Putting stuff back together - part 1.

So, last time I posted something, we done preparing all the parts - paint, cleaning, etc. So I finally decided to re-install things. This is the time you find out if parts fit together again, if one purchased the right parts, and such things. The other tricky thing is trying to remember how things fit together again.

So first, I started with the lower a-arms. I installed the lower bracket first, then the a-arm halves. I later discovered most folks assemble the bracket and a-arms, then install that onto the car chassis, which seems more reasonable. Either method works, though.

Then it was on to the upper part of the suspension. The upper camber arm was simple enough, but the caster ball joint was a bit tricky, since there is very little room for tightening the bolts that hold the ball joint onto the front fender. Using an box wrench worked OK, but it required a bit of patience.

Then onto the steering knuckle (which I've been calling the "upright" all along.) This was a bit awkward, since it's such a big, bulky part. The trick is to attach it to the upper caster arm first, then work the lower a-arm into place, then torqueing both joints.

Once this is completed, one installs the front brake dust covers. This are bolted to the steering knuckle. Other things are attached togehter with the dust covers: the steering bracket (which connects to the steering arms) and various brake lines and brackets.

Next up was the front hubs and brake rotors. This can be a bit messy, since it requires packing the bearings and the inside of the hub with enough fresh bearing grease. Again, light use of a rubber mallet helps seat the hubs onto the axles. Torqueing the hubs was simple enough - torque to 20lb/ft, then loosen up and retorque to 10 lb/ft, then loosen just enough to align the casellated nuts with either of the holes in the axle stub. Install and bend a cotter pin in place, and you are all set.


Next up was the brake calipers. This was also fairly straightforward, although care must be taken to route the brake lines correctly, making sure they do not contact any moving parts or anything similar.


At this point, the suspension looks pretty much ready to go. The only things missing are the springs, spring pans, dampers, and steering links. Leaving the steering links for last allows for maneuvering the steering knuckle out of the way when needed.

The springs and spring pans require the old "long threaded rod" trick described earlier in the blog, but in reverse. Again, it is important to grease the treads of the rods thoroughly to help prevent any binding or thread stripping. I also used only two rods vs. three, in order to save time.

This procedure went well (even though it took a while - about 90 minutes per side.) The only hiccup was making sure the spring pans aligned correctly. Once the spring pan is close enough to the a-arms, use of a rubber mallet can move the pan onto proper alignment.

The threaded rod process works well, but the rods are good for one remove-install cycle. Afterwards, the threads do show some wear, at which point it's better to throw them away and not risk any major incidents.

With the springs installed, the last thing required is attaching the steering rods. Again, this is a very straightforward operation. With all things tied up, the car can be lowered onto its wheels, and final tightening of all nuts/bolts can be done.

Lowering the car is one of those "moments of truth". Consider that we are installing new springs, and although one has an idea on the resulting ride height, one does not really know for sure until the rubber hits the road - literally. The initial results were very encouraging - the ride height is just lower than the original ride height. The hope is that, even with the slightly decreased ride height, brake dive will be controlled and limited by the stiffer springs and fresh dampers. I won't these results until I test drive the car, but for now, I am very encouraged with what I see.

Once the car is settled on the floor, I tightened the lower a-arm nuts, and the upper caster arm bolt/nut. This helps remove any pre-stressing of the bushings, which helps keep the car's ride height nicer, and helps the bushings to last longer.


Next up - water pump, radiator, battery; the car lives...

Another Detour

A few folks on the AlfaBB have indicated the presence of "might as wells" when performing suspension work of any kind. You know, "might as well repack the hubs and bearings", or "might as well paint stuff."

Over the past week, I've been distracted with an unplanned "might as well." In this case, it involved the inner fenders.
You see, the inside fenders were coated with lots of dirt, over which a layer of undercoating was sprayed. On top of that, some of the body paint oversprayed into the inner fenders, making things look a bit strange. However, there was no sign or rust or any other nasty/terminal things. To my untrained eye, everything looked functionally OK (if not necessarily pretty.)

Given this, I originally planned leaving the inner fenders alone. But the thought of trying to paint the inner fenders started creeping up on me. And the guys at Group 2 gave me enought pointers that I felt I'd be able to try this without hurting myself too badly.

First, one must clean all the gunk and dirt. Since the car was parked inside my garage, I used a few drip pans, a big bucket of water, a few spray bottles to limit the amount of water getting sprayed all over the garage, as well as a big cleaning brush and tons of paper towels. To clean the inner fenders, I used a degreaser called "Krud Kutter." Since "krud" would be a good description of the stuff facing me, I figured this would be useful. I diluted the degreaser down 5:1, and sprayed it all over the inner fender, scrubbing with the brush and paper towels.

Cleaning the inner fender area exposed the car's original color - which I can't still figure out. The original color is either Rosso Amaranto () or Prugna (Plum Purple). The current car color is Alfa Red; if I ever restore the car, I'll probably go back to the original color - I think it would look great.
(Note: here is an Alfa Bulletin Board post of a much nicer GTV in Rosso Amaranto. )

Cleaning was tedious, messy, wet, and uncomfortable. It took me three nights (1.5 hours per night) to get the fenders clean enough for spraying.

Once clean, I masked a few sections, and coated the inner fenders with Wurth High-Build Underseal (this thing sticks to everything!) Again, the lack of room made spraying very uncomfortable. But with a bit of patience, I was able to spray things OK.

After about 90 minutes, the undercoating had dried enough to remove the masking. Also after 90 minutes, the buzz from all the chemicals started to wear off, too!

So now, the inner fenders look much better - not councours quality, but good enough for daily driver car. And I am hoping the undercoating will help keep rust away for a bit longer.
And again, the guidance from the guys at Group 2 was very dead on - this is something that was doable, and seems to have worked well (so far.)

I left parts of the inner fender without painting, in order to leave the original color exposed. These areas did not look rusty at all - the paint was holding up very well. I figured this way, if/when I repaint this car, I'll be able to match the original paint.

Given the limited space, I am happy with the results. I give myself a C grade - not necessarily great, but passing nonetheless.


Next up: I start putting things back together. Really... I mean it this time... Seriously...

Item C, Revisited.

A few postings ago, I described the process of fixing the suspension as:

a) Take the suspension apart - remove every part from the car.
b) Clean up the parts
c) Replace any non-usable parts with new parts
d) Put it all together.

