hi all, finally am getting around to the front end work I have taken the little jewel to 3 frt end shops so far and have had 3 different diagnosis .... I told them I wanted to know what the car needed and to quote a price ..... one said upper ball joints and rebuild idler arm. .... one said idler arm and rght side outer tie rod end .... the last one basically listed every component under there and $600 labor (I guess I looked rich??:confused: ) my ??? is this, other than the idler arm rebuild, what can I do without breaking the bank? this is a daily driver, but it can be down for a few days (I can drive the van ) I'm not the mechanic that it seems a bunch of you are, but I do have a shop and some tools and can perform enough to be dangerous .....(you know, fix one problem, create two) I have already bought the spring perches and insulators and the two upper ball joints, but if the ball joints are not needed, then that is ok..... is there a bushing rebuild kit available ( I have the cj pony parts cat... but don't know what yr to ask for ... they don't either) using the frt end shop for as little as possible since they all seem to think the green paint on my car means money .....thanks and sorry to ramble.... Robert
You can do it all yourself pretty cheap. The only "special" tools you'll need is a spring compressor and something to pop the tie rod ends and ball joints, if your going to reuse them. You can even do your own alignment if you want. I spent less than $100 for caster / camber and toe gages. Been doing my own alignments for years. The first time you use the gages they pay for themselves. It's handy to have gages when you hit a pot hole or curb and want to check if anything got knocked out. There's a lot of good articles on the internet about doing this work at home, just do a search. For good prices on suspension parts go to www.rockauto.com
advanceautoparts.com is also a great source... best of it is, there are advance auto parts stores here and there. same prices on the 'net. i use both rockauto and advanceauto. my personal favorite is advanceautoparts.
checkin the rock auto site seems to have great prices, hard to navigate though ... will check locally also ..... I figure I'll have a few days around christmas to work on 'er ... thanks ..... Robert
Be careful if you "rent" a spring compressor from auto zone. When I rebuilt my front end I got one from them and the threads on the bolt in the spring compressure striped out. If you do get one make sure to use anti seize on the threads. Or better yet get a higher quality one. Those springs have ALOT of power in them when they are compressed. You can do the rebuild yourself. I did mine in a weekend with just hand tools,and the pickel fork and spring compressor. I got a frontend rebuild kit from www.P-S-T.com Russ
robert, give us a list of things you need to replace and we will let you know if there are any tricks to be done to make it any less dangerous. my son and i did the disk brake swap in 4 hrs. that was not knowing anything about what we were doing except what we learned on the board. good luck...frank...:bananaman
coil spring safety A friend of mine had a coil sring let loose when he was doing some front end work. Luckily he didn't get hit. The spring flew out, he heard it hit the ground and a garage door about a half block up the alley, then he lost track of it. I don't know if he ever did find it. When I take mine out I put a big heavy chain through it and attach it to the car so it won't go anywhere untill I take the tension off the compressor.
boooiiinnngggg I have heard some stories, and have seen a hole in shop a shop ceiling from those springs, that's why my first idea was to have a shop do it........ like I said, every shop had a different idea of what was wrong ...... I didn't think the frt end was a judgement call .... if worn out, fix/rebuild!!! The one constant so far is the idler arm ..... my quandry is that I have already bought the spring perches and to go in that far, I would hate to put it back together without knowing if I needed to replace something, or replace everything (rubber things(bushings) anyhow) and spend the extra $$ ..... still checking prices will check pst also ...... Robert:confused: the disk brake swap in 4 hrs. I am guessing this took all the frt end components out of the car? I will probably replace most everything... just time and money Right???
I would suggest replacing everything while you are at it. You can get pre-assembled upper a-arms that already come with a new ball joint and the shafts already installed. You can get a kit from American Pony. Tell them you have a 1972 Mustang. Same as a Maverick.
And such is the saga with dealing with shops. It's getting harder to find one that is really honest. I've been lucky that I have one that does what I cannot or will not and never rapes me or tries to do what is not necessary. The dealerships are not much better these days with labor charges in excess of $100/hour now. A good example is that I needed to replace the fuel pump in the front tank of my F-150 (dual tanks). Ford wanted over $600 to do it, just the pump. I had my garage do it including a new tank and sending unit for $365 and with a lifetime warranty on the pump to boot. I got lazy. NAPA carries virtually everything that is needed for the front ends of our Mavs and the prices are right in line. Spring compressors are not expensive and can be gotten much anywhere. I understand your hesitancy about using a compressor, and they can be dangerous. If you want to farm out the rebuild, find someone you know and trust and see where they take their cars. Referrals are usually the best way to find someone to do the work rather than random checking. You probably know that already, though. I'm rebuilding the front of the 4 door and I'm going to do it myself. I found everything at NAPA. Now...if I could just find the time.......
I got mine from JC Whitney probably 10 or more years ago, but I've seen the same ones for sale in different tool catalogs. Do an internet search and you'll find dozens of places that sell them, and almost as many different versions.
THANKS since my hunter monitor went out ( sorry no replacement available , but will sell you a NEW one for 15k) I havent been able ta do alignments. I miss that cause MOST places put in the spec window. I like preferred settings on caster / camber ..most place today set the toe and let it go..I cant live with myself doing that ...enuff of the rant thanks a million guys !!
