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Freak! Suspension Failure

11K views 46 replies 21 participants last post by  N8tiveJuggalo17 
#1 · (Edited)
Aww man guys,...i was driving down the road doing about 80mph on cruise control then all i heard was BOOM! clunk clunk clunk GRIND!:facepalm: lol barely got the bird under control slowed down pulled over and see this! dam, i was hoping to get away with not replacing my passenger side suspension till the spring, but i guess not. had to call a tow truck, had to pay a $150 tow bill now i got to do some labor in the cold driveway! gotta get a new lower control arm lol, lower ball joint broke.






 
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#2 ·
I had the same thing happen a few months ago, except I was only doing 10 or so turning from an intersection. Definitely a sure fire way to ruin your day lol. Glad nobody got hurt though.
Also might want to get that wheel balanced or replaced. I was only going 10 or so and the control arm ground on the wheel pretty good (not BAD but enough to go, ouch) I can only imagine what yours would look like if you were going 80.
 
#7 ·
i personally love my fader tint, it adds a unique taste to the car, i dont wanna be like every other car with "black tint" know what i mean? to each his own i guess lol,...and yea their pre-96...my originals were VHT tinted but i got a fine for them being to dark so i bought these ones off of "Big Ed H" they look good,i like them alot better then the full red ones.
 
#8 ·
This may have just convinced me to put in all the suspension I have laying around... ouch
 
#10 ·
It's a band thing; New Kids or something, lol. (j/k)
 
#13 ·
If it makes you feel better I knew what your name meant.."Native" meaning Native American and "Juggalo" meaning ICP fan....Here have some Faygo!..lol



Rayo...
 
#15 ·
If it makes you feel better I knew what your name meant.."Native" meaning Native American and "Juggalo" meaning ICP fan....Here have some Faygo!..lol
lol, EXACTLY! i am a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, & A Juggalo lol....ooo man rayo if they sold faygo around here i'd buy that stuff everyday instead of pepsi products haha.

@ Melon - Aww Man, you are way on the otherside! dammit, should been closer you could help me with my LCA & J-Mod lol.
 
#16 ·
alright! peeps, i got the bird done today, it woulda been done long time ago but the shockmount to lca bolt was seized in there so i ended up cutting the head of the bolt off and just getting a regular grade 8 bolt(temporary fix)...fighting through snow and cold weather but i got her going!...now just waiting to put my springs&shocks on for my alignment. just thought i'd keep u guys posted.

-Jeremy
 
#18 ·
No you dont have to touch the spring while doing the UCA/LCA, Sway Bar End Links, tie rod ends & Strut Rod Bushings. When i did mine i simply took off the nut for the lower ball joint and popped that out, removed the nut for the strut rod bushings, had a FUN time removing the lower shock mount to LCA bolt because it was seized in there... alot of PB blaster and a hammer will do the trick, if not them just cut the head off and pop it through the other side with a punch. Now when you remove the camber adjustment bolt (the bolt that hold the LCA to the frame) remember that it has a concentric washer...it has to line up perfectly for the bolt to slide out right or else it wont come out, the washer & bolt have a Flat edge...shaped like a "D"..and they have to be lined up to slide out...thought i'd let you know and save you a $20 bolt...lol i had to buy a new one becuz i hammered to so bad i messed up the threads before i realized it.:boom:
 
#20 ·
Guys, take this piece of advise.

Get the car up in the air, and inspect your suspension components at least twice a year.

The upper balljoints and lower balljoints go bad pretty frequently in these cars. I have seen MANY upper balljoints break on these things.

My dad had a 90 tbird beater for a while, he was making a low speed turn near our house, the front wheel caved in and he nearly ended up driving the car into a GRAVEYARD.

Buy the entire arm, its a pain in the rear end to press joints out of the arms. Plus if you get an arm, you get new bushings also.
 
#38 ·
Juggalo, Did you have to put a wrench or something on the shaft of the ball joint when you removed it? Look at the scoring on the tapered part of the shaft. If you didn't do that during dissasembly then you very well could have a damaged spindle. If the machined taped in the spindle becomes greater than its original specification it can cause ball joint breakage. If you have that issue then that is a potential source of your sqwaking..
 
