Front End Rebuild Questions
 

After putting up with some low speed front end wobble for several years, I figured it was time to do something about it.

There was no detectable side to side motion on the wheels before I pulled everything apart, and the kingpins don't have any detectable wear or grooves.

I've pulled apart all the spindle arms and the pitman arm, and they're all worn. The spindle arms were about 0.995 in the least worn direction and 0.965 in the most worn direction. The pitman arm was much worse, the worn dimension was 0.920 (it appears one face was never greased). The Les Andrews book just says they need to be replaced if at all out of round, so I plan to replace all of them.

The last remaining problem as far as disassembly goes is how to remove the left spindle arm. So far, no amount of penetrating oil and whaling on it has gotten the nut to move at all. Its kind of a weird shape to hold, what's the right way to hold it for future attempts to get the nut to move? Haven't really found a good way to clamp it in a vice, and I'm worried if I reinstall it in the car that I might damage the kingpins or the bushings with the shockload from hitting a wrench with a hammer. Any ideas?

It looks like everyone sells teflon bearing surface kits for rebuilding the drag link and tie rods. Mine still have metal bearing surfaces. I assume that those are harder than the spindle balls so the balls wear not those? While everything is apart is the thing to do to replace the metal bearing surfaces with the teflon ones?

Left spindle arm that needs to be removed
https://i.imgur.com/7q4HFXqm.jpeg

Another view of stubbornly stuck spindle arm before degreasing & whaling
https://i.imgur.com/sVzkUUFm.jpeg

Example of pitman arm wear
https://i.imgur.com/OrddPzKm.jpeg

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

There have been a lot of threads about the Teflon seats. Everyone agrees they wear faster than the OEM steel seats. Opinions differ about whether this is a benefit (better to wear down the seats than the spindles) or a drawback. Some believe that properly greasing the steel seats would alleviate most of the additional wear on the balls. The bronze-impregnated Teflon seats are an attempt to get low friction with increased durability at higher cost. Neither of the Teflon seats have shown any problems with performance, it's really just a question of durability. If you're not using it as a daily driver or doing a lot of touring, my guess is either Teflon seat will last many years.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

Did you check the wishbone ball/socket situation ? That is often in need of rebuilding. Bill

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

Don't forget to straighten the axle, it is the foundation for all the other work you are doing. It has been my experience after rebuilding over 100 front ends that 99% of the axles are bent. I also suggest you replace the king pin bushings. They may feel "tight" but I bet there is some wear. Regarding your frozen nut, heat it with a torch and it will break loose. Just some ideas I have learned from experience.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

Replacing the crumbling rubber ball in mine with the stock setup sure made a huge improvement with my Coupe.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

You already have the best fixture there is for holding the spindle. Reassemble it & the king pin, & king pin bearing back into the axle. This will hold the spindle so you can actually put real pressure on the wrench to loosen the steering arm nut. Better than a wrench would be a half inch breaker bar and impact socket. Better still would be an impact gun with same socket. There is no good place to clamp the spindle itself into a vise. You'll do damage to surfaces that should not be damaged as they will take the brunt of the thrust when you "wale" on the wrench. This will eventually cause the spindle to find it's way out of wherever you clamp it in the vise and cause harm to the surfaces where they were clamped in the vise jaws. Mounted back in the axle allows that torque to be used where it is necessary ............ on the nut. Good luck.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

Is that a cotter pin I see?

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

@BrianH, yep looks like there is a cotter pin in that picture, I promise I removed it though before I attempted to remove the nut.

@SpringerPete, good call on the wishbone. Looking at the Les Andrews book and reading on the fordbarn sounds like that is probably most of the deathwobble problem, although obviously all of this other stuff was worn as well.

Yep, this worked. The 18" breaker bar was sufficient on its own to get the nut off, which was a little disappointing since I bought a torch. All is well that ends well though, the torch did end up being required to separate the spindle and the steering arm.

https://i.imgur.com/JBgkFatl.jpeg
The axe stood in for a hammer, since I couldn't find my hammer.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

Along these lines, how much wear is acceptable on the ball joints? Given they are all under spring tension, what difference does it make if it's ovaled a coupled hundreths, the spring maintains contact with the same force, and when it doesn't, you can tighten the end nut... so when is it too worn?

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

Well with too much wear, oval shape, the spring tension can’t be constant. If tight enough to take up the slack in worn positions it will be too tight when turning towards less worn round areas.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

Yeah, I was wondering that too. Having experienced the death wobble clearly there is a bunch of play in the front end, but it isn’t obvious to me how a couple tenths in a few pivot points results in so much motion at the wheels! I’m guessing the play at the radius rods ends up being a big player in getting so much motion at the wheels?

And FWIW, all the books say replace for basically any wear.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

To answer your question, any wear that you can feel with your finger is too much. When you mention a couple of hundredths, that number is written as 0.020, -or twenty thousandths of an inch. That is enough to cause a shimmy if the cup springs are incorrectly adjusted, -or very difficult to steer if they are adjusted as normal.

As mentioned, when the load of the spring is properly adjusted in static or neutral position, when the tie rod is turned, the spring must be compressed further if there is wear on the steering ball. This not only make the steering more difficult as extra force on turning the steering wheel is necessary to overcome the spring pressure, -and even with extra axle caster, it also does not like to return to the neutral area (straight ahead) which can be a safety issue.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

I follow your explanation, and it makes sense at some degree of wear, but isn't .02" less than one thread pitch on the cap screw? (Guessing, not going out to the garage right now to measure it) So the added tension from the elongation would be quite small, especially as the added tension ramps up over the entire face of the ball, meaning the tension slowly increases as you steer away from center.

Given the small amount of steering play that is omni present in these cars, it seems to me that any shimmy has plenty of fertile ground to play in, not just the small tension change in ball joints.

Certainly not a pro here, just asking.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

A vehicle with proper caster and toe-in should not shimmy, if other steering components are in good condition.

When you have shimmy problems or "the death wobble", there are always a multitude of steering components to evaluate... worn king pins, brakes dragging, toe-in not set correctly, worn wishbone, wheel bearings etc.

You should be able to totally disconnect the drag link and the car should want to run straight, without shimmy (just hypothetically speaking.... please do not try this).

As long as spring tension is maintained on the steering balls, it should not be a factor in wheel shimmy.. It might contribute to harder steering during turning, but not shimmy.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

After a couple of month break, reassembled everything today (new spindle arms, new pitman arm) and took a short drive. Drove over some road surfaces that used to excite the death wobble, and no death wobble!

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

Good to hear you got it fixed. One item people overlook is the front spring. Does the spring still have a good arch? Most have become flat over time. This will effect the front end also.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

I went through this and more and inspected an or replaced a lot of stuff. In the end it was the spring perch nuts. Drivers side took a full turn and a half. Passenger side took 3/4 of a turn. The axle was walking/wobbling. Tightened those up and in my case , no more wandering.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

I am in the same position of rebuilding the front end. As to the ends of the drag link and tie rod, I have always thought with new springs and cups installed, the end cap should be tightened until the cotter pin can be installed and not any more.

Is this the proper way or have I missed something?

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

[B]Tacoma Bob[/B So did you observe any wear with the perch or axle or nut? With the cotter pin installed I cannot see how the nut could come loose.

I'm not saying the nut was not loose, but cannot understand why/how if none of the above is not worn.

Re: Front End Rebuild Questions
 

That's how I had to redo mine. Initially I ran the plugs in 2 turns past flush and it made everything way too tight, hard to steer and slow to self center going down the road. Loosened up the plugs to just flush, redid the toe in and haven't looked back since. This was with all stock parts, no teflon.