365 Boxer front suspension overhaul

At the request of my good friend, and fellow "slower" Boxer owner, I'll be posting the process to rebuild a Boxer front end. In this respect, all of the BB's are the same, with the only possible exception being the size of the front sway bar. So, let's let the fun begin...shall we?

Why am I doing this?
Perhaps my biggest gripe in the 25 years of owning a 365bb has been the loose, vague steering. These maybe be subjective terms, particular the "looseness", but in my opinion, there is room for improvement. A little background, to perhaps better understand my madness; when I purchased this car in 1984, all mechanical components including all of the suspension pieces, but exculding the gearbox were overhauled, using only OE factory components. Looking specifically at the steering and suspension characteristics, she handled OK, and perhaps typical for a 1970's car, particularly considering that there's a fair amount of weight over her butt. Although the steering was reasonably tight, that "dead on center" feeling continued to bother me. Before you all say, they "all do that"....let's see what can be done to improve upon what the factory started.

Many years later...now, after really beginning to think something is not quite right up front, as she really feels loosey-goosey when turning that sterering wheel, it's time for a tear-down. Although I didn't take any photos while I ripped her apart, I'll add comments when questions arise. Photos coming later tonight!

Voila, she's all torn down...and for the most part, there is very little wear, except in a few key areas.

Sway bar d-block bushings: Pretty toasted
Sway bar end link bushings: Hmmm....this can't be rubber. They look and feel more like still Jello
Sway bar end link, at the control arm: Pounded out

Ball joint and tie-rod ends: Lowers very tight, uppers starting to get loose, tie rod ends tight

Shocks and bushings: Replaced with new last year, springs checked and well within specs

As some of you may know, the Boxer does not use any rubber in the design of her control arm bushings. Rather, it is a very clever, robust design which uses a hardened "pin" within a replaceable "wrist pin" type collar, with a corresponding "wear surface" thrust washer. Although this is a very long lasting design, wear can (and does occur) if the rubber seal rings deteriorate and road sand/dirt gets into the bushngs.

How to check the control arm bushings for wear and totally disassemble the front end:
If you're this far into checking the suspension, likely you'll be ripping everything out anyhow, so let's get dirty, quick!

Just to make things a little easier on one's back, as these components are a bit heavy:

1-Remove the upper ball joint nut (you'll see why we do this first in a minute...)
2-Loosen the lower ball joint nut
3-Remove tie rod nut...and separate from spindle
4-Drive the two brake pad retainer pins inwards and remove the brake pads ( A little wiggle or tap on the pads...out they come)
4-Now we can swing the hub assembly where we want it....and remove the two bolts which retain the brake caliper
5-Notice that the caliper bolts can't exactly be removed because the factory "hard lines" are in the way. Crafty!!
6-Since we did Step 1 first, the bracket that secures the hard lines to the stud on the upper ball joint is loose, hence we can finese these lines out of position with little to no bending of the hard lines.
7-Support the caliper, so as the weight of it is not on the rubber lines. Personally, I use a "factory approved" Gucci coat hanger...
8-Remove that "how'd they get that in there" wheel bearing retaining cotter pin.
9-Important!! Now, we are going to remove the wheel bearing retainer nut. If you are working on the left side of the car, the nut turns left to loosen. Conversely, if you're working on the right side on the car, the nut turns "right" to loosen!
10-With the wheel bearing nut off, and a firm "yank", the front hub, complete with brake rotor can be removed. Be careful not to loose the "thrust washer" which is behind that wheel bearing nut you just removed. Usually, due to the sticky grease, the thrust washer will be sticking to the outter wheel brearing.
11-Remove the single bolt which retains the brake backing plate and remove

Stand back and admire the mess you've made...'cause there's a bit more coming.

12-At this point, you can really see just how crappy those sway bar end link busing are...
13-Remove the nut on the say bar at the end link. Pull out the outter rubber bushing and pull the link away from the sway bar.
14-Remove the long, lower bolt which goes through the sway bar end link...and the control arm...and the ball joint. These usually will tap out, towards the front of the car. There's a "stepped collar" between the end link and the lower control arm. Pay attention to its' orientation, as it's important for proper reassembly.
15-Loosen, but do not remove the other lower control atm bolt that goes through the lower ball joint.
16-Make note that there are 4 shims in total on the lower ball joint. Although they are all the same thickness, their position is important so as not to disturb the caster angle. So...note how many are in front and how many are in the rear of the ball joint.
17-Remove both bolts that go thru the upper ball joint. Same notes apply as above regarding shim position. These shims are different than the lower shims, so you can't mix them up. (Or, if you do....you'll never be able to get the ball joint bolts back in!)
18-Temporarily reinstall one of the top ball joint bolts....and now loosen the two nuts, one on each side of that hex shaped rod which connects the two upper control arm halves. You may need to put a wrench on the "hex rod" to prevent it from turning while you loosen the end nuts.
19-Now, do the same thing on the lower control arm
20-Remove that temporary bolt you had holding the upper ball joint in place...and with a slight whack with a soft mallet, the upper ball joint complete with spindle is now free from the upper control arm.
21-Remove the last loose bolt in the lower control arm, at the ball joint...and voila, the entire spindle can now be removed.

