Installing lowering springs and running into problems.

[Guest yTTyTee]

I have a 76 280z and just finished installing springs and struts on the front suspension. Now I'm on to the back and have run into a problem I can't solve. I am trying to disconnect the transverse link(control arm) from the strut housing but after I remove the cylinder that holds them together there is still something that is preventing it from seperating. It apears to be just a small bit of metal sticking out from the control arm side at the bushing. I think it may be part of the bushing but I'm not sure. All the books I've read say that you can just remove the control arm form the strut housing after the cylinder is removed. Any help would be awsome. Thnx.

[JMortensen]

Sounds like you're trying to remove the spindle pins. This is one of the hardest jobs on a Z that there is, despite how easy it looks or how easy it "should" be.

 

You simply don't need to remove the strut from the control arm to change the struts. You don't need to remove the whole control arm either.

 

If you disconnect the brake lines, the half shafts, and the sway bar if you have one then you can undo the three nuts inside the car on the strut tops and then pull the whole control arm down and swing the top of the strut out of the fender well. Once you've got this done you can use your spring compressor and pull the spring, then put the strut top back on and bolt it back into the body. Now you have easy access to the gland nut. Loosen it, drop the swingarm back down, and you can remove the gland nut and replace the struts. Reverse, bleed the brakes, and you're done.

 

There is a special tool which gets passed around here that is specifically for spindle pin removal. It works great. You only need to use it if you're changing the bushings though.

[Guest yTTyTee]

I had already removed the spindles, and it was still not budging. So I slept on it and came back to it this morning. I decided to remove the control arm from the strut housing on the other side to see if it would come off any easier. And it popped right off extreamly easily. So then I went back over to the other side and took a flashlight to the crack between the strut housing and the control arm to see what was getting hung up. And nothing was in the cylinder. Then I realised that what was getting hung up was this strange potrusion of metal on top of the control arm. When I checked the other side, it was on the bottom not the top......then it hit me and I screamed a very long very loud profanity. This picture should clear up any questions of what I mean...

 

 

Yup...thats two right hand control arms. Another thing that sucks is that the indent for the sway bar is opposite on the left side then on the right, so the sway bar sits higher on the left then on the right. What I'm wondering is if this came from the factory like this. I know the owner before me never touched the rear of the car. Luckly I know someone that is parting out a 240z so I can get the part...(is it ths same on the 240 as on the 280?) but for now I'm gunna have to bolt it back on cus I won't be able to get that part for a few months. I hope this wont cause any other problems......

[JMortensen]

The control arms are the same on both sides and 1 is flipped from the factory, so you are OK there.

 

I'd change the bushings while you've got it apart. Even if you only do the rear control arms, I'd do them now. Regardless, you should coat them with anti-seize so that they come out easy if you ever need to pull the pins again.

 

Still not sure what protrusion is there on the one side and not the other. Maybe you were just confused by the upside down swingarm. If you search for "rear control arm bushing" and click on the Search for ALL terms button you'll see some good posts about how to get the shells out of the control arms.

[CruxGNZ]

Jon is correct, the rear control arms are the same, just one is flipped for the other side, so don't worry about the sway bar end links.

 

!M!

[bjhines]

I ran into the same problem when adding a rear swaybar to my 240Z... I used a rear mounted swaybar that pivoted off the rear crossbrace behind the diff.

 

For starters...you really have to get the brackets as high as you can to clear the drive shaft under full compression....And I had to cut the end link spacers to 2 different lengths to compensate for one control arm being convex and the other being concave...about an inch difference.....

 

Like a dummy I tried to measure the difference and cut the spacers different by the thickness of the control arms...Well...that ended up wrong... second attempt was done by trial and error with the car on its wheels and the endinks measured to fit the car as it sat level.

[evildky]

the swaybar mounting holes are the same for both arms, assuming your rear mounted bar uses the same holes as the stock forward mounted units, the mounting indention outs it at the center of the thickness of the arms, it's kinda hard to explain without ilistrating it but your endlinks should be equal length unless your bar mounts are crooked or your not using the stock sway bar mounting holes in the A arms