The Mite
Part: 30
Beginning Re-assembly of the Front Suspension

The Stock Sprite lever arm shock on the jig With the car painted, now it's time to re-assemble everything and hope that I got it all correct.  The first thing I did was place the front lever shocks back on the jig to make sure that the jig was correct. 
The Fabricated Sprite a-arm on the jig Then, with the a-arms back from getting powder coated, I assembled them making sure that they lined up perfectly with the jig, assuring that the stock suspension geometry would be retained with the new arms.
Milling a slot for alignment adjustment in the a-arm mount Then, to allow some adjustment of camber, which might be necessary with the car slightly lowered, I machined the holes in a-arm support pivot plate.  The 1/4 inch of adjustment should be more than enough.
The upper a-arm and spindle Then, the spindle was attached to the a-arm, using two urethane bushings and two washers.  It took a couple of gorillas and some fancy language to get the bushings compressed and into the space between the bosses on the a-arm, especially with the gloopy grease that was included with the bushings covering everything.  I wanted the bushings to be about as tight as they would be on the stock front end when the upper fulcrum bolt is tightened to specs, so I put a couple of bushings in the upper trunnion and used a lever shock and stock nut and tightened them up.  I measured the crush of the bushings and duplicated that on my a-arms using different thicknesses of washers. 
The lower a-arm and springs Here's the bottom a-frame with the new 340 pound/inch springs from Moss and the urethane bushings.
The assembled a-arms and springs The whole mess assembled and ready for the hub
The assembled front suspension Another view of the assembled suspension.  The lower threaded fulcrum pin is held captive by a flat-sided pin that must be carefully driven into the bottom of the swivel pin. 
The wire wheel on the spindle The front hubs are on and a wheel is in place. This is the first time that the car has been on wheels in a couple of years
Another view of the wheel on the car Here's another view of the wheels and tires on the car.  I bought 4 new wheels over the last couple of years and took the best old one I had to be powder coated as a spare.  The 5 tires, mounted and balanced with road-hazard guarantee, cost less than one tire for my truck.  Not counting the tubes and rubber bands, of course.  Next, after a trip to Copperstate Nut and Bolt for some more Grade 8 fasteners, is the rack and pinion, the steering arms and the front brakes, as well as the rear leafs and spring hangers. 

 

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