I thought that I would put together a thread to update the suspension work that I've been doing on my 83 GS. I finally got most of the parts I need and will be doing the following:

-Tokico HPs
-RB Springs
-Full ES Bushing kit
-New drums and rotors
-New Pads & Shoes
-New front calipers
-Repack wheel bearings
-Rubber undercoating the wheel wells
-Hopefully some braided stainless brake lines

Anyway, I've got most of the parts ready to go so I thought that I would go ahead and dive in. The shocks, struts, and front rotors are already apart so I had a pretty good first night. I'm working on those blasted locknuts on the top of the struts. I've got a friend who is going to let me borrow his impact gun, so that will hopefully zip them right off of there....

Here is the majority of the parts, all laid out for a final check. It would appear that everything is ready to go...



Here is Rosie up on jackstands, preparing herself for the long operation that is about to begin.



The racing beat springs are ready to be painted....



Here is the paint that I decided to try. It ended up working out okay. It doesn't cover very well, but dries fast, and is pretty hard...



Struts are off!



Shocks are off!!

 

The old rotors are off and ready to have the wheel bearings and races removed....



Wheel bearings and all associated parts have been removed from the rotor. They are ready to be cleaned up...



Bearings are all cleaned and ready to go into the new rotor!



A better closeup of the clean parts....



What's left of the front suspension so far....



The rears ready to be taken apart....





That's it for now! Stay tuned for more when I get the impact gun to break those dern nuts off of my struts!

Jamie
Glazedham42

 

Drums? Good progress so far. Drums?

 

So Rosie has a split persomality. A 1st gen hiding in a 2nd gen body. I think she's in need of a little theapy.

 

Good post. I'm planning on doing pretty much the same to my 85 GSL SE and look forward to watching your progress. With all the new parts, why not install new bearings?

 

No love for the rear brakes huh Jeff? I heavily contemplated finding a LSD rear end, but they were all about $200. And those were the ones that needed quite a bit of TLC. So I figured to get the LSD rear, with disc brakes, swap everything over, get it cleaned up, and all the parts repaired and replaced I'd be looking at $300-400. I decided just to stick with what I've got for now. It's a good rear end, and gets the job done for now. Maybe someday I'll make the switch...

 

It's not that kind of operation!!!!

 

First off, Rosie only has about 90,000 miles on these wheel bearings. They are original, but they are also fairly low mileage. Also, I don't really want to spend $50-100 on new wheel bearings all around right now. So I think that I'm just going to put them back in and reuse them for a while. Second of all, even after these bearings have reached their "life expectancy" there is a 90% chance that they will keep on going. This is usually known as an L-10 bearing life. It basically says that the life expectancy of a bearing is determined by when 10% of a manufactured lot has failed. I'm not going to replace my wheel bearings just because someone else's have failed. I'm gonna keep using them until they make some noise, or start to wear out...

http://www.epi-eng.com/BAS-BearingLife.htm

 

great start to the project. what brand of drums are you going to use? from the picture, it looked as if the cooling fins were more agressive.

 

I'm doing pretty much the same thing right now. Except instead of new brake rotors and drums, I opted for respeed coilovers and illumina's. I'm also doing tie rod ends and ball joints.

Question for you. Are you going to re-paint your strut housings or leave them all nasty and rusty?

 

Dave,

They are just OE replacements that I got from Carquest. I'm not sure if you have Carquest stores over in Ohio, but for some reason they can get rotors and drums for about half the cost of Autozone. I got the front and back together for $120. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

The rear drums actually look functionally nicer than the old ones that are on the car right now. As you mentioned the cooling fins look a little different. I'll let you know what I think of them when I step on the pedal for the first time...

 

After I get the inserts out of the front struts I'm going to wirebrush and sand them down so they are clean and smooth. Then they will be getting several generous coats of Duplicolor Ford Blue engine paint. Then I might hit them with some wheel clear coat when I'm done, just to keep the paint from chipping off. I'll be sure to post pictures....

 

The difference between that OEM spring and RB spring is amazing. Looks good, I can't wait to do this to my car. Where did you get all your parts? What other wear items are replacing in regards to the suspension/steering?

 

Hmm, I was thinking of sandblasting them, but I do have a wire brush also and no sandblaster. I don't think mine are as rusty as yours.

 

The Tokico HPs I got on E-bay for $160 shipped. They were listed for $184 but I made an offer and they took it. I got the RB springs from another forum member, and they are gently used. The energy suspension kit I got from EnergySuspensionParts.com. It was the best price I could find, and they threw in the front strut rod bushings at no extra cost. For some reason the other kits I looked at didn't include those bushings.

Jamie

 

Hey, that's a compliment in the 1st gen section!!! Thanks!!

 

All I know is somebody swapped in a GSL rearend into my S model and it seems to work pretty well. I wouldn't have kept it had it had the stock drums.

 

The car or the rear end? I'll most likely end up doing this swap at some point in the future. Right now money is kinda tight for me to be changing anything that isn't broken or ineffective. All the parts I'm replacing are worn out anyway, so I can justify buying the HPs and the ES kit pretty easily. I'd have a hard time replacing a functioning rear end when I only get $100 a month to play with.

This is my first time ever messing with the suspension on any car, so I think it will do me some good to figure out how everything works before I go changing it around. I'm looking forward to working on something new for a change.

 

Did all S models have drums?

I was just going to put a 12A in it and sell it, but the cool LSD rear end and the way it drove convinced me to keep it. Now I'm even contemplating a 20B install. All I've got to do is put another 12A in it, drive it around for a while and compare it to another possible 20B candidate. Then make my final decision.

 

I did the same thing to mine last weekend. Hope you have a can of PB Blaster and a torch for burning out the bushings.

I ended up rebuilding a GSL rear end. Ended up costing about $600 with the new brakes and bearings.

 

Do you have any advice on burning out the bushings? Do you heat them up and then press them out while they are still hot or just burn them all the way out? I haven't done this before so I'm looking for tips. I do have access to a torch, which will help.

What is the easiest way to get the new bushings in? Billy from Respeed told me that a bench vise will work if used properly. I don't have a bearing press unfortunately...

 

I was thinking that they did Jeff. If I remember right the S was the lowest trim model and only came with the necessities. I don't think they would've put the LSD rear on the S model. I could be wrong though.

The other 20B candidate is the GLC right? I'd like to see either of those projects come to fruition. Although I'm a diehard 1st gen guy, I think that I have to root for the GLC to get the 20B. There's just something about it being so wrong that it's right. Good luck getting either of those cars to hook up with a 20B powering the rear wheels. What a great problem to have.....

 

I think it will come down to this: the 20B was already in the GLC so I got to experience what that was like. It's probably ok to try the engine in a faster chassis now. The GLC should do just fine with a stock ported 4 port 13B and a Sterling carb.

 

Drill a series of holes around the bushing and then burn them out with a torch. Just let them burn away over a tin can or something

 

Jeff..i dunno about the other years..but i know that the 81 S that 81gen has drums..and my 83 has drums..