I know the WS6 package sounded promising back in 1978. It did outperform the Corvette that year, as rumor tells me and it was considerable improvement from the 1st gens. However, I don稚 imagine my bulk of American steel out handling any new sport cars on the road today. I got to give her the fighting chance, especially against the buzzing swarms of sport compacts. Muscle Cars were best driven in a straight line 30 thirty years ago. In contrast, today we hear things along the lines of Canyon Cravers, G- Machines, and Pro- Touring. This relatively new trend is the reason for readily available suspension parts for my slightly "Pro-Touring project car. We値l start the front with coil-overs and new Global West A-arms. I値l split this job into four parts, Teardown, Prep, Assembly and Testing.
The first thing you値l need for this project is about one grand for the Front suspension. That値l get you Global West upper A-arms, QA1 coil-over suspension, and some miscellaneous suspension parts (ball joints, bushing, paint and the rest). The fully assembled A-Arms will change you suspension geometry allowing for more camber (Translation: better handling). One desirable side effect is the comments you値l get on how ridiculously cool they look. The coil-over kit will allow you to change the height of your car and the stiffness of your shocks according to your mood, day of the week or severity of hemorrhoids (for you old timers). Global West can supply you with solid bushings for your lower A-arm. Polyurethane or polygraphite bushings are also widely available. Purchasing aftermarket lower A-arms are not worth the little fortune they値l cost you. They don't change the geometry and will only provide more strength over the already capable stock ones. The truth is OEM lower A-arms are acceptable for any budget.
If your garage is equipped with a decent arsenal of tools and common sense you値l find doing this job yourself a cost saving alternative. You値l need all your standard shop tools plus a few you can rent from an auto parts store. Springs are under compression, at no time should you disassemble suspension when unsure of what you are doing. Having your AC compressor out of the way will help provide more working space. Currently I have my engine bay emptied, allowing for enough space to have a good'ole engine bay poker game.
The final overview won't be in for a while, due to the engine being under work and all. However, I can assure you that end result will be something around WS6 times 9 (which of course would be WS54).
The bushing is completely gone, blown out, exploded, disolved, wasted or whatever you call something like this. A new polyurethane bushing will drastically improve the suspension.
This is the new set up that will be replacing our old spring and shock. Coil-overs allow for more adjustment.
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Complete Front End Rebuild Kit
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A-Arms with Del-A-Lum bushing
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Front Suspension springs are under tension make sure that when you are releasing them they will be released slowly. I hear stories of people hurting themselves, so take heed of this warning. It always helps to have a shop manual like Chiltons or Haynes around to help you sort everthing out. The teardown will cover everything from removing ball joints, removing the spring and steering linkage.
Alright, lets start.
This is what you'll need to start out with. (Top Left) Global West upper A-Arm completely assembled. (Bottom Left) QA1 coil-over spring. This is actually the wrong shock, it is a GMP-11 kit. The actual shock needed for a 70-81 Firebird is a GMP-31 kit with a GMP-3 shock. I found out the hard way thanks to the incorrect Jegs catalog(Jegs is still cool though). (Left Middle) The lower polyurethane bushings will be needed, however you can discard your upper bushings because they are installed in the Global West A-Arms.
Obviously pull you car into you garage, under your shade tree or shop. If your a self-proclaimed weekend mechanic like me it my take awhile so plan accordingly. Set your car up on jacks. I prefer the rear axle and front subframe.
Start by removing the top bolt on your shock. This may be difficult because the shock rod will spin. So use a vice-grip to hold the rod at the top while you turn the bolt. Removing the top bolt will be a little cramped. Remove the two bolts on the bottom and slide the shock out. (left)Mikes not giving you the finger, he's pulling out the shock.
The steering linkage will be in your way later, so take it off now. You'll need a GM steering linkage and pitman arm puller for this. After removing the cotter pin and bolt. Set it up the tool so the clamp hooks around the spindle. Tighten it down until the stud pushed out.
If your engine and transmission are gone like me you'll be in a bit of a pinch. Right now the front of the car is about six hundred pounds lighter than before. Therefore, I will not have enough weight to compress the spring. I managed to find some weight from an exercise machine that worked perfectly. Notice the brake lines have been removed. If you plan not to do this, just remove your calipers and set them aside. Set the weight on the car, if you need it. Compress the spring by lifting a jack under the A-Arm. Don't lift the car off jacks under the frame. With the spring compressed remove the cotter pin and loosen the lower ball joint nut, do not remove it.
It's HammerTime! You'll need your pickle fork now to separate the ball joint stud from the spindle. Wedge it between them and start using that sledge hammer. Eventually the ball joint should separate from the spindle, nothing should move because the lower ball joint nut should hold it together if anything goes wrong. The spring should be compressed enough so lower arm is holding the spindle and upper A-Arm up. The bolt on the lower ball joint should be easy enough to remove with your hand. If not, there could be two problems: not enough weight in the front of the car to compress the springs far enough or the threads are gummed up really bad.
Notice the jack under the A-Arm compressing the spring. Note: Ignore the chain around the spring as it did not serve any purpose in the removal of the spring. The big thing in the corner is the Hammer and Hand.
Now that the bolt is off slowly lower the A-Arm with your jack. Watch carefully as it is easy to catch the splash shield on the tip of the A-Arm. Once it is completely lowered the spring should pop out easily. Pull out the spring and set it aside as you will probably never use it again.
(Left) This is the spring after it has popped out. The spring may get stuck in the A-Arm and Frame as the A-Arms is lowered and flex. With a little caution and wiggling around the spring should come out.
If you plan to rebuild/replace the whole front end, I recommend removing the whole spindle assembly right now. After I removed the spring, I lightly screwed the lower ball joint back onto the spindle to hold everything in place. I then removed the upper ball joint cotter pin and loosened the bolt. Pull out your good old sledge hammer and pickle fork. Put some elbow grease into this one because it is just a bit tougher. After that the spindle should drop off the bolt and you can loosen the nut and remove it after that. (Left) Notice the Upper Ball Joint nut has not been removed, it is still there so when the spindle is removed it doesn't smack onto the ground. Now you can pull out the spindle and we will rebuild this later. While your at this point in the job go a head and loosen the caliper bolts it will save you time later.
Now we start removing the A-Arms. (Left)The A-Arm assembly is held on by 2 bolts. If your engine is out it is pretty simple to remove the passenger side A-Arm. On the drivers side the steering column/shaft is in the way. Remove the two bolts connecting the shaft to the steering box. You can also help remove it by loosing or removing the mounting bolts on the steering box to help pull it off. The Lower A-Arm is very straight forward. Just remove the nut and bolt and hammer it out.