At this point, you've got maybe two hours into the project...

22-Lower the lower control arm all the way down and away from the lower shock mount.
23-Now we need to remove the upper shock bolt and nut. Another crafty design feature...as it's near impossible to get a wrench on the nut. With a long ratchet and socket (you'll need some leverage...) and a thick, long handled, flat screwdriver blade wedging the nut between the rear control arm bolt head, loosen the shock bolt and remove it while supporting the shock. The shock can now easily be removed.

Time for dinner....More later

Regards,
David

 

Getting back to where we left off, all that should be remain to do is address the control arms.

Inspection: There are two visible rubber seals, on each end of the control arm bushing, at the chassis. Clean the dirt away from them...and inspect the seals for any damage or tears. These seals are critical to the life of the replaceable wear parts contained within the bearing collar assemblies. Although the "wear parts" are inexpensive, the harden pivotal collar and associated parts are not. So let's check the control arms bearings...

1-Grab the upper control arm and move it upward and downward through about a 30 degree range. It should move smoothly and evenly (same resistance) thoughout its' entire range of travel. Next, with the arm parallel to the ground, move the arm rapidly up and down in a very small arc. Any rattling type sounds? Feel any oddities? Yep...Hence the teardown, These bearings are, in essence, a hardened pin with a "zero" press fit into a "teflon impregnated", replaceable, rod end type bushing, on the axial side. Thrust (lateral movement) is controled by hardened wear surface riding against a replaceable "teflon impregnated" thrust washer. With the control arm mounting bolts tightened, there should be zero play or looseness either laterally or axially. Many experts will say that this is a "lifetime" design and these bearings never wear out. Well....yes and no. As the rubber seals deteriorate over time, the seals "pull back" somewhat and dirt can get into the bushings. For perspective, I replaced these bushings and thrust washers 24 years ago....and they're just recently showing wear.

2-OK, we're going to pull the control arms and rebuild the inner bushings. Remove the rear upper control arm bolt first. Notice that the only way the bolt will come out is through that "extra" hole in the upper shock mount. (Hence why we remove the shock, first). Now remove the front upper control arm bolt and nut...and remove the arm assembly from the body mounts.

3-You can test the lower control arm bushing the same way as the uppers, althought the removal process is a bit different.

4-Removing the lower control arms: This step is a bit easier if you remove some of the tension on the chassis mounted lower control arm pick-up points. This can be done by simply loosened the 22m lock nuts on the inside of the frame rails...The front lock nut can be difficult to loosen, if the front nose section/bumper is still on the car. For the 10 minutes it takes to remove the bumper, why not? To quote the Factory WSM-Remove bumper!

5-With the control arm pick-ups loosened, now remove both the front and rear control arm bolts...and pull the control arm out. They fit a bit snug (which is good)...but will slide out with minimal force.

And here we have the completed job....
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Well....those got pulled, as well. More on that later.

Let's take a look at those control arm bushings...

1-Pull off the rubber seals-No tools needed
2-You'll notice that one end of the control arm bushing will be contained by the rubber seal. This is the end where we'll pull the pin out...Light thumb pressure is all that's need to push the pin out the other end.
3-Looking at the bigger end, which will have a much larger collar...you'll now see the thrust washer and a tiny "anti-rotation" pin. With a tiny pair of needle nose pliers, remove the pin. Nothing is holding it in, other than grease friction. If the pin is sheared off, we'll discuss the repair later. Inspect the wear surface of the thrust washer. This is the side that faces outwards. If there is any copper color showing, the washer is toast...and needs to be replaced. Any appreciable wear on this surface will result in lateral movement in your control arms.
4-Throughly clean the inner end of the control arms with solvent...and inspect the "wrist pin" type inner bushing. If you see dark gray areas, scuffs or copper, these bearings are toast, as well. In that these bshings are very inexpensive and easy to replace, I'd recommend replacing them anyhow...which we'll go into later on reassembly.

Well...in that I'm in this deep, let's do her right, so it's off to the bead blast cabinet.