So, a few weeks back, I ended up buying a set of springs for the car from Group 2 here in Seattle. The folks at Group 2 also sourced a bunch of other parts for me. I figured I'd list some of them here:

- Koni Sport dampers - these things are beautiful

(A note about shocks: again, dampers are one of those things different folks have different opinions about. Unfortunately, in some cases, dicussions about the benefits/drawbacks of specific dampers turn into religious wars, of the sort: "My damper is better than yours." There is a lot of irrational dicussions about dampers out there on the web.

As for me, I'll admit, I probably can't tell the difference between a Koni damper from a stick of crap -- seriously! But for some irrational reason, I like Koni dampers. I can't tell why: maybe it's the name; maybe it's the adjustability; maybe it's the fact that they come from Holland. They are like a safety blanket. Go figure...

I guess I am not immune from irrational sentimentality, either.)

- Bump stops














- Adjustable upper camber arms (the bottom piece.)
Note: the piece at the top of the photo is the upper caster arm, painted and ready to install. I did replace the ball joint at the far left of the caster arm.

--Ball Joints.















Just looking at all these parts makes me drool.

Painting

The main reasons behind my work with the suspension are mostly functional: better spring rates to help keep the car from bottoming out; replacing old bushings and ball joints to make sure the suspension is tight and taught.
In order to do all this, pretty much every part of the suspension is removed from the car. With all these parts out, there are a few "you might as wells" lurking out there. One of them has been mentioned: servicing the hubs and bearings, to make sure they all work nicely.

But the big one is re-painting all the various suspension parts. This serves a functional purpose: keeping rust from attacking the suspension parts. Admittedly, this is not the main reason; rather, painting the suspension parts makes the suspension look good.

Repainting the parts involves three major steps:
1. Remove old paint, dirt, junk from parts
2. Paint the parts
3. Inspect and repeat as necessary.

These pictures show some of the parts before cleaning, with all the dirt, old paint, and overspray all over them.


For removing the old paint, I used a few gallons of industrial purple degreaser (shipped in
various brands.) I dilluted it down with water 1:1, to make it a bit easier to handle (i.e. it burns my skin a little less quickly.) Even then, this is nasty stuff - the thing will burn skin, ruin your eyes, kill grass, dissolve aluminum, and do all sorts of nasty things. But it "melts" paint and grease, and is fairly effective at removing paint.

Even then, I still had to use a few metal brushes to scrape paint and rust from the various pieces. This was tedious, messy work. Once done, I sprayed everything with WD-40 to help prevent rust from forming on the bare metal pieces. The pictures here show the parts after cleaning/degreasing, and masked for painting.

Once the weather cooperated, it was time to paint things. I used Brakeleen brake cleaner to remove the WD-40 from the metal pieces. I also used lacquer thinner as a final prep step.

For paint, I used VHT Chassis and Roll Bar Spray Paint (Gloss Black.) This is an epoxy paint, that in theory forms a nice, strong, rust-protecting layer. Initially I used two and a half cans of the stuff. Unfortunately, some of the parts got scraped up (more on that in a future post.) So I had to repaint a few of the pieces.



The results are pretty neat: shiny black parts, some of which look almost new. I'll be honest: this is the first time I've painted anything this involved in my life. Although the color is not perfectly uniform or concours-grade, I am very happy with the results.

Things I would do different if I had to do this again;

a) Find a sandblaster shop, and have all the pieces sandblasted. Again, degreasing/cleaning the parts was time consuming, tedious, and tiring. It took a few weekends for me to do all this. I suspect a sandblasting shop can have these parts shiny-clean in a few days.

b) I would re-consider powder coating rather than painting. The most annoying part of painting these parts was waiting for the proper weather conditions. This spring has been particulary wet and cold, which has stretched the paint job by a few months. I suspect a powdercoat shop could have turned this job around in a week or two.

Doing all the work myself did save me some money, but if I had known how long painting was going to take me, I probably would have had a shop paint/powdercoat all the stuff for me.

Springs, Part 5 - New Toys.

So, in the last post, I mentioned my adventures with hubs and wheel bearings, and how Group 2 helped me with this. During my visit, I figured I'd ask Joe English, Group 2 proprietor, about springs.

Remember the springs? I removed them quite a few posts ago. Replacing them was one of the main reasons for working on the suspension, remember? I must admit, I have not kept up with springs recently. That ends today.

So, as you may recall from a previous posting, when buying new springs, the two main issues are:
- spring rate
- spring free length.

The main equation that ties all this together is:

k = Fs/(Lf-Lc)

Where:
k = spring rate
Fs = load at spring
Lf = free length of spring
Lc = compressed length

At normal ride height, we measured and figured out:
Fs = 1879 lb
Lc = 8.0315" (204mm)


During my visit to Group 2, I mentioned to Joe that I was looking for a set of springs that would keep the front end from bottoming out during heavy braking (which tends to require stiffer springs) while keeping the road ride quality reasonable (which tends to require softer springs.)

Well, Joe thought that was a good plan, and suggested a set of AR Ricambi Super Sport springs. He felt these springs are a great compromise for the road (not too stiff, not too soft), keep the car much more stable than the stock springs, and helps with the bottoming out issues. He also indicated ride height issues can be fine-tuned by adding shims to the springs; this is something they do all the time at the shop. Joe also indicated they had this spring set in stock.

So, I was curious: what were the spring rates for the AR Ricambi springs? I'd been looking for something in the 600-800 lb/in range. After a bit of digging through his records, he found the front springs are rated at 580 lb/in. These rates are close to the bottom end of my "pulled-from-thin-air" range, so this was very encouraging.

A decision needed to be made: do I go with the AR Ricambi springs, which have been used and tested by countless, more experienced Alfisti before me? Or do I keep spending/wasting time digging for springs shops on the web, hoping to find someone that could custom make springs for my very special needs, pay tons of money, hoping that I alone know better than fellow, more experienced Alfa experts?

So, I went ahead and bought the AR Ricambi springs. Admittedly, this is very out of character for me ("you mean, there are folks out there that know more about this stuff than I do?") Besides, Joe and the folks at Group 2 have never let me down before, and I had no reason to start doubting them now.

I must admit, I was curious to see how the springs fit with the numbers and computations I've shown so far. So, I measured the front springs' free length, and punched in the numbers.

Free Length (Lf) = 11 5/16" = 11.3125"

Rearranging terms from the above equation:

Lc = Lf - Fs/k
= 11.3125" - (1879lb / 580lb/in)
= 8.073 inches
= 205 mm

This is very close to the measured spring compressed length of 204mm - almost a dead-on match. This tends to support the analysis and measurements done so far.

