Fun weekend
 

so i blew a hole in my radiator on thursday. not like a little leak, but the pouring-water-in-and-watching-it-spill-out-at-the-same-rate kind. so i ordered a new radiator for it. and seeings as my Z needs struts, bushings, front diff mount (i am making a r/t style mount and replacing the original one), and thermostat, all those will be replaced as well. i am painting all parts that come off a nice blue, and will take pictures if i remember to bring my camera.

on saturday, we got the radiator pulled, and one corner of the suspension off. one question i had was that when i pulled the strut out of the housing, oil was leaking everywhere (more that the half cup or so to help heat transfer) and the strut piston was separate from the insert tube. is this normal or were mine REALLY shot?

oh and getting the spindle pins out was... interesting to say the least.

Yes oil is supposed to be there. It keeps the shock insert cool. You will need to replace it w/ fresh oil (ATF works great) upon install of new inserts.

ok so i am pretty sure the struts that were in there were the original struts. i will post some pictures here soon (hopefully).

oops... I think I read your first post wrong (you already knew about the oil). The insert should come out in one piece & look like a basic shock. If the actual shaft came out, you may have a fun time fishing out the shell from the strut. You'll find out if the new insert won't fit.

yeah they were the old oil filled shocks. since there was oil everywhere, the piston and tube came out no problem, but they were not connected. there was a little rubber o-ring at the top of the housing that kept everything in place. i have a friend with sandblaster :biggrin: and he is gonna let me use so i can clean all my parts nice and pretty before paint. plan to take the front suspension off this weekend and sandblast next week. hopefully by then all the parts will be in and i can put it all together :)

sounds like my car when i did the struts the orignial ones exploded every where each one!!! it was fun.

so i broke our vice trying to disassemble my half-shaft u joints... i got one u joint out, but on the next one the bearing caps were so rusted in there that the vice broke when we tried to push the joint out. plan b- hydraulic press :)

when i replaced my thermostate i " hand sanded the housing " ! in fact i hand sanded 2 extra i got ta the junk yards. hear in town.. why ? because i was bored... there is a little like bird design on the houseing it looks pretty nice... i hand sanded with 800 1000 1200 1500 2000 wet grit sand paper.. man it came out NICE !!!!