If you don't want to read the lead up, just skip down to the TIPS section.
OK so I did this in 2 stages. First was the rear.
I had a weird twitch in the rear of my 88GT suspension. So I ran it to over to Dr.Fiero who has since closed "The Fiero Hut" but still helps personal friends out when they need to do a job. We replaced the stock rear struts and installed adjustable camber bolts. I then bought a complete rear arm suspension set with pre-installed Poly busings and installed it. Car felt Wicked. Good enough that Fiero Chick and I drove it all the way to Vegas and back from BC Canada. However after the run through the Mohave (Sp) desert, I noticed something not feeling right, it would really wander in the ruts and became a bit of a handful to drive.
Fast Forward about 8 months. I had been driving it around to and from work just dealing with it. I knew I was going to have to give the front suspension some attention. Then just when I needed it a deal fell into my lap. I again was able to buy a complete 88GT front suspension with Poly busings install, fresh upper and lower ball joints, rack with fresh out tie rod ends, nice tight rack bushings and stiff (read good) inner tie rod ends.
First tip.
Once the car is up in the air and wheels are off. SPRAY EVERYTHING DOWN WITH PENETRATING OIL.
During assembly GREASE EVERYTHING, and use Copper Coat on all bolts and nuts.
Tools to buy if you don't already have.
Grease Gun
Synthetic Grease for the grease gun
Copper Coat Anti Seize
Small Drill with bits. for Drilling the Rack for a Zerk Fitting.
Cheap 4" angle grinder with Zip Disc's
Lots of PB Blaster / WD 40 or Lloyd's Moovit. Lloyd's is the Best of the 3
15mm-19mm wrench's with 1/2 drive sockets
If have a compressor with a GOOD impact gun this job will be much faster.
Energy Suspension Tie Rod Boots, 4 large ones and 2 smaller ones. (I'll supply part numbers in next post)
Energy Suspension End Link kits for the front 8 bushings.
Zerk/Grease Fittings small pack of them
Removal of the upper control arms seems like it should be a simple job. However if you are like situation, what can go wrong usually will. There are 2 15mm nuts on top of the control arm that you have to remove. Well you start to pull them and they seem to spin but nothing comes loose. Turns out the 2 18mm nuts are only held in by a sheet metal nut retainer, which almost completely block access with a wrench, but with some fighting you can get an 18mm wrench in the side of the control arm mount and force the boxed end in and hold the nut. Once both nuts are out, you can pry the nut retainer out. Now just remove the cotter pin and pop the upper ball joint. I prefer to smack it a few times really hard with a large hammer. This shocks it enough that it simply pops out.
Next you are going to need a deep 13mm socket and a shallow 13mm socket. The deep is to attack the top of the sway bar end link and the short is to hold the lower end of the end link. I had one come apart easy and the 2nd one snapped right in the middle of the long tube spacer. So out came the zip cut again. The 2 busted parts were seized in the spacer. No biggie as they are being replaced anyway.
Now put a small hyd jack under the lower control arm. Jack it up enough to support the lower arm. Now attempt to remove the upper shuck mount. Mine was seized, so I simply cut the nut off. Then remove the 2 13mm bolts accessed from under the control arm. The shock should just drop out. now seeing as you have already removed the upper A-Arm, you can lower the lower A-arm down slowly and remove the spring. Now you have easy access to the 88 spindle. Remove the Tie Rod from the spindle and then remove the lower ball joint. Now take the spindle (with brake hose still hooked up) to the side. I found stacking it on the front tire under the car work great.