At the end of the day, though, these numbers don't mean anything until the car is back on its wheels, and we can measure and test the end result. Once this is done, I'll re-measure everything, and summarize all of this analysis. I guess I should start putting the car together sometime soon...

(Next up: parts get cleaned and painted. Stay tuned.)

Hubs and Bearings are not my friends.

While taking apart the front suspension, I kinda glossed over the disassembly of the all-important hubs, front brake rotors, and suspension uprights. In a sense, these do most of the work up front - they spin the wheels (hubs), stop the wheels from spinning (rotor/brakes), and steer the car (upright members.) This is all pretty important stuff, if you ask me, and so I was extra careful (and hesitant) when dealing this these.

I also did not know much about how these parts came apart, which added to my hesitation.

First, one needs to remove the dust cap at the center of the hub. One can remove this by using a metal chisel and a Big Freaking Hammer, and tapping the dust cover away from the hub. The dust cover has a lip that makes this fairly straightforward.

After removing the dust cover, one can see the actual stub axle around which the hubs and bearings spin. They bearings themselves are covered with a ton of axle grease, and are held in place by a castellated nut, which is held in place by a cotter pin.

At this point, the smart thing to do is to loosen and remove the two metal screws holding the brake rotor against the wheel hub. This is a royal pain! The screws tend to rust in place, and removing them requires a flat-head screwdriver. These tend to strip things more than anything. PB Blaster (my good friend) tends to help, but it's not a panacea for these things.

On the driver side, removing these screws required some effort, but they came out OK. I used the biggest screwdriver I could find, and I actually tapped them into the flat-head slot a few times before trying to break the screws loose. This worked the screwdriver into the screw head a bit, and helped in keeping the screwdriver from slipping all over.

On the passenger side, however, one of the screws refused to come out. After trying for about ten minutes, I just gave up for the time being.
(I hate flat head screws...)

Once done with this, one removes the castellated nut from the stub axle. This requires a few sheets of paper towels to remove as much of the axle grease as possible. Then you cut the cotter pin holding the nut in place, and you remove the nut. The nut itself is torqued to about 15-20 lb/in, so removing it is fairly straightforward.

Once this is done, you pull out the hub from the stub axle. That's it! The hub and brake rotor are removed, and you can do whatever you want with them. On the driver side, the rotor and hub separated as I pulled them (since I had removed the rotor screws.) On the passenger side, they came out as a single unit (and stayed together as a single unit, since that one freaking screw would not budge.)

After the hubs are out, one removes various brackets connected to the upright, as well as the brake rotor dust cover, and that's that. All of these parts were very dirty and somewhat rusty. Again, these parts would need some major cleaning and repainting before I put them back in the car. On the pictures above, one can see the hub right above the brake rotor. One also sees the outer bearing next to the brake rotor dust cover.

This is where the easy part ends, and the tricky stuff begins.

The hub unit itself houses two roller bearings (an inner bearing, and an outer bearing.) Each bearing is made up of three parts:
- an inner race ring, which sits around the stub axle,
- the roller bearings themselves
- an outer race ring, which is pressed inside the hub assembly.

At this point, one can do one of three things:
a) remove the bearings and inner race from the hub, while leaving the outer race rings pressed inside the hub; clean the bearings, re-pack them with grease, and replace them inside the hub
b) replace the bearings with new bearings; this requires removing the bearings, inner race rings, and outer race rings from the hub.
c) do nothing.

(A) sounds easy. And it is, for folks who have done this before. Unfortunately, I had never done this before.

The tricky part is that the inner bearings have a metal and rubber grease seal that must be removed in order to remove bearings themselves. This grease seal is pressed into the hub itself, and removing it is another one of those sounds-simple-until-you-try kind of things. Seriously. Most information on the web claimed this seal could be easily pried out with a screwdriver. Well, the WEB IS WRONG. I must be the dumbest guy in the world, but removing this seal was a royal pain in the ass. I had to buy a special prying tool, and use all the strength I had to remove the stupid thing. Grease seals are not my friends.

By the way, all that prying destroyed the grease seals. Make sure to order a new pair before you do any of this.

All that prying brought out a tiny spring that seemed to run along the inside of the inside bearing itself. At this point I thought I had ruined the inside bearing (since I could not tell where the spring came from.) Since I could not tell for sure, I figured I had to replace the bearing and play it safe.

Which brings us to option (B) from above. Which makes things worse; much worse.

You see, the bearings must be replaced as complete, matched set. Which means removing the outer race ring from inside the hub for both bearings. Again, the various online sources seemed to indicate this was a simple thing - just pry it out, and the thing just slips right off. Again, being the dumbest guy in the world, I could not pry this off. In actuality, it turns out, one needs to get a metal punch and a big freaking hammer and pound the outer race ring out of the hub - you "walk it out" by pounding around the circumference of the ring itself.

So I figured I'd give it a shot. After pounding for a few minutes, I realized the outer race ring had not budged in any perceptible way.

Stupid thing...

So, now I was faced with a potentially bent-out-of-shape inner bearing, a ruined grease seal, and a stripped screw that kept the right rotor and hub together, and no clue on how to proceed.

Desperation calls for desperate measures. And a bit of creativity. So, I brought the parts to Group 2 in Seattle (the local Alfa Romeo specialist shop), and begged for their help. As always, Joe English and the rest of the crew were very happy to help me out, answer questions, and all-in-all, allay all my fears and worries.

After chatting with them for about 10 minutes, we figured the bearings were OK to begin with. The mystery spring was actually part of the grease seal, which had to be replaced anyways. But after all this hassle, I figured I'd let the shop replace all the bearings with a fresh set. In all honesty, the bearings looked great, but considering I don't know how long these bearings have been around, replacing them seemed like a good idea.

The guys at Group 2 turned the thing around in an afternoon, and I ended up picking up everything a few days later. The shop installed and packed new bearings onto the hubs, and the pesky rotor screw was removed. Everything was A-OK again.

So, all in all, I have mixed feelings about this part of the repair. I think I could tackle removing the hub/rotor assembly from the stub axle, and I could probably repack the bearings if needed. But at the end, calling the experts saved me a lot of trouble and added frustration.

I think from now on, I'll stay away from hubs and bearings...

Front, Pass Side Work

So, last time, I was removing the front driver side suspension. I had left the hub, brake rotor, and upright/axle section in one piece. I eventually took those apart; I'll describe that on my next post.