As originality is important...as clearly stated by the experts in the recent 275GTB restoration thread, let's make her look pretty, as well. I only use glass beads that are imported from Murano. Actually they are very small glass beads that are applied with less than 100 psi of pressure. The advantage of using such fine media is that they do not mar the original surfaces. The disadvantage is that it takes a bit of patience to remove any remaining old plating and (possibly) rust.

5-After the bushing "guts" have been removed from the arms, we're off to the solvent tank cleaner first, as we don't want to contaminate the bead blast media with ka-ka.

6-To protect and ease reassembly, I leave the old "wrist pin" type bushing in the arms while bead blasting. Sure, you could just tape the end up for protection, but I want all surfaces clean for the plater!

7-Voila...All suspension parts cleaned and ready for plating:
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But they're "Factory-approved Gucci" ones, no less!

 

Good morning Boxer enthusiasts,

To answer a few interim questions:

Yes: My silverware drawer is organized...

Regarding my immaculately clean workbench, here's my methodology. I basically have two work areas, a dirty "tear down area" and a spotless reassembly area. One of the best investments I ever made was a large, drum-type parts cleaner. I find that once the parts/units are removed from the car and cleaned throughly, only then can an accurate assement made of their condition. I've used this clean area, dirty area system for years...and it seems to work. In my earlier days of pleasuring myself in the automotive world, I did numerous Alfa Romeo Spica fuel injection pump rebuilds. As these were high precision, mechanical pumps, rebuilding them in an absolutely clean enviroment was essential. (And...no, I don't do these anymore. The wisdom of age has finally set in.)

So...here's where we are now. All the suspension parts, including the steering rack, sway bar and arms have been removed, cleaned and inspected for wear. The control arms are still at the plater...and are due back today. The steering rack is at a very specialized machine shop, in highly competent hands going through a painful, tedious overall. (Finally, I've met someone is more anal than I am about getting things "right".) So, today's brief subject, complete with pictures, is the steering rack mounts. This inspection and replacement process applies to virtually all classic Ferrari's, although there is some 365bb specific information posted.

Ferrari used two types of steering rack mounts. Each has it's own problems associated with age, though the later style has some substantial benefits in terms of rack mounting stability. Rather than bore you all to tears with how to remove this critters, we'll just cust to the chase. To quote the factory WSM: Remove steering rack mounts for inspection!


Prior to 365bb SN 18429, all 246 Dino's and most early 308 GT4's, a "silent block" type mount was used. Although this mount may have worked well for the "lighter" cars and did do a nice job isolating road feedback, the end result was excessive "play" in the steering wheel which was often mis-dianosed as a worn steering rack. To add insult to injury, as these mounts internal rubber pieces deteriorated, the mounts would "rock" on their mounting studs (Yes, studs!) and eventually the studs would start to move within the chassis mounting holes. The wear and subseqent damage is near impossible to see in its' entirety without a teardown.

A couple of photos of the early style rack mounts: (These are the mounts on the left side of the lower, last posted diagram). An item worthy of dishonorable mention....Ref 12 is a piece of what appears to be surgical rubber sheet that is mounted between the rack mount and the chassis plate. As this piece of rubber deteriorates, you end up with, as I did, a rack that is tightly secured to it's mount, but the mount is flopping around on the chassis! Nice design, eh?
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Well, before I answer my own question, let's discuss the later used mounting system. Although this is clealry a more robust design, as there is much more contact area with the chassis....and the isolation busihings are much larger, the problem is the ultra soft rubber mounts that Ferrari used.

There were two differnent "half-moon" bsuhings used. Really pathetic soft...and marginally firmer. One was black, the other was red in color and I don't have the part numbers at my fingertips. The black bushing was made from natural rubber which has a pretty short life span. If you've ever read those 308 posts "with the owner's whinning that their AC belt is noisey, even though the belt is tight", one of the primary reasons is that Ferrari specified that same "black bushing" to hold the AC compressor in place. Now...they're specifiying its use to secure the steering rack!

As no Boxer owner I've ever met can say that they get "precise feedback" through the steering wheel, marginally improved bushings were made by Ferrari, and can be installed to increase steering feel. If you want/need this OE firmer bushing part numbers, I can provide them.

Getting back to the 365bb project....In that my mission with this car is twofold, first to bring all of the front end components back to "as new" condition and secondly to increase the steering feedback, I've opted to update my rack mounts with the later style, as used after SN 18429. As a point of reference, all cars built after mid-late 1974 use the later style mounts!

