Quote:
Originally Posted by kevins2
Something to look forward to as I wait for my kit... 
Regards,
Kevin |
Those clamps Dangerous Doug mentioned might be worth looking into, although I'm not exactly clear how he applied them. I had a small 1 ton press I bought years ago at Harbor Freight that was handy for pressing the sleeve into the lower arm bushings. Pressing them in was about the only way they would go. Pounding on them with a rubber mallet didn't do anything. A good size bench vise will probably work too. After that I couldn't figure out much of anything else except to lube everything up real well and carefully try to get the rear bushing started into the mount. Once it gets started then the instructions in the manual to gently rock the arm up and down while keeping pressure on it finally got it in enough to where I could use punches and drifts through the bolt holes to work it the rest of the way in and line up so the bolt would go in. The front bushing rest on the front of the frame cross member and kind of go along for the ride after the rear one gets started.
I'll add one thing - I'm impressed with the beef of the front suspension in the ERA. I think it would hold up 5000 lb Caddilac without trouble. There's nothing dainty about it. It appears clearly more robust to me than the front end of my 66 Corvette.