On this post, I'll chat about the passenger side.

I must say, there's not much to say.

Although I must start by saying that side of the car was nasty-dirty! On the picture you can get an idea for the layers of dirt, undercoating, and overspray resting on the whole suspension. Again, the idea is to clean and paint all this stuff up, and hopefully, make it look nice again.

Removing the passenger side suspension was basically the same as the driver side (duh...) This time around, though, I removed the hub and brake rotor from the upright/axle before undoing the rest of the suspension. (again, more on that in the next post.) I then removed the brake caliper, disconnected the steering tie rod, removed the suspension upright, then the lower a-arm, then the upper A-arm components. This all took about 2.5 hours - not bad for a rookie such as myself.

A few things of note:

-- Removing the upper camber arm (part of the upper a-arm) was a bit tricky, since it involves reaching underneath both carburetors to get access to the bolt to which the arm is attached. This was tricky - it required long socket extensions, as well as long breaker bars. I also had to remove the air filter, which requires disconnecting some of the engine vent hoses that connect to the filter housing. Once all the stuff was removed, access was still tricky, but eventually it did come out OK.

Having the radiator out of the way really helped. Again, I am not sure how to do this with the radiator in place (I am sure there is a way, though.)

-- Running my hand over the inside fender near the suspension pick-up points would remove all the fresh red paint, undercoating, and dirty. I could have filled up a 16-oz. cup with all the stuff that came out.
It seems that, when the car was painted recently, the suspension was not cleaned up much. So it seems the body paint got oversprayed over the dirt and undercoating, and hence, the paint has nothing solid to grab onto.
I am not sure what to do - I am almost tempted to scrape all the old stuff away, grab a few cans of paint, and spray the whole inner fender again. I am not sure I'd make things better, though.

So for now, the passenger side inner fender has two tones: parts with the newly-applied red paint, and parts with the original dark-red color. (I think it's Rosso Amaranto, but I'm not sure.)
(http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/car-restoration/3895-1972-alfa-romeo-color-chart-reference-materials-2.html#post33453)

I'll admit - I tend to favor the original darker red than the current red color. Maybe in a 20 years, when I re-restore the car, I'll go back to the original shade... Hmm...
(yea, right...)

-- I have not found any signs of rust in the body, inner fender, or anywhere else near the suspension. This is really good news.


Now I have a bunch of parts that need to be cleaned, re-painted, and re-installed. I'm still not halfway there...

Undoing the Front Suspension (driver side)

Last time, we removed the springs from the front suspension. We also saw indications that the springs are stock springs. The eventual goal of all this excercise is to renew the front suspension and make any changes necessary to prevent the car from bottoming out.

So, in order to renew the front suspension, you need to:

a) Take it apart - remove every part from the car.
b) Clean up the parts
c) Replace any non-usable parts with new parts
d) Put it all together.

Part A is easy, especially now that the springs have been removed. Basically, it comes down to: "if you see a nut or bolt, remove it."

Part B is a bit more involved, since it involved removing years of dirt, undercoating, overspray paint, rust, and other nasties that have deposited themselves on the suspension.

Part C is simple: order needed parts, use a credit card to pay. How simple is that?

Part D is the reverse as A. Easier said than done. I hope not too bad, though.

I think a brief description of the suspension is in order:
- The front suspension is made up of two A-Arms and a vertical upright member. The upright holds a spindle/axle on which the front wheels revolve. The spindle carries a hub and rod bearings, as well as the disk brake rotors. The brake caliper is attached to the upright as well.

The lower A-arm is made up of two separate arms, bolted together with a ball joint assembly which connects the lower a-arm to the upright.

The upper A-Arm is made up of a single control arm mounted almost transversely from the upright to the car chassis, and a diagonal caster arm, connecting the top of the upright to the front inner fender, towards the front of the car.


The lower A-arm have rubber/metal bushings that attach them to the chassis, as well as a lower ball joint that attach the arms to the upright. All three of these (ball joint, bushings) need to be replaced in my car, since they are worn and dirty and all.

The upper A-arm also has two ball joints that wear out (at the inner fender, and at the top of the upright.) There is also two bushings on the transverse control arm that need to be replaced. However, this control arm is not adjustable, and there are aftermarket replacements that allow you to adjust camber and the such. So rather than replacing the control arm bushings, I'll just buy a complete control arm assembly.

So, the total number of parts I need to get (per side)
2 A-arm bushings
1 lower ball joint
1 upper ball joint
1 inner fender ball joint
1 adjustable control arm.

This takes care of Part C - see, simple! And we were not even trying, yet.


Back to A:

First, I removed the brake caliper. This adds some clearance, allows me to move the brake lines out of the way without worrying too much about breaking it. Of course, the line want to spill all of its contents out, and so I had to collect it all with a spill tray. Note that brake fluid is corrosive, and will eat paint! I did not catch this in time, and some of it spilled on parts of the suspension.

After the brake caliper was gone, I wanted to remove the disk brakes. On this kind of car, the disc rotors are bolted to the inside of the hub. Which means: you must remove the hub before removing the rotors.

Hmmm.. how does one do this?

Well, I decided - "I am not sure how to do this, so I'll just remove the complete upright first - hub, disc rotor, and all." After removing a few brackets from behind the upright, I used my handy tie rod ball joint separator, and separated the bottom and top A-arms. Of course, the whole thing fell down onto the ground, making a big racket and scarying the crap out of me.

So, I picked up the complete upright assembly, and after pondering for a few minutes, I decided to put it aside and work on the A-arms.

One thing I noticed right away was how badly worn were the a-arm bushings. The A-arms are supposed to rotate up and down. They did this OK on my car, but they also could be slid about 1/2" forwards and backwards! Holy cow - can only guess how much they slid under heavy breaking! Thinking about it, I am a bit lucky I made it home when I bought the car.

The bottom A-arm is held in place by a cast-metal pivot arm, held in place with the chassis by for bolts. Taking them out was simple - soak in PB Blaster, get a breaker bar, and undo the bolts. This took about 10 minutes, and the whole lower a-arm assembly come out.

The upper a-arm was not as easy. The front caster arm was simple - unscrew the two bolts from the ball joint, and the thing comes out. The problem is that, once you do that, you must loosen the adjusting nuts and rod. This is tricky once you take these out of the car. So, first, add a bunch of PB blaster to the adjustment rod and nuts, and loosen them. Then, you proceed to removing the front arm. Once removed, undoing the adjusting rod is simpler, since it's already loosened up.