With a little bit of digging, I was able to secure the late style mounts....in Europe at prices 60% lower than here in the States. The bushings, or specifically the choice of which ones to use, wasn't so easy. Should I use super soft Jello-like ones, marginally firmer bushings with the consistency of lumpy mashed potatoes....or seek out a custom supplier who makes these out of a modern synthetic material?

Option 3 seemed like the way to go...particularly since the pricing is sane, the product will easily outlast the OE material and the best part....it's about 25-30% firmer than the firmest OE bushing!

The assembled, new style mount...Ready for installation.
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Well, by now everyone knows what happens when it snows in the Northeast...It's the "excuse dejur" by the airlines to cancel flights! I understand, but if they say they're going to re-book you, well...Do what you say.

Anyhow, my flight out of Kansas City was cancelled...and Continental did have the courtesty to call me actually prior to my flight and advise me on the situ at hand. You're screwed, we're screwed, but we'll get you home on the first flight Saturday morning and here's the "record number", just in case. Well, I haul my tired butt back to the airport Saturday morning and go to the Northwest agent, as they were "supposed" to be getting me home and low and behold "Sorry, David, you've been rebooked on Sunday, not Saturday!!!!!

....Seems we've made a mistake...and we're not going to make good, so go back to Continental and let them fix our mess. Hmmm, customer dis-service at its' finest!

Anyhow, after 13, yes thirteen hours of highly productive, spanking Mr. Monkey time on the airlines, I am finally home to begin reasembly of the BB front end, naturally complete with many photos....

Stay tuned...

David

 

Good day all,

To refresh where we are:
The control arms have been bead blasted and sent out for plating. As some may remember, we left the old "pin bushings" in place whilst bead blasting to protect the inner collars from possible damage and to keep the new plating off these surfaces. Although this may be an unnecessary step, I find this to be a safe practice in the end.

As the pin bushing is actually shorter, by design, than the collar it presses into, we're going to press the pin bushings out opposite the way they were originally pressed in. This is done to prevent "press end" of the bushing, which can be ever so slightly "mushroomed" from possibly gouging the inner collar.
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In the first picture you can see one of the arms with the pin bushing pressed out. It is important to:

-1) Notice the tapered edge on the large end of the collar. The pin bushing is pressed in from this side
-2) The above mentioned hole should be cleaned of all plating residue, possible nicks and ever so lightly polished before pressing in the new pin bushings.
-3) Even though we're installing new OE bushings, carefully inspect their outer surfaces for dirt and possible nicks on the edges.
-4) Once we're 100% sure than the collars are clean and defect free...and the pin bushings outer surfaces are spotless, lube both the inner collars and outer pin bushing sufaces with some sort of assembly lube. Naturally, I use Royal Purple engine Assembly Lube! We need these bushings to "go in" with as little press force as necessary. This is a critical step, as we don't want to "mushroom" the press end of the bushing.
-5) Although this would seem like a "no-brainer", press the pin bushing into the inner collar, ensuring that it does not protrude past the outer flange of the collar. The bushing absolutely must be flush with, or recessed from the outer collar lip.

Why???

Once we get a little further along with the assembly process, you'll see that the outer collar suface (the one with the small "pin" hole in it) is actually the inner surface for the "thrust washer" which prevents lateral movement of the entire control arm. If the pin bushing protrudes, it will rub against the thrust washer, making re-assembly more difficult, as the total overall width of the control arm end, which fits into the body mounts, will be larger than the width of the chassis mount. This could potentially damage the thrust surfaces!
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Now the fun begins...

After you've pressed all the pins bushings in....and before you go any further, run your finger along the "seams" in the installed bushing. If a ridge can be felt, gently and ever so lightly hone the bushing to minimize, if not eliminate the ridge. We don't want to remove any unnecessary babbit material, just the ridge.

Next step: Lightly lube the outer surface of the large collar (the piece in the control arm) and the "tiny dowel hole". We're doing this soley for the purposes of corrosion protection. Install the tiny locating dowel. The dowel prevents the thrust washer from moving when the control arm moves.

Installation of the thrust washer: Before proceeding, throughly lube with assembly lube, or a moly-based grease the inner pressed in bushing, contained within the collar. Next lube the thrust washer on both sides (with the same ssembly lube) and install in "shiny side down" against the dowel. The rougher side, which has some sort of imbedded teflon material on it, is the thrust surface which now should be facing towards you.