#30 ·
i dont think so, My LCA i got from carquest and the guy told me they are made my MOOG..it is greaseable, also the rest of my parts were all MOOG, UCA,Sway bar end links, out tie rod end with strut rod bushings from ford.:headbang:

Flush and change the Power Steering fluid?

Check the level it may be low.
i checked the fluid and its good, the sound isnt comming from the powersteering i dont think, it sounds like a squeeky suspension lol:2huh:
Whatcha know about that FAYGO!!! Man.... I need some Mountain Mist! LOL.
i love faygo bro, everytime i go down to denver,co i buy a crapload of faygo to bring back to the rez in south dakota:znanner: lol...since they dont sell that greatness around here

Lube the ball joints and see if the squawking goes away. Clearly your broken joint had NO grease in it any longer. If your new joints are ungreasable type go get a grease needle from autozone. Just poke it thru the boot and grease away. If that doesn't stop the squawking then you need to keep searching for the problem.

Question: What brand ball joints did you install? The cheap stuff likes to break. I had a cheap ball joint go bad in 6 months. Check my picture gallery, you'll see what I mean.
i bought MOOG parts and they are greaseable, i made sure they had grease fittings on them for me to grease them whenever needed. i did apply grease into them after installation, is there a specific type of grease i need to use?:zdunno:
 
#29 ·
Lube the ball joints and see if the squawking goes away. Clearly your broken joint had NO grease in it any longer. If your new joints are ungreasable type go get a grease needle from autozone. Just poke it thru the boot and grease away. If that doesn't stop the squawking then you need to keep searching for the problem.

Question: What brand ball joints did you install? The cheap stuff likes to break. I had a cheap ball joint go bad in 6 months. Check my picture gallery, you'll see what I mean.
 
#33 ·
Mine are almost ready to say good bye too I was planning to use autozone parts can you tell me where I can find a good and affordable replacement for the front suspension
 
#37 ·
Autozone doesn't really sell the control arms for our cars anymore. They don't sell fast enough so they never stock them. Just go thru rock atuo, they have the best selection.
 
#36 · (Edited)
I got my LCA's from Advance Auto. They're OEM TRW LCA's for the SuperCoupe.

I've been very happy with them.

I got my UCA's from autopartswarehouse.com

They're MOOG with the grease fittings. Best price for the best products!

Here's the part numbers for the UCA's. Their prices may have changes since I ordered mine in November of 2006. MOK8596 is the Right side and MOK8598 is the Left side.

Edit: Yup, I just looked them up, they're $80.84 with free shipping. Only $4.98 more than when I bought them four years ago ... Not bad!

Parts Ordered
1989 - 1995 Ford Control Arm Price: $75.95 Qty: 1 Part #: MOK8596

1989 - 1995 Ford Control Arm Price: $75.95 Qty: 1 Part #: MOK8598
 
#43 ·
Its a very common suspension failure. Although, if you are new to the MN12 scene it seems like a freak occurrence. this happened to my sisters 94.

I was trying to have my buddy who works at a ford take a "quick" look at it. My sister pulls up, gets the service writer to write a ticket (for a $0 brake inspection :lol:) starts to pull the car around and the front right just fell inward and the cars weight was on the right front wheelwell sitting on the tire. The spot where the car fell down was blocking the service entrance entirely. They had to pull the thing around on a big forklift. It was a catastrophe of a side job for my bud.

Anyone just get into tbirds/cougs? Go replace your old ass suspension before it collapses on you. People fly over curbs, medians and sidewalks in these cars and just keep on going. Also lots of dumb asses under torque suspension bolts it seems. I just use loctite on every damn thing now.
 
#46 ·
Doesn't take much for the moly grease - IIRC, it's about $1 a tube more than the high temp lithium at O'Reilly's.

Lemme pull part numbers ...

Autozone: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...extreme-pressure-grease?itemIdentifier=561761

Valvoline: http://www.valvoline.com/products/consumer-products/grease-gear-oil/grease/65 (note: look at the 'Sizes' chart for the part number for a conventioinal grease gun)

O'Reilly Auto: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/VLV0/633.oap?pt=N0412&ppt=C0139

That should be enough to keep you in trouble :D

Note: If you've been running a different grease through your gun, you may need to run part of a tube through just to purge the old grease. You can mix, but it's not really recommended.

RwP
 
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