The next thing was removing the control arm. This involves loosening a nut and bolt from the inside of the engine compartment. To get to it, I had to go through the front of the car to access it (the radiator, alternator are not installed, as I am also replacing the water pump - see older post.) I must admit, I do not know how anyone can remove this without removing half the engine - I am sure there is away, though. After a bit of work the nut/bolt came loose, and out came the control arm.

At this point, all the parts were separated from the car. I must admit, it is kind of weird to not see anything in the wheel well. Kinda scary, too!

Next up, it's time to separate the lower a-arms from the pivot rod. The a-arms are held to the pivot rod with a pair of nuts, which are covered by metal caps. These metal covers are pressed into place - how to remove them? Hmmm..

- First, apply liberal amounts of PB Blaster (penetrating oil.) PB is my friend.

- Then, I tried vise grips. After about 20 minutes, I gave up. These things are a pain in the butt!

- After chatting with a few folks (including my dad), we figured a chisel and some encouragement provided by a Big Freaking Hammer might help. And guess what - it worked. Chisel and hammer take the things out in about five minutes

What I found under the caps was depressing - tons of dirty, old grease, and nasty goo. Hidden in there were a nut and a washer. After cleaning things up a bit, I went at it with a 24mm wrench (and my little friend, Mr. Impact Wrench) and took the nuts out, and separated the A-arms from the pivot.





Finally, the hub and upright remained, waiting to be taken apart. The hub and disk assembly has a metal cover similar to the suspension metal caps. So I figured, if the chisel/hammer worked before, maybe they will work here, too. And guess what - they did. The cap came off in a minute. Inside the hub, I removed the castellated nut/pin, and the whole hub/disc assembly came off from the axle/spindle. Piece of cake. Removing the two screws that hold the rotor to the hub freed them from each other.

I also took a picture of the caster arm (the front member of the upper A-Arm,) just in case how it goes together. The whole thing was covered in grime, overspray, and greasy dirt. I am assuming the notch in the middle of the arm is there on purpose (to allow mechanics to use a wrench to adjust,) and not some overly-zealous alignment specialist...

That's it - all the pieces were now separated. They all look nasty dirty! Part A is now done - for the driver side. I still have the passenger side left to go. That will be next.

Springs, Part 4: Finally, some work gets done.

So, I've been away from the keyboard for a while. But things have been a bit busy at the House of Speed. It's time to catch up on things online.


If you remember, I was wondering about spring sizes and the such. The two important things to figure out are:

- spring rate
- spring free length.

Once we decide on spring rate, we can compute the required spring free length using the math I've discussed in previous posts.

Online, there are two main schools of though regarding springs:

a) Go with stiff rates, and keep the stock sway bars
b) Go with medium stiffness rates, and make your sway bars heavier.

(I'll explain sway bars in a future post.)

The problem I run into is that most folks seem to favor a racy, stiff, ready-for-racetrack setup. In all honesty, I do not want to race the Alfa; I just want to drive the car around during the weekends, and hopefully not have to work too much on it (once the thing is ready to run, of course.)

So I am of the school of though of "go with springs as soft as possible, as long as the front of the car does not bottom out too badly, and the handling is not too numb". The current springs allow the car to scrape with the ground under heavy breaking, so any replacement springs should probably be stiffer (to prevent nose dive) while keeping a similar ride height (lowered cars tend to scrape on the ground more than non-lowered counterparts.)

So, what what kind of springs do I have in the car, currently? Well, the best way to find out is to remove them and see what I've got!

At first, this sounds a bit scary, since you have to deal with fairly stiff springs (450+ lb/inch; for comparison, my Miata's front springs are 375 lb/in.) And compressed springs are dangerous - if they break loose while you are undoing things, they can get launched like a projectile and hit stuff and people. Dangerous stuff.

Fortunately, there is a cheap and fairly safe way of dealing with this, as explained here: http://www.centerlinealfa.com/tips/images/installation/spring_install.pdf

Basically, this method involves using two 12" threaded rods to replace two of the bolts that hold the spring pan in place, removing the other two bolts that hold the spring pan in place, and slowly lowering the spring pan with the remaining threaded rods until the spring comes free. I used this method, with two variations:

- I used three rods.
- I greased the rods once the upper double nuts were tightened, to prevent any wear on the threaded rod (and potential binding or jamming up.)

The extra third rod was a bit redundant, but it did make me feel a bit safer. It does add to the total time it takes to undo each spring, since you have to do 50% more work (3 rods vs 2 rods.) I also highly recommend adding some grease, as jackscrews will wear quite rapidly and either jam or break the thread (airplanes have crashed due to poorly greased jackscrews - no kidding!)

The whole process took about 1.5 hours per side. I was taking it easy at first, learning the process and all. I suspect once you learn the ropes, you can bring this down to about an hour (with three rods - probably less if you use two rods.)

I did make a mistake: I forgot to loosen the antisway bar at first. That added a about 30 minutes worth of agravation, but I lowered the opposite side enough to loosen up the sway bar and removed it. After that, everything was cake.

Once you are done undoing the springs, you are left with a lower spring pan (which is secured to the lower A-Arm of the suspension,) a spring, and upper and lower rubber isolator pads (two per side.) These rubber pads prevent metal-to-metal contact between the spring, the chassis, and the spring pan. This helps prevent squeaks, and makes the ride a bit more comfortable.

Well, both spring pans were very dirty, and a bit rusty. Plus, the paint and undercoating overspray made things look nasty. On the passenger side, the lower pan had about 1" worth of dirt, and you could barely see the rubber isolator buried in all that dirt! On the driver side, however, the rubber isolators were completely missing (both of them!) Hmmmm...

The spring themselves were dirty and a bit rusty, too. All the overspray covered any present marking (e.g. spring type, part no., etc.) So, I went ahead and measured the length of springs, and they came out to about 12.5 inches. This matches the length of the stock springs. I am starting to think the springs are definetely stock. Go figure.

So, assuming these are stock springs (about 450 lb/in), we know a medium-rate spring (600-800 lb/in) would help with the bottoming-out issues. This is a bit reassuring - I was concerned the already-mounted springs were of the 1100lb/in variety, and any decrease in rates would make the car more likely to bottom out.

Next up - the front suspension comes apart.

Springs - Part 3

On my last post, I mentioned the next step would involve measuring the compressed length of the springs at the stock ride height. How does one do this, you ask?

