Wayne Presley

So in my last installment you have all your drilled panels powdercoated and set off to the side. On the front suspension hopefully you picked up the FFR Mk IV spindles as you get a much better front geometry without the jacking of the SN95/spindle adapter. Take the center sleeves out of the urethane bushings and grease them up well and put them back in the urethane. Bolt the lower ams in the chassis but do not fully tighten them, we'll do that later. Set the spindles over the lower ball joint and align the cotter pin hole 90 degrees the spindle shaft and tighten the nut and install cotter pin. Pick up the upper control arm and install the ball joint. I use a vise to hold the ball joint and use the arm to tighten the BJ in the arm. Attach the arms and tighten bolts fully. Put upper ball joint into spindle and align hole at 90 degrees to the spindle shaft and tighten nut and install cotter pin. Get out your steering rack and bolt it in, attach the tie rod ends and install them in the spindles. Bring the spindle to ride height and tighten the lower arm bolts. You may or may not need to cut the outer end of the tie rod end as it depends on the spindle and rack used. Install the shocks and the front suspension is done.

The IRS is a more involved than the three/four link. Start by putting the pumpkin in the frame, it takes some wrangling and it's much easier to do with two people. Start all 4 bolts and tighten. Now for the, "I hate this smelly slimy grease" phase of the install, the CV axle rebuild. Get on some clothes you won't mind throwing away when you are done. Take the clamps off the boots, the outer CV is a tri bearing type and comes out easily. Put the center axle in the vise, take a drift and give the inner sleeve a good rap to just move the sleeve past the outer circlip. Once past the clip, light taps will walk it off and catch it before it falls. You don't want to drop it, finding and reloading the bearings sucks. I had you do the outer first because the inner can be tough. I use a pipe 2" longer than the axle and just slightly larger than the axle. Slide the pipe over the axle, hold vertical and drop on the concrete and use the inertia of the axle to pop it out. Use paddle nose external snap ring pliers to remove the snap rings off the old axle and install them on the FFR supplied axles remembering to place the boots between the snap rings. Speaking of boots, www.northracecars.com has some great silicone boots survive high speeds much better than the black boots. Reassemble the axles in reverse order of disassembly, clean up and throw away those stanky clothes. As a side benefit your hands will smell like the grease for a few days. Thread the rod ends into the lower arms with 3 threads showing outside the lock nut on the rear of the lower arm. Bolt the arm in the rear with one washer in the back, rod end and then fill in the gap with washers. This keeps the tires from rubbing the aluminum behind the seats. Bolt in the front arm with no washers since that will change when you get your alignment done. Quick tip is to superglue the washer stacks together once you figure out how many in front and back of the rod end you need. install the axles into the diff and put the rear spindle over the CV stub axle and install the lower bolts but leave loose. Install upper arm with quad shock brackets pointing down. Bring the axle to ride height and tighten the control arm bolts. Bolt in the shocks and the rear end is done.