Steering: Front Suspension Bushing Replacement

[studebakerkid]

I started replacing the shot rubber bushing in my 65 today and I ran into a snag with the Delrin kit that a vendor here offers. The vendor supplies fender washers and that is fine but when using this kit you also need to replace the retaining capscrews as the stock ones for the upper control arm do not have enough threads so the threads bottom out before the cap screw gets tight. The lower bushing retaining capscrews have threads to the head.

This kit is tapped so each new bushing has a grease zerc.

I have attached a photo to stress that when one has a shop do work on ones car that does not mean that the work was done right. Twenty some years ago I was driving my 65 and went from 65 MPH to zero in ten feet when I rear ended some lady backing off a freeway on ramp. I tore the front crossmenber loose. I sent the 65 to a frame shop where they straightened the front frame and welded the crossmember back in. Today I discovered that I have a cracked frame in the coil spring area. It will weld up fine with my wire welder.

[StudeRich]

FYI; I think if you are using some kind of device to post with that has a spellchecker, you might want to proofread them before posting because most of your Posts are difficult to understand.

No matter how High Tech. these Machines get, they will never be able to THINK!

[studebakerkid]

There is no spell checker that I can find in this message thing and with my dyslexia what I wrote looked ok.

[r1lark]

There is no spell checker that I can find in this message thing and with my dyslexia what I wrote looked ok.

Looks ok to me too.

[Skybolt]

Most of the time I couldn't tell if it was spelt properly or not. If my mind has processed the word its a done deal. Many words can be misspelled with only the letters rearranged and the mind sees it as it should be. No big deal as that post is legible.

Back to the post questions. From what i have been told the Delrin bushings don't need the same preload as regular rubber so no need to go too tight. With the rubber ones the inner shaft was held tight against the bushing inner sleeve and the outer metal of the bushing was pressed into the A-arm. Hence the reason behind not tightening the screws all the way until the car is on the ground and the A-arms parallel to the ground or close enough to it. The Delrin have no inner sleeve and the shaft rotates inside the bushing. It has been hard for me to get the instructions for any set of Delrin bushings, and I have had three sets over the years from different vendors.

The other thing that needs to be noted is I have had trouble with frame cracking with Delrin bushings. Not that they caused the cracking but on old or previously cracked frames these bushings are not very forgiving. They will not cushion the ride and the most stressed areas of the frame will be even more so. Make sure the repair is done well and add some gusseting in locations mentioned over the years to alleviate further cracking. Most importantly where the frame rails meet the front crossmember on the inner engine side. This location is near the fuel pump on the driver's side of a V8 car and the passenger side of a L6. Do both sides. My location description was just so you knew where on the frame the rails and crossmember met.

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...36-Frame-crack a forum post about the crack.

http://www.studebaker-info.org/tech/...damage/fd.html in this link you will see two ares of concern. I have not seen the first myself but the bottom one I have.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Studebaker-C...-/251794472902 this link shows the type of gusset and in the discription you will read more about the problem.

If you don't want to make them he sells them from this site http://www.1956goldenhawk.com/hagen/ at the bottom of the page.


Len

[studebakerkid]

Thanks for the links. The passengers side does not look so good either so what I thought was just going to be a two weekend in and out has now turned into a project. I will be pulling the fenders and grill tonight so my nephew who does not get the shakes can weld that cross member in proper. Just as well i pulled the Toyota T cab out of the shop so I can finish it sitting on my cartrailer. Looks like I will be driving the 54 wagon with one eye and Pinkie for a while till the T cab is ready. I have had outer front fender skins hanging with POR drying for five to eight years. Looks like I will be finally putting them on sooner then later as I need to have the 54 in the shop over Winter. Looks like my 65 is going to change color from burnt orange to doeskin as I need doeskin for the 54 and it dont make sence to waste money on different colors but then I do have most of a gallon of JD green.......hmmmmmm

[studebakerkid]

I have the fron fendes pulled now and am scrapeing deckades of grease off everthing. Once I get the grease oof I will wire wheel the placed that need welding shiney bright to get a good stick.