Well, in theory, it's not too hard: one just needs to set up the suspension to the stock ride height, and measure the distance between the top spring perch and the bottom spring perch.

The problem is that when the car is sitting on the ground, it is hard to get under the car. But if you lift the car and rest it on jack stands, the wheels come off the ground and the suspension droops towards the ground.

So, the best way (given my tools/resources) is to lift the car onto the jack stands, and remove the springs. One can then raise the suspension up/down with a hydraulic jack until one gets the proper suspension ride height. Once this is done, you can use a string and a measuring tape to get a read on the perch-to-perch length.

The stock ride height is determined by measuring the distance from the lower A-arm pivot to the ground (measurement A) , and the distance from the lower ball joint to the ground (measurement B). The difference between A and B should be 34mm +/- a few mm. (I'll have to post a link to a diagram illustrating this -- stay tuned.)

So, by raising the suspension up/down with the hydraulic jack, one can zero-in on the proper ride height and measure the compressed spring length.

(I'll detail the removal of the springs on my next post.)

The compressed length came out to 204mm, or 8.0315".

This is very close to the 200mm test load used in specifying the spring rates (see my previous post.) At this stock ride height, the distance b/w the center of the hub to the fender lip came out to 14 5/8" (371mm.) Furthermore, compressing the suspension 1 1/8" (18/16") caused a compression at the spring perch of 7/16", giving a 18:7 (2.57:1) ratio in travel b/w the outside of the hub and the spring perch.

Why is this useful? Well, these numbers can be used to compute the amount of force with which the spring is compressed at the stock ride height. Assuming the following spring rate and free length (from my previous post):

Front: spring rate = 7.797 kg/mm, free length = 313.5mm

With a compressed lenght of 204mm, then the spring is compressed a total 109.5mm with respect to the stock ride height. The amount of force on the spring is computed with the spring equation:

Fs = Spring Rate * (Free Length - Compressed Length)
= 7.8 kg/mm * 109.5mm = 854.1 kg = 1879.02 lb (aprox.)

This can be used to compute the required free length for springs with different spring rates. Recall:

k = f/(Lf - Lc)

Where:
k = spring rate
f = load at spring
Lf = free lenght of spring
Lc = compressed length

Clearing out Lf, we get:

Lf = (f/k) + Lc

For example, take an 800lb spring (and rounding out a few terms):

Lf = (1879lb / 800lb/in) + 8.0315 = 10.38025"

So, in theory, obtaing a spring with a rate of 800 lb/in and with a free length of 10.38" will yield a ride height very close to stock ride height. This is a big piece of the puzzle - I can now pick my rate, and by plugging in numbers into these equations, I can compute the free length required for the spring. Wee!

(A caveat: the springs are installed with rubber isolators on the top and bottom of the spring. This effectively decreases the actual compressed length somewhat. I wll have to measure these and correct the compressed length before doing computations "for the record". I will do this in my next post.)

A new problem arises when one asks: "What if I want to lower the ride height by X inches?" Well, we have a numbers for that.

Recall that the ratio between the hub-to-fender length and the compressed length is 2.57:1. We can then assume that a 25.7 mm (about 1") decreased ride height implies a 10mm decrease in spring compressed length. We further assume that the force on the compressed spring remains the same (big assumption - probably off by a bit.) We can then punch the numbers into our previous example:
(Note: 10mm = 0.3937")

Lf = f/k + (Lc-10mm)
= (1879lb / 800lb/in) + (8.0315" - 0.39") = 9.99"

Pretty cool, eh?

So, in summary, the numbers to remember are:

f = 1879lb = 854.1 kg
Lc = 8.0315in = 204 mm
Motion at hub:Motion at spring = 2.57:1

And the key equation:
Lf = f/k + (Lc - (correction))

The "correction" term refers to any adjustments in ride height we may want to do, as described above.

The bigger moral of the story: algebra and high school-level physics are actually useful in real life!
:-)


Next up: Back in the garage, removing parts from the suspension.

Springs - Part 2

In my last post, I mentioned I would be discussing:

1. Figure out the stock spring rates and free lengths.
2. Figure out the compressed length of the springs with the car riding at stock ride height (as described in the owner's manual.)

I'll do part 1 first; I need to get under my car to be able to do part 2.

The information to figure out the stock spring rates and free lengths can be found in one of of the books I purchased last month at Books4Cars.com, The Alfa Romeo Technical Characteristics and Principal Inspection Specifications Manual for the 2000 Berlina, 2000 GT Veloce, and 2000 Spider Veloce. This manual is very nifty, as it provides (as the name suggests) a lot of specs numbers regarding a bunch of aspects of my car. Among these, we can find (guess what): spring free lengths, and compressed lengths for given test loads.

First, free lengths:

The front spring's free length is listed as 313.5mm; the rear spring's free length is listed at 445mm.

Next, spring rates:

The spring rates are not listed directly. However, the manual shows values of length under test loads(i.e. compressed length) for various test loads depending on the kind of stock springs installed on the car. It seems the GTV had five varieties of front springs and three varieties of rear springs installed at the factory (one assumes lucky customers would end up with slightly stiffer springs than less-fortunate brethren.)

For the front springs, the "Length under test load" (i.e. test compressed length) is 200mm. The test loads for the various stock springs are:

- 858.5kg - 868kg (Spring ID no. 43)
- 869kg - 879kg (Spring ID no. 44)
- 880kg - 890kg (Spring ID no. 45)
- 891kg - 901kg (Spring ID no. 46)
- 902kg - 911.5kg (Spring ID no. 47)

For the rear springs, the "Length under test load" is 252mm. The various test loads are:

- 280kg - 285kg (ID no. 18)
- 286kg - 292kg (ID no. 48)
- 293kg - 298kg (ID no. 49)

I suspect these ranges exist due to the variation in tolerances allowed during the manufacture of the springs used in GTVs. The factory probably winds a few hundred spring coils, tests them, and depending on the resulting rates, it stamps a different ID number on them.

How is this useful?

Well, these numbers indicate how much the springs are compressed under a standard load. This information can be used to determine the spring rates values for the stock springs.

First, the front springs.

