinding the top off it. Strip the paint and rust off without using a sand blaster and wet paint the top arm (powder coating ovens get too hot for ball joints!) You would be wise to powder coat the bottom arm because it gets hit by stones from the front wheel.

If you solder a piece of 3/16" brake pipe into the threaded end of a grease nipple and then flatten the end you will be able to stick it down the side of the rubber boot and fill it with grease.

If you need to replace the wheel bearings dont do anything until you have asked the forum, there is lots to know!

Johnny

Hi Johnny,

Is there a correct method for replacing the ball joints on the upper rear arms? You mention "grinding the top off". Is that how it is done? Then do you press it out?

I want to change mine with new ones and don't want to damage the arms doing, so any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

Coolvet,

Grinding off the lip around the top of the old ball joint would be the best way I think. Try not to grind any of the A arm away. Then you will be able to press it out on a hydraulic press. Putting the new one in will be easy.

Johnny

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny Woods:
Coolvet,

Grinding off the lip around the top of the old ball joint would be the best way I think. Try not to grind any of the A arm away. Then you will be able to press it out on a hydraulic press. Putting the new one in will be easy.

Johnny

This is how I got mine out also.

I dont know the point of going to the trouble grinding the lip off. I just put a left over part from an exhaust pipe that fitted tightly round the ball joint and pressed it out. The old ball joint was of course got stuck in the pipe but thats supposed to been thrown away any way. Much easier than grinding the lip off with the possibility to harm the arm itself.

Janne

The issue is that there isn't usually enough material on the shoulder of the a-arm to install a spacer/sleeve to put it on the press.

On the bushings, I ground the small steel shoulder off of them in order to get enough of a shoulder on the a-arm itself to press against.

The ball joint has a little more of a shoulder.

I believe that there were special spacers included in the "dealer Pantera special service tools" kit for this originally when the car was new?

I haven't seen a kit offered for sale in 20 years, if ever? Hard to remember at this point.

"Necessity is the mother of invention". Most of us winding up making special tools or jigs for what we need on these cars anyway.

quote:

I believe that there were special spacers included in the "dealer Pantera special service tools" kit for this originally when the car was new?

Yes.

quote:

I haven't seen a kit offered for sale in 20 years, if ever? Hard to remember at this point.

A complete kit was on eBay and another one on Craigslist a couple of months ago.

The removal tool for the upper rear ball joint is nothing more than a piece of heavy wall tubing (see pic on left).

The installation tool consists of another piece of heavy wall tubing that has an angle cut (center pic), and a "cap" that fits the ball joint (left pic). This "cap" could have easily been a piece of heavy wall tubing, or even a socket of the appropriate size.

John

Thats more or less the metod I used to replace them.

Janne

quote:

Originally posted by BD:
I just completed installing new A-Arm bushings on the front of 1386 and am about to tackle the rear A-Arm bushing install. I have removed the rear wheels and was looking over what will need to be done. I was wondering how difficult it typically is to remove the ball joint from the upper A-Arm? I would like to get the A-Arms refinished. Will the ball joint need to be pressed out? Should the ball joints be replaced at this time also? Any help or guidance in this area would be greatly appreciated.

I sent the rear upper a-arms to Wilkinson. They came back with new ball joints and VERY nice new bushings, all painted up pretty. Wasn't real expensive, either. I can check receipts if you need to know, or just call Steve and ask him.