Some pics from today's suspension project

Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives

So once again I heard the dreaded thunk/crack of my sway bar brackets being torn away from their substandard "upgraded" mounts that I had installed waaay back in November.

The Aussie bar while amazing for cornering is just a bit too strong for the rusty old mounts, even with some reinforment. The original un-reinforced brackets held fine for almost 2 years but eventualy they gave out causing me to repair the subframe and to "upgrade" the brackets.
I recommend that anyone using an Aussie bar check their mounts and reinforce if need be. The only way to properly do this is by dropping the subframe.

So today out came the subframe w/Aussi bar and lower control arms. I set the car on some jackstands and went under to spray PB Blaster on the bolts and nuts I was going to remove. Then I got some lunch and let the PB do it's work. After lunch I went under the car and with air tools it took about 45 min to drop the subframe out of the car. Not too bad at all. Remove exhaust, remove rear wheels, remove bolts securing suspension arms to rear hub, remove subframe.
Anyhow, here are some pics.

Just rolling the old subframe out.

Yup, it broke all right. Different places both times.

Something's missing...

It's going to look like this for a few days. Hope the neighbors don't mind.

The subframe will be sand blasted, rewelded with boxed in mounts for the swaybar brackets, coated with POR15, and measurements taken for some custom rear end pieces.

I'll post more pics as the work progresses.

Nice pics. Do yourself a favor and chock those front wheels so you don't have some jerk lean on your car the wrong way and have some really expensive repairs to do after the car falls off the jackstands. </soapbox>

Scott

Thanks for the info and pictures. I need to do this on my car soon too.

Cool pics. Good luck with the project

Originally posted by Pigeon:
Do yourself a favor and chock those front wheels so you don't have some jerk lean on your car

Is he talking about Chad???

Great pics. Man that cars clean for a 95!

Originally posted by fast80svt:

Originally posted by Pigeon:
Do yourself a favor and chock those front wheels so you don't have some jerk lean on your car

Is he talking about Chad???

Who's Chad? Must be something I don't know about... Just applying a little preventative advice - there's nothing keeping that car, which is parked on an angle with the rear end up on jackstands, from rolling forward and off the jackstands. All it'd take is say, the mailman, propping his shoe up on the rear bumper to tie his laces, and there'd be a very bad, very expensive problem.

Scott

Chad (FluiDSVT) is my roomate.

Don't worry about the car rolling off the jacks. It's secure and in gear. Does it look like I'm new to cars??

Thanks for the comments! I'll have more pics this weekend of the cleaned up subframe and arms.

Dood, where do you live? I'm in Aurora. Just did my front hubs last weekend; planning on the rear this weekend! We need to have a get together. SQPlus lives down the street from me, but I have yet to meet him! Anyway, nice pics. And I agree, one clean looking 95!

Just trying to show some concern for a fellow CEGer. And I forget sometimes that the front wheels will hold the car when in gear, I'm so used to working on my old Miata which I had to chock the wheels for anytime I lifted it, LOL.

Scott

I am getting so use to the look of a Tour on jacks in our driveway/garage. Half of CO-CEG live in the same house!!

J/K Although sometimes it seems like it...

Oh man! Thats sweet, I HAVE to come by and see this. Don't let Chad near it before I get there though.

Alex, I KNOW you want to help me do the same thing to my car right?? I still don't have a sway bar period!

BTW, do you still have your original 19mm laying around? I need to come by and pick that up if you do.

B

What is needed to insure that the subframe goes back in properly aligned? I seem to remember reading about a tool to do this, but that might have been for the front subframe.

I believe you are correct, I know there is a special tool from Ford that is required(?) to properly align the front subframe. But I haven't seen anything that suggested such for the rear frame.

OK, I have never met any of you guys and here we all need to do suspension work (I just ordered two rear hubs). We should have The First Annual CO-CEG Suspension Fix-A-Thon!

As far as I can tell, There are at least three of us in Aurora. Heck we could have a CO group by for a Contique parts car and plunder the poor lil' SOB!

There again, why IS it so hard to find these cars in a junkyard? I called just about every yard I could find and all of them either said plain NO or Too New! Any how, I would really like to meet all of you Coloradons.

Same tool is used for the front and rear subframes. We have the tool.

Originally posted by jocatz:
OK, I have never met any of you guys and here we all need to do suspension work (I just ordered two rear hubs). We should have The First Annual CO-CEG Suspension Fix-A-Thon! As far as I can tell, There are at least three of us in Aurora. Heck we could have a CO group by for a Contique parts car and plunder the poor lil' SOB! There again, why IS it so hard to find these cars in a junkyard? I called just about every yard I could find and all of them either said plain NO or Too New! Any how, I would really like to meet all of you Coloradons.

Well once school starts again I will be back in Boulder for some time. I love working on cars, so if this get together happens in, lets say late august or later, I would be down. Or if anyone ever wants to get together for some other reason drop me a line.

Stadium Auto Parts...

Contours galore...many pre98s and several post 98s...even an SVT on occasion.

Most pre98 chassis stuff fits on the later cars it seems. The thing to check on your car is for ABS and Disc brakes...I mean, make sure the car you're pulling suspension parts from is the same as your car. Does any of that make sense?

Anyway, I've gotten several different parts from this place, even Alex can atest to that. Somewhere about 20+ different parts from them, cool place. OTH.

I've called there on more than one occasion and they just tell me NO! I guess searching a junkyard over the phone is like trying to find a job over the phone!

Yeah, they certainly aren't the nicest bunch of guys but there are a couple that are pretty helpful. Good luck!

hey man want to sell me your access points for the jacks. lol my got stolen

Don't forget about Peublo. I remember dealing with one down there and they were quite helpful. There's also a few in the Springs, Downtown of Tejon IIRC that would have a few every now and then.

Mike