Storm Trooper Maintenance Thread

[The Dark Side of Will]

The lower ball joint taper in the knuckle was messed up; I didn't notice this when I put new lower ball joints in it last summer... here comes another lower ball joint. I pulled a knuckle out of "the stash" that looks better. I'll talk to my prototype machinist about snagging a 2in/ft tapered reamer and see about repairing the current one, but need the car on the road sooner than that.

[The Dark Side of Will]

The 1988 Fiero lower ball joint taper appears to be 2 inches per foot (~4.75 degrees half-angle), which is kind of weird. Now to find a 2in/ft tapered reamer to fix the lower ball joint taper in my right knuckle...

'88 upper ball joint taper is 10 degrees

[The Dark Side of Will]

The flats on Rodney Dickman's "zero lash" sway bar end links are significantly too narrow for a normal wrench.

Enter the way too complicated solution:



Send-Cut-Send has a minimum order, so once we got their system to interpret my .DXF correctly (They use R12 .DXF... WTF?) they sent me 11 to fulfill minimum order cost.



And in action



I spread one trying to get the nut under the control arm tight. I guess it's good they sent me 11. I'm not sure there's room to make one that won't spread... maybe I'll play with it on a spare control arm.

[pmbrunelle]

I have also used sendcutsend. I like them.

I had an issue (on my 84-87 Fiero) with Rodney Dickman zero-lash links whereby the ball-and-socket joints didn't have enough range of motion to work on my Fiero:

RD endlink.jpg (336.13 KiB) Viewed 4682 times

I'm not sure what went wrong, but it's something to watch out for.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Is your sway bar upside down?

[ericjon262]

Is your sway bar upside down?

it doesn't look like it to me, otherwise that hump would hit the steering rack right?

[pmbrunelle]

I'm not sure there's room to make one that won't spread... maybe I'll play with it on a spare control arm.

Sendcutsend does have steel options which are stronger than mild steel. I don't know what you used.

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I don't think my sway bar is upside down.

I followed the service manual which says to put the spade-shaped end of the sway bar on the left side of the car.

Service Manual.jpg (180.73 KiB) Viewed 4651 times

I sent an email asking Rodney about it. If this doesn't work out, I'll probably run rubber links for the time being.

[The Dark Side of Will]

That's why I asked... it does have a specific orientation. Funky. Is that before you lowered your control arm pivot?

[The Dark Side of Will]

I have also used sendcutsend. I like them.

I had an issue (on my 84-87 Fiero) with Rodney Dickman zero-lash links whereby the ball-and-socket joints didn't have enough range of motion to work on my Fiero:
RD endlink.jpg

I'm not sure what went wrong, but it's something to watch out for.

Are you shocks installed in this photo? The UCA touching the crossmember is a drop limiter, but I thought the shock was a "higher" droop limiter.

[pmbrunelle]

I don't remember if the shocks were installed at that point, so I could recheck the endlinks with the shocks installed. If what you're saying is true, then there is a specific assembly order that must be followed to avoid damaging things.

Yes, the shock droop limiter is above the crossmember droop limiter.

I think the crossmember droop limiter serves to place the LCA at the correct position for shock installation. Since in service the crossmember droop limiter is not used, this allows the crossmember droop limiter to be built cheap/flimsy.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I guess you mean install the shocks fully extended. With a little muscle, they can be R&R'd with the vehicle on the ground just by turning the wheels full lock.

[pmbrunelle]

I guess you mean install the shocks fully extended. With a little muscle, they can be R&R'd with the vehicle on the ground just by turning the wheels full lock.

I was speaking in the context of installing the shock on the production line.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I guess you mean install the shocks fully extended. With a little muscle, they can be R&R'd with the vehicle on the ground just by turning the wheels full lock.

I was speaking in the context of installing the shock on the production line.

That's what I inferred. Then using production tooling to drive the upper mount bolts then pulls the suspension up to the shock's droop limit. Good observation.