Front Suspension Reassembly

nking79 · Post by **nking79** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 7:06 am

What is the best way to reassemble the front suspension. I have everything ready to go; upper a-arm, lower a-arms, spring seat...

Post by **dbrick** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:09 pm

Lug nuts go last, I remember that part.

Seriously, you can go any way you want, it might be easiest to start from the top, upper control arm, then lower, then spindle to upper ball joint and tighten, spring and lower ball joint to spindle (carefully) shock, steering, brakes, bearings hub and rotor, then wheels....Oh, then the Lugnuts. Make sure any greased bushings have grease on the bearing surfaces when assembling. Stop and look once in a while, compare to photos and/or manual. Don't mix and match bolts, be careful that the threads are started straight before tightening. If you don't have a torque wrench, buy one, Craftsman has good ones on sale under $75.00, but even the $19.99 ones at PepBoys or Strauss are better than none. If you buy the Craftsman, you will never need to upgrade it. If you really can't swing one, come over and borrow mine and take photos of my cars for reference, I'm not that far away.

A few people have done very detailed websites with photos of their restorations. Some are listed on 311's, or go to the Datsun Webring.

Post by **spl310** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:36 pm

Well, the BEST way is to pay someone else to do it!

I want to chime in on the torque wrench with a personal bias. If you get one, get a beam type torque wrench (it has a crescent shaped scale at the handle with a smaller bar pointer over the main bar) as they don't have to be calibrated. The click types are supposed to be calibrated annually. I don't know of anyone (professional mechanics) that are religious about doing that, but I know plenty that buy them, never check them and never get them calibrated.

Post by **23yrRebuild** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:45 pm

Take lots of pictures for future reference.

Post by **dbrick** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:22 pm

I use the beam bender to check the clicker, 1/2 8 point socket and a big vise.

nking79 · Post by **nking79** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:53 am

A torque wrench is something on my list of things to buy. I may try to borrrow one from a local garage... For now I have the front left all bolted up, but will be sure to go back through with a torque wrench. I bought the bolt pack - which was great...

Post by **dbrick** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 5:43 pm

Money well spent on the bolts.

DatsunBucky · Post by **DatsunBucky** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 4:00 pm

A note on the Craftsman torque wrenches. The beam type has the Craftsman lifetime warranty, the clicker doesn't. MOST of the Craftsman hand tools have the forever warranty, but it never hurts to ask before buying.

Post by **ppeters914** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:08 pm

spl310 wrote:The click types are supposed to be calibrated annually. I don't know of anyone (professional mechanics) that are religious about doing that, but I know plenty that buy them, never check them and never get them calibrated.

Hmmm, purchased my Craftsman clicker in early 70's. Guess it's time to have it calibrated, eh?

Post by **dbrick** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:38 pm

In most, not all cases if you are within about 5-10% of the torque spec, but all bolts are EQUALLY torqued, there will be few problems. I think it was the main bearing caps on my 340 dodge, they went to something like 180 ft pounds. I weigh about 150 pounds. My arm was shaking so bad by the last one, you could hardly read the needle on the beam bender.
Sears makes a digital torque meter that goes inline with the wrench, looks like a multimeter, kind of cool.
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product. ... Cookie=Yes

Post by **Danny_Vilato** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 4:07 pm

Help! I trying to put the front suspension back together. Can someone tell me the left from right spindle?

exit64 · Post by **exit64** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 5:59 pm

Disk brake mounts go towards the rear of the car.