OK, so this is my first journal entry. I bought my car about 8 months ago, but didn’t get to do much work on it before the cold weather hit. Since I don’t have a heated garage, I didn’t get into anything major until spring. However, I have driven the car a lot (Even when it was 7 degrees out!) so I have a pretty good idea about what all needs fixed.

I had some clunking sounds in the rear end that turned out to be a worn trunnion bushing. However, since I had it all torn apart I decided I would replace all of the bearings, seals, bushings, and other wear parts in the rear suspension.

I borrowed a hub puller which made quick work of getting the rear hubs off. Prior to getting the right tool, I tried a number of methods including a few tons of hydraulic pressure. Nothing even came close to the prescribed puller. If you find yourself in this situation, it is well worth the effort to track one down.

Last weekend I tore down the passenger side, removing everything from the differential flange out. I have been cleaning the parts, and got them primed tonight. I am going a little off the deep end, and plan on painting most of the parts burgundy.

I also pulled out the leaf spring, and disassembled it tonight. If you do this, you may get lucky and have the studs pull out with the nuts. If not, you have to use a pair of nuts to pull the studs out. With the vertical ling disconnected on the driver’s side, and the suspension missing on the other, the spring slid out very easy. I expected it to be heavier than it is, but it is not at all hard to pull it out by yourself.

Disassembling the spring was also pretty easy. I used a C-clamp to hold the spring compressed as I unbolted each clip. Separating the last two was a bit scary. The Hayes manual tells you to bend the clips enough to get the main leaf out. It didn’t feel right, but I bent one of them a few degrees until I could separate the leaves. Hopefully it goes back together without cracking.

The spring buttons were pretty much smashed out of existence. I plan to machine some new ones out of Teflon.

Enough for now. Next time I get some pics...