1967 SWB Front Suspension reassembly question

[SteveJ]

Hello,

Have my 67 back from paint and suspension back from powder coat. Lots of fun suspension bits have arrived and I am getting ready to start to put the front suspension back together and on the car. After having some issues with bushings, I now have front and rear bushings on the control arms and I have the control arms pushed into the front control arm support bar. I set it to about 28 degrees angle, I saw that somewhere as a reference point for the angle.

My question is about what to assemble on the front triangle before attaching to the car, I am sure there are a few ways to do this but looking for sage advice on proper procedure...

Do I attach the steering rack? or can I attach it after the triangle is mounted to the car? If I attach now, do I also attach the turbo tie rods?

Should I mount the ball joints to the control arms or to the strut assembly?

THANKS!!!

[cnwayland]

I did this yesterday on a '66 and attached (and torqued) the extended turbo tie rods on the rack (although I remove the tie rod ends for simplicity), then installed the rack into the car, allowing it to be held in place by attaching the steering coupling.

Then goes the cross member and a-arms w/ new bushings etc. lower ball joints and steering arms.

I find it easier to do the strut assembly after all the torque is done on your suspension points/ball joints, tie rods... top nylock shock nut holds each side in place while you get the steering arm underneath and bolted up.

[SteveJ]

I did this yesterday on a '66 and attached (and torqued) the extended turbo tie rods on the rack (although I remove the tie rod ends for simplicity), then installed the rack into the car, allowing it to be held in place by attaching the steering coupling.

Then goes the cross member and a-arms w/ new bushings etc. lower ball joints and steering arms.

I find it easier to do the strut assembly after all the torque is done on your suspension points/ball joints, tie rods... top nylock shock nut holds each side in place while you get the steering arm underneath and bolted up.

THANK YOU! Do you have pics? I am still a bit confused on the steering rack. There is a rubber boot on the rack, and they turbo tie rods come with a boot too, do you use both boots?

So you attached the lower ball joints to the steering arms and not the a arms first?

Thanks again

[cnwayland]

You'll use the new boots for the extended turbo tie rods.

They use the two original boot retainer spring, one of each side nearest the rack. The outer boot pops over a circular bushing on the steering arm. They can be challenging to install on the car, so I recommend doing it before you install the rack.

[SteveJ]

You'll use the new boots for the extended turbo tie rods.

They use the two original boot retainer spring, one of each side nearest the rack. The outer boot pops over a circular bushing on the steering arm. They can be challenging to install on the car, so I recommend doing it before you install the rack.

Interesting, so you did mount the ball joint and steering knuckle (as well as front stabilizer bracket) but you didn't install the torsion bar end cap...on a video I saw, the guy mounted the torsion bar end cap prior to mounting the triangle to the frame...