Now take an 18mm wrench and 18mm ratchet and remove both the lower A-Arm bolts. These can be tough, if you don't have access to power tools, place the wrench and ratchet on the ends and take a hammer and hit the end of the wrench up or down depending on what end you have it on to try and crack the bolts loose. Once the nuts are off, take a smaller hammer and tap the bolt out. You may need to get a wedge to help it come out. One of mine was seized in place, so I had to take a propane torch and heat the hell out of it. While it was hot I was able to get it to pop out. Now you can remove the lower A-Arm. Next up is the rack and pinion. There are 4, 13mm bolts to hold the rack to front frame mount. If you are lucky they will all come out easy, however if you are not so lucky, at least one will snap off the head of the bolt. THIS IS THE BIGGEST TIP I CAN OFFER, and this is thanks to fellow Forum Member and Fiero Mechanic Dr.Fiero. REMOVE THE FRONT TUB. I spent 2hrs trying to remove the pinch bolt on the rack of my 88GT. Then another 2hrs trying to get the new one back on. I actually got so frustrated I had to walk away from the car for a time. I called Dr.Fiero and he told me I was nuts to try and do it with the TUB in place. On an 84-87 it does not really matter as there is more room, however the 88's front suspension is much more compact. There is just not enough room to do it. I pulled the tub out, and in all of 10 mins I had the busted stub removed and the new rack was hooked up in the pinch bolt and torqued.
I kinda jumped ahead there so lets back track.
You have the old rack out. A - Arms are off. Sway bar is un-hooked rack and pinion is snaked out of the frame of the car. Spindle are safely sitting on front wheels, complete with brakes and all.
Now its time to start modding.
First things first. Hopefully you have a new rack / replacement rack or parts to rebuild your current rack. Take a small drill bit slightly smaller than the thread size of your Zerk fittings. I believe I used a 1/4 inch bit. (sorry I was not paying attention to the size, I just kept pulling up bits and sizing the shank to the back of the Zerk fitting. Take your rack and flip it over so that when it is installed, you will be looking at the bottom of it. Go about 2" to the left of the pinion and slowly start drilling a hole. Use a vacuum to constantly remove any metal fillings. Dip your drill bit in some of that synthetic grease so the metal fillings will get trapped in the grease and be expelled during the drilling process. As you get close to drilling all the way into the rack, pull the bit out, clean it out. put grease in the hole. Get the vacuum near the hole. Your goal is to not let any metal to drop into the rack from the hole you just made. Don't push the dill in further than the hole you just made. You don't want to damage any internal parts now take your Zerk/grease fitting and gently twist it until you feel the threads start to grab. The rack is made from Aluminum and is very soft, the Zerk fitting is a much harder material, so it can cut its own threads easily. OK now spin the rack so its at full lock to one side, and put in about 10 pumps with the grease gun, now spin it all the other way and again put in about 10 pumps with the grease gun. Now center it and put another 10 pumps in. You will actually hear the grease clinging to the gears. This is a very nice sound. What we have done is now put a substantial amount of grease in the rack that will keep the rack/pinion gears lubed. The first few times I went full lock to lock with the steering it felt kinda spongy which in a way I was happy with, as it meant the grease was being forced into places that previously had just air and were dry. Even if this does nothing for longevity, the rack sure Feels better, and I FEEL better knowing that there is now lots of grease in the rack and I can add lube any time I feel like. I can even remove the boots and wipe out some of the old grease if I so choose. However I am using Synthetic grease that should last the life of rack, which with any hopes will be considerably longer than before.
WooHoo, next. Getting rid of the ugly poor, common to fail rubber tie rod boots, and ball joint boots. Now the Tie Rod boots and upper Ball Joint Boots should just pop with just a bit of tugging, however the lower have a wire ring that you will need gently pry up with a flat screw driver. Once you get it started it just pops off. What you will be getting from your local speed shop is 2 of the smaller tie rod boots and 2 of the larger tie rod boots. In my next posts I will supply part numbers. These not only spruce up the look of the suspension but also gives you a much stronger grease cup that won't split over time. The larger cup goes on the lower ball joint and the 2 smaller ones go on the upper ball joints and the tie rod ends.
Dang we are doing good now. Time to start setting up the rest of the parts.
Take each lower control arm and put about 1 pump of grease onto your finger (The synthetic grease). Now smear it into the side of the Poly bushings (there is 4 sides per control arm). Once you have greased all 8 sides, now you need to put a very thin film of grease on all 8 sides of the control am to frame brackets. I know, I know this sounds like a lot of work. But I tell ya it is worth it. Do a trial fit and if they don't just slip perfectly grab large pair of Vice Grips. Try to get the tip of the vice grip as close to the center of the bracket, hold the grips in a vertical fashion and gently pry open the bracket. Now go the same treatment to the other 3 metal tabs that hold the control arms in place. However like I said, just a little tweak. Less than a 1/16 of an inch each. Now take your lower arm and and re-install it. Once the holes are lined up and ready to go. Grab your lower control arm bolt and slather it, really slather it with Anti Seize.
Slide those new anti seized bolts in and snug them up
I need to take a quick break. But here is a start for the topic.
Next up we are going to talk about possible cutting 1/2 or 1 coil from the spring. I chose 1/2 coil. To be on the same side.
Before you start putting the Control Arms back in, you really should get the rack back in first. Its usually pretty straight forward. I found it best to install and remove it from the passenger side. However I had some major issues with the pinch bolt and later removed the front tub. This takes all of 10 mins depending on how much junk you have up there. It makes the entire job so much easier. So I would highly recommend doing this. OK you have slid the rack back into place. Now re-connect the pinch bolt. The bolt is an 11mm odd ball. If you have some thread locking compound and feel you want it for the safety, go ahead and put some on. I usually take a large flat screw driver and a hammer to wedge the pinch bracket open a bit, to make installing the rack easier. Once you have it back together, remove the screw driver and install the bolt. OK now back to where we were.
OK so when we left off, we were just about to start talking about springs.
I couldn't resist. I had the springs on the ground in front of me and my zip disk right there. So I removed 1/2 of a coil from each spring, this should lower the car about 1/2 on the front. Replacing the springs is really pretty easy. Turn the springs so the area you cut is lined up with the notch in the lower control arm, now put the top of the spring in the upper mount, slowly start to raise the lower control arm, you will probably need to use a small pry bar, or strong flat screwdriver to get the spring to stay where you want it on the lower A-Arm, use a small jack to raise the A-Arm up as you go. Once everything is up and seated correctly its time to start the rest of the assembly.
Next up are the shocks.
I did not like the look of the rubber bushings in the top of the shock mount, so I replaced them with 2 Poly end link bushings. Seemed to work well. Now snake the shock up through the spring until you see the head pop out through the hole. Once it is up, install the upper Poly bushing and washer, then the nut to keep it in place. Now reach down and install the 2 - 13mm bolts that hold the lower shock mount to the lower control arm.
Once the lower A Arm is up, I installed the upper A-Arm, because the nuts were spun, I had to be kinda sneaky. I cleaned all the bolts up on my bench with my wire wheel. I put the upper arms in place, dropped the 2 15mm bolts in, then held each nut in my fingers, and slid them into place, I turned the 15mm bolts with my fingers until I felt them grab the threads. I turned each one until it was snug. Then I grabbed my Air Ratchet and an 18mm wrench. (bolt head is 15mm nut is 18mm) I set the control arms In-Board as far as they would go. This seems to be a good position for the initial drive to the alignment shop. Once you have the nuts and bolts tight, you can move on to the spindle.
Grab the spindle you set aside, and install it. Just make sure you did not twist a brake line. Make sure you have the Tie Rod mount facing forward. I chose to lift the upper arm way up, drop it onto the lower A-Arm first, install the lower ball joint nut, then reach up and pull the upper A-Arm into place and install the upper ball joint nut. Now grab the Tie Rod and install it onto the spindle. Torque everything down, install cotter pins in everything.
Now install your new End Link kit.
Now start greasing all the ball joints and tie rods. The Poly bushings don't expand like the rubber ones when they fill. The entire base of the bushing will come up slightly to relieve extra pressure. So watch for any old grease coming out. You can either stop at the first sign of grease escaping, or keep wiping away the old grease and stop when you see new grease.
Well go around and check all your bolts, torque them as needed (refer to your manual for proper values!), install your wheels and remove all the jacks and lower the car. Your next stop should be an alignment shop. Have fun with your newly setup suspension.
Part Numbers
Everything is Energy Suspension
End Link Kit 9.8121R
Small Tie Rod Boots, 9.13101R 2 per pack, and you need 2 packs for a total of 4 bushings
Large Tie Rod Boots, 9.13119R
Poly bushings to replace upper shock mounts and rear bar, 9.8105R You need two packs. Each pack has 8 bushings in it.
(BTW - the "R" in the part number is for red parts. If you want black, I think it's a "K")
Edited by Dr.Fiero
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Topic: 88 Front Suspension Rebuild Tips
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