More Alfetta GT street car news

["Zacharey Cox (Siemens Business Services Inc)" <v-ntxzco@domain.elided>]

Not much to report here folks except a tidbit on the front sway bar.
The end link bushings looked pretty bad & I ordered new ones from
Centerline.  The bushings have steel outer & inner sleeves sandwiching
rubber.  The outer sleeve is pressed into the end links & the inner
sleeves press onto the sway bar itself & then attach to the car when
remounted.

Fortunately I have a good friend who owns a 12 ton press, so that really
helps, especially removing the old bushings.  We first ripped the end
links off the bar as we did not care about the old bushings.  Then we
put the end links on the press & pressed out both bushings on each end
link, total of 4 bushings.  The new bushings pressed in very easily,
just watch for the beveled edge on the bushings & end links as this
makes installation easier.

The hard part:  pressing the end links onto the bar.  Since the bar has
a curve just after the end link mount, we could not simply put it all
together with the press.  So, we clamped the bar in a big strong vise, &
hammered on the end link with a good sized, heavy hammer.  Now, before
doing this we aligned the end link so that the inner sleeve that mounts
to the car will have a parallel line to the bar itself.  This is
probably confusing many people, but this is as best as I can describe
it.  If you have the bar off the car you'll understand.  I drew a rough
sketch before dissassembly to help putting everything back together.
After hammering the end link on most of the way we had to use an
appropriate sized socket to do the rest of the work as the bar will
start to protrude through the inner sleeve & you will be just hammering
on that, not good.  So, with the socket being held by some big
adjustable pliers, we had it easy.

I did not replace the sway bar to body bushings (in the center of the
bar under the spoiler) as they looked good.  A coupla weeks ago I
replaced the rear sway bar end link bushings, a total of 4 there as
well.  So, when this thing finally hits the road, she should handle
pretty well with new bushings in the sway bars, castor rods (poly),
lower control arms, & new lower ball joints & tie rods.

Cheers,
Zach
Redmond, WA

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