I pulled a fast one. The alignment shop I used pressed my bushings for free under the gentleman's agreement that I would return to them for the front end alignment.

I have since moved twice and still have not the car on the road enough to warrant having that done yet.

I found out a few weeks ago that you can fit a 1 1/8" front sway bar into the car with a fully assembled front suspension. You have to remove the harmonic balancer to make room to worm it in, but it goes.

Since you're front suspension is apart, you've got it made. It will be easy.

Happy birthday Wouter! I consider being a true shade tree mech a badge of honor. Being self reliant and making do with what's on hand to get a job done safely is a mark of greatness.



That's why I took apart one side of the suspension.

Well, with the twins being almost 4 months, I can squeeze in about one sunday every two weeks to work on the Bird, so it's slow but steady progress. I'm almost finished witht he front end rebuild now, one side is totally finished, the other side is all out, just have to put it back in, which is only a few hours work. Replaced the anti-swaybar, the motormounts, and the entire front suspension ball joints, bushings, tierods, and springs. The old motor mounts were broken in half, both of them! So I'm curious of something changed in the handling of the car...

The upper control arm on the drivers side seemed to a be a bit bend on one side. Funny enough this was NOT to side where the bolt came off! I'm gonna try and bend it back..

what you do cut the strap when to release the spring?A friend of mine put the front springs back on his cougar this weekend and the spring slipped out of his compression device and went bounceing down the driveway.no one was hurt.

Ya Wouter, be careful there, I used 2 x 8 #1 fir material and a succession of large washer for those plates, that looks a bit thin, it could split on the grain. Also used a chain and lock for the safety strap...and a strong arm bar to torque it up...I wanted as many appendages as far away as possible...

I had a chain as well, and several precautions for safety. I cut the strap only when the spring was pressed in using the jack stand.

Any thoughts on the bent upper arm?

They just re-did all of these on my '67. I do not believe the arms were bent like that on mine. Something must have happened?

Maybe with your engine flopping around in there? A past car accident?

My shop made a special tool to compress the springs. They used a threaded rod with 1/2" plate steel top and bottom. Just like yours, but steel instead of wood. I remember them cussing and messing with these for a better part of a day (2 guys). They thold me that was the worst thing about the entire front re-build.

Thats kind of funny, I used my spring compressors and had them in the car in under 15 minutes per side. I took them out to paint them and cut a half coil off.

mine went in pretty fast as well, some wiggling and pressing off course...

the loose engine is an option, previous crash unlikely I think, no signs of front end damage. One bolt was pretty loose, perhaps the movement made it bend.

Just gonna have to bend it back and off I go again, with a brand new front end!

Finally completed the assembly of the entire front end this weekend. Got to have finished it! The new anti-sway abr is a bit thisck though, when I turn my wheel maximum it touches the drum, on both sides! Just a little bit, but still... Too thick?

Well, I know someone who'll have a $#!+ eatin' grin after a drive in the country.

You bet ya! Gotta get it ligned though, but I did make a little cruise!

#$%^&*(!!!!

Took a little drive across the parking lot and then decided to turn on the bolts with the torque wrench. Made a nice little list of all the torques. Started with the upper control arm bushing to shaft, 93 Nm I think, double checked, yes correct, so started turning, first did it untill about 75, klick, so it worked, nice, turnt it up to 93, slowly, PAM, bolt broke... IN the A-arm shaft... $%^&*(!!! Took the upper control arm off immediately, will replace it with another this week. D@MN I hate that. All finished, go by the book, follow the rules, and BAM, back to the jack stand... Not sure what went wrong...

Old bolt, new bolt? Maybe the wrong grade bolt for the job?

You need a new conversion calculator.

50 lb-ft = 68 Nm

http://www.metrication.com/cgi-bin/conve...amp;OutUnit=N.m

http://thefirstgensite.com/library/67fbservice/FI67S3.pdf

I know what went wrong.. I looked up the torques in my workshop manual, which showed for "Pontiac 70 lb". "Tempest" would be "50 lb". I read that as Tempest 50, al other Pontiacs 70... See the first attached pic. In Vickys link it showed 50, see the second attached pic.

Beware! It is a bit confusing if you ask me!

A-arm has been replaced and all bolts have been torqued last night.

Next up are the wheel bearings. Any tips & tricks on wheel bearing replacement...?

The Firebird Supplement to the '67 service manual would probably have been a little more helpful than what you started with.

Also make sure that your torque is applied with the right lubrication on the threads. That's normally not noted in the repair manual, but it is probably listed in the assembly manual.

I'm not at home at the moment, so I can't read mine to compare.