Pin/thrust collar installation: This piece is made of stainless steel and is the primary thrust and axial pivot point. Inspect it carefully for wear and polish out any minor blemishes. As this piece is critical to a tight front end, I measure every one to ensure that there is no discernable wear. If you measure the collar end next to the thrust surface, and then again at the other end (which does not rub against the internal bushing), the wear should be less than .0005". It is extremely rare to ever replace these pin/collar pieces. Presuming all is OK, liberally lubethe shaft and thrust surfaces on the pin collar....and press the collar into the bushing with your thumb. If all of the clearances are in specs, the "press" should be a light to medium "thumb" press. For those have have fitted "floating" wrist pins to connecting rods, this is what we're look for....
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These seals are your only protection you have from keeping water and dirt out of these precision bushings, so I take a couple of extra steps to ensure that everybody stays clean and dry. Before install the outer seal, I pack the gap between the collar and the thrust collar with a waterproof grease (Mobil 1 synthetic)...until the gap is full. After wiping off any excess with my finger, I slide the seal over the lip, so it now sits in the "gap". As the grease is in the area where the seal should be...and will initially not allow the seal to be seated properly, I rotate the seal in the "gap" to better distribute the grease, which subsquently forces out the excess grease. When the seal is properly installed, there will be no apparent "taper" to it. Wipe the excess grease off....and turn the control arm over.

Inner seal installation and prepartion: You'll notice a gap between the inner collar and the thrust pin. I fill this area with assembly lube, just to ensure that there's plenty of lubrication on the internal bushing. Next I install the inner seal....and pack the remaining area with the Mobil 1 grease. Again, we just playing it safe to keep water and dirt out of these bushings. Lastly and the final step; apply lube to the inner thrust collar (stepped down side faces inward)...and press the collar into the seal. Wipe off any excess lubricant and shortly, we'll be ready to install the control arms.
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This is a pretty straight forward process, with just a few pre-assembly steps needed. I usually mark the control arms with a couple of "punch pricks" to simplify the identication process of which parts are for the right or left side, and are the arms uppers or lowers. Although you can tell by looking at the WSM/Parts Manuals, this step just saves some time. I also mark the upper and lower diagonal braces, although one you get the arms laid out on a bench, it's pretty obvious what goes where.

Despite the undeniable fact that this is a Ferrari, a fine crafted Italian "masterpiece", some of the machine work on the control arms leaves a little bit to be desired. Specifically, the machined holes in the control arms where the diagonal braces insert....More times than not, these braces come out very hard and are even more challenging to install, particularly after re-plating. To facilitate easy assembly of the completed arms into the chassis mounts, it's just so much easier if the (assembled) arms are very loose and "flexible" with all of the hardware loose. Using a precision adjustable reamer, I remove a few 10,000 ths of an inch of prior tooling "marks" and debris...and volia, the braces will just slide in.

Now is a great time to clean, inspect and chase all of the threads on the hardware and braces. All of the hardware is Grade 10.9 or greater, so if you need to replace any hardware, Home Depot is not the place. Suprisingly, most of the suspension bolts are readily avaialble from Ferrari at very reasonable prices. Naturally, all nylocks nuts will be replaced!

Caster shim identification and location: Hopefully you remembered just how many shims were in front of the ball joint...and how many were behind. There are four shims used for each ball joint and all are of the same thickness. Each shim is "worth" approximately 1 degree of caster. Although the vehicle, when finished, will receive a complete alignment, the caster adjustment is a royal pain in the butt to do, once the suspension is re-assembled!

Upper shims: Longer than the lower-Both holes are the same size
Lower shims: Shorter than the upper-The inboard hole has a larger diameter than the outboard hole (Important and easy to miss!)

Assemble the control arm, paying particular attetion to the orientation of the upper control arms and subsequent ball joint position. It is far too easy to overlook the ball joint orientation....and not find out there's a problem until she's up on an alignment rack.Detailed pictures of this included below....

Do not completely tighten or torque any of the control arm hardware, as we want some degree of "looseness" in the assembled arm to facilitate easy insertion into the chassis mounts. Everything will get torqued to specs. after installation!
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or is this just fine quality forging and machine work? This first time I saw this I thought, oh boy, this is going to be an expensive repair, only to realize that this "offset" hole is typical on these arms. And no, the control arm, nor the cross brace is bent!

Talk about an optical illusion!
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Pretty much the same process as the upper arms, though you need to pay attention to the caster shims. The larger hole is on the inward side. Note that the inner ball joint bolt, which also secures the sway bar drag link and lower shock mount are temporaily installed, just to keep the arm sides "in alignment".

The chassis mounts are now installed on the arms, again loose...and note the orientation, as they are not symetrical. Also, the mounting stud on the rearward side of the control arm is longer.

Again, all hardware is just finger tight and will be torqued after the arms are installed on the car. That's it for tonight folks...
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