Difference in length = Lf - Lc
(Lf = Free Length, Lc = Compressed Length for a given load)

Lf - Lc = 313.5mm - 200mm = 113.5mm

From my previous post, the spring constant (k) is defined as:

k = load/Lf-Lc

For the various springs listed above, I'll use the midpoint values for computing the spring rate (k)

Spring ID no. 43, k = 863kg/113.5mm = 7.604 kg/mm = 425.778 lb/in
Spring ID no. 44, k = 874kg/113.5mm = 7.700 kg/mm = 431.205 lb/in
Spring ID no. 45, k = 885kg/113.5mm = 7.797 kg/mm = 436.632 lb/in
Spring ID no. 46, k = 896kg/113.5mm = 7.894 kg/mm = 442.059 lb/in
Spring ID no. 47, k = 907kg/113.5mm = 7.991 kg/mm = 447.486 lb/in


For the rear springs:

Lf - Lc = 445mm - 252mm = 193mm

For the various rear springs listed above:

Spring ID no. 18, k = 282.5kg/193mm = 1.464 kg/mm = 81.965 lb/in
Spring ID no. 48, k = 289kg/193mm = 1.497 kg/mm = 83.851 lb/in
Spring ID no. 49, k = 295.5kg/193mm = 1.531 kg/mm = 85.737 lb/in


So, to summarize, here are the specs for stock springs (using mid-point values):

Front: spring rate = 436.632 lb/in, free length = 12.343 in
Rear: spring rate = 83.851 lb/in, free length = 17.512 in

In metric:

Front: spring rate = 7.797 kg/mm, free length = 313.5mm
Rear: spring rate = 1.497 kg/mm, free length = 445.0mm


An observation: I suspect the folks at Alfa Romeo probably sourced springs with rates of 7.8kg/mm and 1.5kg/mm for the front and rear ends, respectively. If so, we can use these values whenever we talk about stock spring rates. This converts to about 437 lb/in and 84 lb/in for the front and rear springs, respectively. I'll settle on these values when refering to "stock spring rates."

One thing down. Next, we need to figure out the compressed length of the springs when the car is riding at the stock ride height. How is this done? Stay tuned...

Springs - Part 1

So, the car remains half torn apart as I wait for parts to arrive - a new water pump, suspension bushings, ball joints, and adjustable control arms. I figured while I wait, I might as well read some of the books I've bought, and see if I can learn something useful.

Well, I think I have.

As you may recall, I've been a bit worried about the current springs installed in the Alfa. For starters, under heavy braking, the sump guard scrapes against the pavement. So I suspect the current springs might be too soft and/or too short. (I also suspect the shocks are worn out, but that's another story.) So, I am trying to find out what to do about springs.

(What follows is a newbie's interpretation on coil springs as used on cars. I am not 100% sure this is accurate, but here it goes.)

You see, springs affect how the car rides (the stiffer the spring, the harsher the ride, kinda), how it handles (stiffer springs can improve handling capability, and keep the car from leaning away from curves and the such), and how high the car rides (longer springs make the car ride higher; shorter springs make the car ride lower.) So, getting the proper stiffness and length of a spring is pretty important in determining how happy the owner feels about the way a car rides and handles.

So, I need to determine which spring stiffness and free lengths to specify for any new springs I install on the car.

What do these things mean, you ask? Well, let's start with stiffness:

Spring stiffness is basically the resistance of a spring to be compressed (or stretched) under a give load or force. Spring stiffness is specified by measuring how much force it takes to compress (or extend) a spring by a certain length. This value is known as the spring constant. For example, if it takes 100lbs to compress a spring by 1 inch, this spring would be said to have a spring constant value of 100 lbs/in. To figure out the spring constant, the following equation suffices:

spring constant (k) = force / difference in length

Or:
k = f/lf - lc

Where:
k - spring constant
f - force
lf - free length with no load
lc - compressed length of spring under the force f.

(This assumes a linear spring, where the spring constant for the spring actually remains constant throughout the range of available compression. Note also that the range of compression is limited - as you compress the spring, the individual coils get closer and closer, until they eventually make contact. Once this happens, the spring is not a spring anymore - it's more of a column of metal which does not behave as a spring would.)

Note that suspension springs do most of their work while being compressed. So most of my discussion will only address springs under compression only.


How about length?

Well, length is just that - the length of the spring. However, you can measure length when the spring is unloaded, or when a certain force is applied to it. The unloaded length of a spring is its free length, while length measured under a give force f can be referred to as compressed length.

Once you know the spring constant (k) and the spring's free length (lf) you can compute the length of the spring for any force using the spring equation shown above. For example, assume:

k=500 lb/in
lf= 10 in

Then, under 1000lbs of force, the spring's compressed length will be:

500 lb/in = 1000 lb / (10inch - lc)

Moving things around:

lc = 10 inch - 1000lb/500(lb/inch) = 8 inches.

Also: once you know a given spring rate (k) and a given free length (lf), you can use these values to order springs from vendor and/or manufacturers. (In short, these two values serve as the initial "size" for specifying and obtaining automotive springs.)

Why does all this matter?

Well, using these relationships and measuring a few things in the car, I can determine which spring rates and spring free lengths I need to use for a given car ride height. In other words, given:

a) The ride height I want to have on my car
b) The spring rates I would like to have on my springs
Then I can determine:
c) the free length of the springs.

Once I figure (B) and (C), I can order springs and be all happy.

Now, my goals with respect to springs is to:
a) Keep my ride height as close to stock as possible--within half an inch lower than stock, but not any higher.
b) Install springs that are stiffer than stock - this will help keep the car from bottoming out during heavy braking, and will help the car handle better
c) Make sure the springs are not so stiff - this would make the ride quality harsher.

So, my approach to deciding on springs will be as follows:

1. Figure out the stock spring rates and free lengths.
2. Figure out the compressed length of the springs with the car riding at stock ride height (as described in the owner's manual.)
3. Survey the various spring kits available for my car, as well as comments posted on various BBs and the such, and figure out what folks think
4. Based on (3), decide (guess, really) which spring rates I want to use
5. Once I decide on spring rates, figure out the free length required for my chosen spring rates.,
6. Order the springs from someone.
7. Install the springs, cross my fingers, and hope this all works.

That's enough babble for now. I will babble more regarding items 1-3 on my next post.

Work continues: steering linkage, part 2

So, last Saturday I left the car up in stands, with the steering linkage all disassembled, while I waited for the newly-painted steering rods to really dry up. I also wanted to buy new left-hand threaded lock nuts, since the old ones were really beat up. I figured I'd wait until the next weekend to reinstall things and wrap things up for now.

Well, I could not wait.

On Monday, I went to a few local stores in search of the rare left-hand 14mmx1.50 nut. I finally found three at High Strength Bolt Co., in Kent. This was the last pieces I needed, so I was ready to re-install stuff.

