It’s funny how a rubbing noise can cause such drastic measures; either way gotta do the damn thing
. It all started with me hearing a rubbing/moaning noise coming from the front end. At first I thought it was the mice crying out while they were being fried, but after having to pit multiple times at the Oct. DE at Summit, I figured it’s time to get dirty. First thing I did was wheel bearings, tune in later for updates on this project. Although one of the front wheel bearings was toast, after replacing both fronts, the noise was still there. So I suspected rusted torsion bars or shot a-arm bushings. It was snowing; salt on the roads, mice in the front trunk, so I figured now is a great time to tear the suspension all apart . Of course if I am going to replace the front torsion bars, then I have to replace the rears, which means I will need an alignment so why not get elephant racing’s poly bronze a-arm bushings, you know the usual while you’re in there stuff
. Help, we don’t need no stinkin’ help, Dorki’s are DIY’ers.
I supported the SC with jackstands on the front cross member and the rear sway bar bushing covers.
First remove the stone guard that covers the steering rack:
Next remove the front tow hooks:
With the tow hooks removed the front of the a-arms/torsion bar tubes are visible:
Remove the ride height adjustment screw using an 11 mm, this will allow you to remove the torsion bar covers:
After removing the torsion bar covers, you have access to the front torsion bars. Ideally you should be able to just yank on them and they should come right out. Underneath the torsion bar covers lie a spongy material that acts as some sort of seal?! Unfortunately as you can see with any high mileage 911 they’re disintegrated. Instead of ordering new ones, I used some thick foam material and cut circles to place between the cross member and t-bar covers.
Remove the nut that holds the ball joint into the front strut. Knock the pin out with a punch and a hammer and the ball joint can be removed.
Remove the bolts that hold the steering rack to the aluminum cross member. Also, don’t forget to disconnect the fuel pump from the cross member.
With the aluminum cross member disconnected and the ball joints loose, the whole front end suspension should just drop down. I like to use a jack to lower it and to reinstall the front end. The a-arms should come right off:
Uh oh front t-bars don’t look too good!
Apparently they weren’t cooperating and put up a good fight, this was primarily because the t-bars were badly rusted. So the only option left to remove the t-bars was violence. Using the ball joint separator tool (pickle fork), we placed another wrench on top of the pickle fork and pounded the crap out of the pickle fork. Note: If you are planning to use this method make sure you have the wrench on top of the pickle fork to get proper leverage on the t-bar.
Yup, my assumptions were correct, the front t-bars were pretty badly rusted.
Ahh, now for the fun part. More fire!!
Using a propane torch, light those front bushings on fire, they need to be toasted to come off. Apply even flame in the front and rear of the bushings for 10 minutes continuously using a pry bar to remove the old bushings.
WooHoo, time for some more violence!!! This time I get the pleasure of Dremelling my nuts off! Ideally they should just come right off with an impact wrench with a 4-wheel(SUV) hub bolt removal extension-available at advance auto parts. But as always nothing is ever easy with me, so time to slice. Only use this method if you plan on replacing the ball joints because it requires cutting through them. Using Chris’s Dremel tool I cut through the castle nut that holds the ball joint into the a-arm. Note: Using this method be sure not to hack into the a-arm, make a deep enough cut where you can wedge a chisel or BAFS in there. I used a BAFS and with some more violence, wailing on the screwdriver finally broke the nut free from the a-arm.
The ball joints required excessive force for removal because of the rusty threads:
