Member Login / Signup - Members see fewer ads. - Latest Member Gallery Photos Sonett Suspension/Valve Adjustment Posted by Dave Newkirk (more from Dave Newkirk) on Sat, 1 Jul 1989 17:27:17 I have just completed a partial replacement of the right front suspensionon my '73 Sonett. Late last year, someone bumped me in Chicago, but nothard enough to fatally damage anything. I just thought the front wasknocked out of alignment. I stored the car during the winter, and plannedto fix it this spring. When I took it to a body shop, I found it wasreally bent (past any hope of alignment), and they pulled the `frame'back into place. But they also found the lower A-arm and the top of thesteering knuckle were slightly bent. I took it home and began to tearit apart.Once the wheel was off, I realized I didn't have anything big enough to fitthe huge nut over the hub. I bought a 1 5/16' socket (3/4' drive!) that fitwell enough, but it was so tight I had to hold the brake disc from turningwith the brakes while two friends popped the nut loose. The disc came awayeasily, and I compressed the coil spring and began loosening bolts. I hadto drill out one of the screws holding the dust shield over the steeringknuckle (it had seized up completely). Some of the bolts were stubborn,but Liquid Wrench and long breaker bars did the trick. Eventually I hadthe shock, upper & lower ball joints, tie rod end, lower A-arm and the driveshaft out (this didn't leave much on the car). But the tie rod end wouldn'tcome off the steering arm. I tried heating it up with a propane torch,and was surprised when it just fell off all by itself after just a minuteor so of heating! The old steering knuckle popped of the shaft quickly,and the old seals & bearings looked OK. Then I realized I would need newseals, so I made a quick mail order call and got them the next day (bothinner & outer seals).Now the reconstruction began. The new wheel bearing didn't want to go inthe new steering knuckle, but we managed to tap it in with a wooden blockand rubber mallet. But the drive shaft was much more reluctant. We beaton it with wooden blocks and pressed it in with a large vise for a longtime before it finally slid into place. Then we noticed a small greasypart laying on the floor! Had we left something out? No, it was a littlecap that fit over some needle bearings on the other end of the driveshaft.The driveshaft went back on quickly, once I got the inner U-joint lined upcorrectly. I bolted in the steering knuckle and tightened up everythingelse and released the coil spring. I replaced the old screws holding thedust shield with new hex head bolts, and replaced the brake disc and caliper.Then I used the brakes again to hold the hub while the big nut wastightened.It drove better now, but still needed an alignment. I took it to threedifferent places before Sears agreed to try it. At Midas, they said thecar wasn't in the computer database, so they couldn't align it! TheFirestone guys said they couldn't figure it out (although I gave them themanual and shims). And at Tire America they said those strange Europeancars were hard to align, and they wouldn't do it. But Sears did a goodjob for their standard alignment fee (which was reasonable). I alsostraightened out the steering wheel a bit.And now for the question you've been waiting for: how am I supposed to seethe mark on the flywheel to tell when I'm at TDC? I barely managed to touchthe opening in the flywheel housing, and never saw it directly. How do youadjust the valves on this thing! Posts in this Thread:
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