Front Suspension


First order of business is getting the car up on jack stands and getting the wheels off. This is hard work. I recommend a good pair of thick leather work gloves, and good quality hydraulic jack and jack stands. Be really careful when getting the car on the stands. You won't survive if the car falls on you. I remember when I was a kid one of my friend's father died when his pickup slipped off jack stands on him. Second, take all the brake parts off, including the wheel cylinders.
This is a top A Arm. Notice the size of the bolts. You'll probably need to buy some larger size sockets. I had to buy a 1-1/4" socket to get the shafts out. A butane torch is also a must. Heat works wonders on tight bolts and friction fittings like ball joint shafts and tie rod ends. I Also recommend a good heavy ball peen hammer. I used Air Impact Wrench, and Air Chisel too. 59 Cadillacs weigh about 4500 pounds, so the suspension parts are built accordingly.
This picture is worth at least 1K words. Look at that rust, 39 years of road dirt and grease mixed on rusty steel. This is a great example of when you really should use Aluminum Oxide vs Glass Beads when blasting.
Here's a lower A Arm after I release the spring. Be super careful when releasing the springs. I used a hydraulic jack to compress the spring, and then loosened the top ball joint nut. A single spring contains enough power to lift the entire front end of the car off the jack stands. You could be seriously hurt if you release an arm on your hands or legs. After the spring is out the rest of the job is pretty easy. Again use an Impact wrench and torch. You probably won't free up the bolts any other way.
The Top A arms are smaller than the bottoms. you can see the ball joint in this picture. A couple of the ball joints were installed with rivets. I had to grind the heads off with an angle grinder. Drill through them with a 1/4" drill, and heat them up until the glowed before I could force them out with an air chisel. I felt like a blacksmith.
Odds and ends!

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Author: Bill McKenna
email bill@mckennasgarage.com