Monday night I reassembled the steering links and ball joints, and set them to their original length (which I captured when I was disassembling things last week.) I then crawled under the car, to get everything back together.

Re-installing incurred three main things:
1. Get the ball joints back into the steering knuckles and other locations.
2. Pound them a few times with a rubber mallet, and thread the upper castellated nuts to secure the rods to the suspension.
3. Secure the nuts with wire pins to make sure the nuts don't spin off.

Steps one and two were easy enough - just get things in place, pound, then thread the nuts. Torqueing them correctly required using a few extension bars with my torque wrench, as you must access the nuts from the top of the engine bay. All this was completed in about an hour.

Threading the lock pins in place, though, was another story. First, the castellated nuts had to align with the securing holes on the ball joint stud themselves. This was tricky, since some of the ball joint studs are hard to see from under the car (especially the inner tie rods.) On top of that, the pins I bought were a bit too large, and they would not fit properly. Aargh! After trying for about an hour, I decided to give up, and try again the next day.

So, the next day, I bought thinner pins at the local hardware store. Then under the car, and after about ninety minutes, all the pins were installed and locked in place. Finally. I must say, I see the need for castellated nuts, but I really hate dealing with them.

I then reinstalled the wheels, and took the car for a ride. The steering feels a bit less unresponsive - like there is a bit less play on the steering wheel. This maybe all a placebo effect going on, though. The suspension still creaks and feels weak. But I think there is a bit of an improvement.

Next up will be dealing with the front suspension. I still don't know if I will tackle this myself, or send it to the shop and let them do this. I also need to decide what to do about springs and dampers. I'll have to keep looking around for recommended rates and the such.

Then it's onwards to the rear suspension. I am really thinking I do not want to tackle the rear end at all. It seems dealing with the large and heavy differential requires tons of room, and tons of help. Hmm...

So maybe I'll do the front myself, then go to the shop for the rear end work.

I think I'll be waiting until after Xmas for this, though, as I have a few trips coming up, and very little time to work on the car. Oh well.

Work continues: steering linkage, part 1

I finally started working on the steering linkage of the Alfa. The idea was to replace just a few things in the front end, and then decide whether I want to tackle the whole job or not. One side of me wants to do all the work, since I find working on cars to be fun - I like the challenge (both mental and physical,) trying to figure things out, and engrossing myself in a task so much that I end up losing track of time (or the real world, for that matter.) And with a bit of luck, you end up with a better working vehicle.

On the other hand, this is the front suspension of the car, which can be pretty complicated stuff. Taking it to a shop will ensure that the work will be done right, and fairly quickly (1-2 days max.) Just drop off the car, come back the next day, and everything is A-OK. There is a lot of benefit in this - just drive the car and have fun.

I am still undecided as to what I will do. But in the meanwhile, I figured replacing all the steering ball joints should be straightforward enough.

So, last Wednesday night I jacked up the front end of the car, placed it on stands (ratchet-type jack stands), and went to work. I had borrowed a gear puller from my friend TJ (the puller on the left,) and was able to pull three of the six ball joints required. This puller worked well, but it was a very tight fit for the inner tie rods (four of them). I spent two and a half hours trying to figure things out! At this pace, I would be done sometime around Xmas.

So, I stopped for the night (11:30pm) and decided to look for the puller on the right (called a "ball joint lifter" - not a puller.) A few folks in the Alfa Bulletin Boards (www.alfabb.com) have recommended this type, and a few stores had them online. But I wanted it now, so I ended up going to Napa Auto Parts, and wouldn't you know it, they had it in stock. It only cost $12 with tax, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

So, Saturday morning, I got under the car at about 9am or so. Within 30 minutes all three remaining ball joints had been pulled off. Wee! I must say, having the right tool for a job saves a lot of time and effort. I highly recommend obtaining this kind of lifter for this kind of job, as it made the whole ball joint pulling (lifting?) experience a very simple one.

So, finally, the steering linkage was all out. I left the steering box and idler box in place, as I think servicing these are a bit beyond the immediate scope of things. I suspect the steering box could use a bit of maintenance, but for now, I'll just play with one thing at a time.

Before disassembling anything else, I measured the distance between ball joints, so that I can reset the length when I reassemble the whole thing. I'll have to align the car regardless, but hopefully the front alignment will be within a reasonable ballpark in the interim (what's a bit extra tire wear?)

The next problem was disconnecting the tie rods from the main rods themselves. At first I thought the locking nuts where part of the middle rods themselves. After much pounding at wrenches and the such, I realized the nuts and the rods were separate parts. Duh! They are locking nuts, after all. So I started pounding in different directions, and within 10 minutes, everything was disconnected.

The joints themselves were to be thrown out, but the middle rods themselves will be reused. They were all grimy with grease, undercoating, paint, and rust. So I figured I'd clean them up and paint them.

I started by cleaning the rods with brake cleaner and a stiff wire brush. After about 1o minutes of scraping away, the things were fairly clean. Brake cleaner is nasty stuff, but it does clean everything in sight. I then sanded the rods with medium grit sandpaper, and re-sprayed with even more brake cleaner.

Afterwards, I rinsed everything with hand clener (Fast Orange) and plenty of water.

The results are shown on this picture. One of the rods was pretty much striped down to bare metal. The other two were down to the original paint (?) with some spots of bare metal. All signs of grease and undercoating was gone, as well as most of the rust.



I then painted the rods with a few light coats of Rust-Oleum Semi Gloss paint. The things look pretty nice now - not bad for the first time I've ever spray painted anything in my life. The whole paint work (prep, and painting itself) took about 45 minutes.

I would have done a few things differently:
a) I would have used a finer grit sandpaper, as the finished surface looks a bit rough, and not shiny smooth.
b) I would have used a full-gloss paint. I am realizing I want the suspension to be glossy and shiny.

Before re-installing all this back onto the car, I want to replace the lock nuts used to lock the rods and the ball joint links together. I abused the crap out of them when I was removing them earlier, so I figured it would be better to replace them. The lock nuts are sized 14mm x 1.50 thread pitch (for those keeping score at home,) but I need both right-handed and left-handed thread nuts. I did find the RH type at the hardware store down the street, but they did not stock the LH kind. I will be looking for the LH nuts during the week.

Once I find them, then I can re-install the tie rods to the main rods, then install stuff back onto the car. Hopefully the car will be back on its feet next weekend. We'll see how that goes.