[DeTomaso] A-arm bushings

[wkooiman at earthlink.net]

I reassembled the front passenger's side a-arms on my car today.  I'll finish the rest tomorrow.  The left side is almost ready to go back together.

I had it apart to replace the bushings and ball joints.   I've had the parts for several months, but I'm just getting around to doing this "fun" job.

At any rate, I noticed the right upper ball joint was not seated in the spindle.  I removed the cotter pin and bolt.  I have a pickle fork, but I wanted to try a new ball joint separater I had.  I was just getting the separater ready when the ball joint fell out.

The ball joint itself didn't have a lot of play, so it was probably okay.  It seems weird, though, that the ball joint didn't have a close relationship with the spindle.  At least the bolt was tight.  I've never had the ball joints apart before.

I got the bushings from Dennis Q. at Pantera Performance.  They have a hexagon sleeve in the center.  The bushing does not rotate.  I don't know how they compare to the other bushings out there, but they are mongo better than the stock bushings.  The old bushings had dry rotting rubber in them.

The bushings are slightly offset.  That is, you can put the fat part to the front or the rear.  I put the fat part to the front on the top, and to the rear on the bottom (just like a well built woman).  That should give me more caster.

I expect to be rewarded with better handling once I finish all this work.  At a minimum, I expect better tire wear.  I still need a full front end alignment.  I've been putting it off until I could get this work done.  I didn't expect an alignment to do much good as bad as the bushings were.

It's a slow day on the list.  I just thought I'd give you a play-by-play about my day.  I skipped the part about our dog wanting to eat turds.  We're trying to break him of it by weaning him off his habit.  We figured we'd start with cat turds, and then move up to rat turds, bird turds, and finally Wal-Mart dog food.  There must be something in Ol' Roy.  That was his brand when we inherited him.  We switched him to a designer dog food for his health.  That's when he got his turd eating habit.

I've probably had too much wine.  Sorry about the turd talk.

Will.