rbuswell

Rears are in. I bought a 5 foot piece of 1 inch galvanized pipe at Home Depot ($11). Hint: Leave the plastic thread covers on to protect your pretty breaker bar. I put the 18 inch breaker bar in it and BINGO the bolt turned immediately. Bolted on the new lower end then raised the suspension with the small hydraulic jack I used to keep it from dropping too far and the new shock went right in the mounting hole. Take that Wayne Dempsey!

Now to the fronts! Got the right shock out of the mounting hole but couldn’t reach an angle whereby the old shock could even come out much less put in the new Bilstein shock. Didn’t undo the brake line since I don’t have a bleeder setup (yet) and I couldn’t get the cap nut on the strut (under the dust guard) loose anyway. Does this take a special Boge tool?

If there isn’t a tool for the cap nut, it looks like I’m going to have to follow the Bentley and take the suspension apart so I can take the shock/strut to the vise (unless there are other ideas about how to turn the cap nut without taking the strut out of the car). Looks like the “Dempsey hours estimate times ten” rule is in force yet again.

Several posts recommend doing any bushing work now since I’ll need to do a new alignment anyway. Who has the best stuff for a street car that I’d like to have handle really well without a lot of squeaking. I won't be racing for insurance reasons. Opinions please?!

rbuswell

Wanted you guys and gals to know that I got everything done on the shocks and struts some time ago but I still need to bleed the brakes since I went the conservative route and released the lines to get a good angle on the struts. Couldn't get the lines to bleed enough with a vacuum style pump so I'm getting a Motive Black Label power bleeder and the nifty one way valves from Pelican. I just refuse to mess around with brakes ... they've got to be perfect. If I can't get the brakes bled completely and the other posts don't get me there, I'm sure I'll be starting a new thread. Thanks again for all your help.

theiceman

If you use the power bleeder you will be done quick ...

don't forget to post the pics !

PS please tell me you put new brake lines on since you had them disconnected anyway ...

rbuswell

I'm going to take your advice Ice and put in new ones anyway. Might as well, given the age of the car and wanting to start with fresh DOT 5 fluid flushing and power bleeding.

Looks like the way to go is the braided DOT teflon parts since the cost isn't much different and they seem more robust. Opinions.

theiceman

not sure about the type of lins but isn't dot 5 synthetic .. i'm no expert but I though that was NOT compatible with our brake systems.

rbuswell

I haven't seen anything definitive on DOT 5 fluid, just suspicions. The benefits of DOT 5 seem high however.

I don't want to buy the colored racing stuff because several posts have talked about how it dyes the side of the reservoir and you can't tell the level of the fluid. I don't intend to compete so I don't need the overkill. Maybe I'll play it safe and buy the DOT 4 instead. Fluid is cheap after all.

theiceman

I would stick with 3 or 4 if I were you ...