Goodies came in the mail today.

Denso ignition coil, NGK wires, and front sway bushings/clamps!

I'm sure it feels good to get all of these odds and ends sorted. Rig is looking good.

Good to hear it cured your ass wobble! Ass wobble is really sketchy, mine's pretty bad at the moment. I might have missed it, but what end links are those? They look like pure beef and I want a set!

They are pretty beefy, at least beefy looking. We'll see how they last. I'm not super thrilled with the seal of the boot to the ball joint on it, but it does have a grease fitting, so there's that. Also they are designed in such a way to make adjustment and install (and even removal) super easy. Every place that you can possibly put a wrench, it's hex shaped, and the threaded spindle/ball joint has a place to put a wrench on the outer side, which is what makes taking the stock ones off a huge pain.

I got them at O'Reilly's, I want to say they were $25 a piece or something? They're the mid-range MasterPro brand if I am remembering correctly. I'd have to run out to the garage in my underwear to check the box. I got a set of their Import Direct (their high-end supposed OEM quality) for the fronts, and they also appear beefy.

Thanks for the information. I'll take a look into them! The hex shape is really cool.

MasterPro K90619

I just looked them up and found that they look pretty normal (not the full hex shaft) but that's what the box on both of em' says in my garage.

Flipty
Suggestion...
Get on top of that rust while you have the parts out. No better time to wire brush and hit those mounts with POR15 or Rust Reformer, prior o mounting the new parts.
Keep up the good work, and welcome.

I'm about to do some shoring up of the frame with a friend that welds, and while we are doing that I intend to do as much rust prevention as I can. I'll take out the arms and links I put in, so I can do it then. I'd love to slap some paint on the frame.

Did the snapped drivers side front sway bar link. Man that smoothed things out big time in the ride and especially turns department.

I'll do the passenger side either later today or during the week. Got a lot of yard work to do.

It's almost weird when a part comes out like it was supposed to, and then goes in like it is supposed to. That's how this job went. 2 beers and one album. (easiest way to tell the duration of a job from start to finish)

PBR (of course) and High Spirits.

On a total whim I ordered KYB rear shocks that will arrive tomorrow.

I'm gonna wait and install them at the same time as the upper control arms on the axle when I do the frame rot welding repair.

She's already running unbelievably smooth and true at all speeds and conditions now, especially compared to how I got her, where the PO asked me to trailer it home instead of drive (and he was probably right)

Today's (this weekend's most likely) work is:

Taking out the rear shocks and putting my new KYB's in, doing the upper rear control arms, and the sway bar bushings.

So far I'm nauseous, but making progress. I get nauseous when I lay on my back for too long without some sort of a pillow, and I discovered a decent foam makeshift pillow in the garage too late in the game.

I've got drivers' side mostly done (shock is in, control arm almost in) but man those bushing clip bolts snapped off like they were made of balsa wood so I'm either going to have to drill them out or something else to get the stab bar back connected to the axle. I guess I'm gonna go buy a clip kit that hopefully doesn't come with bushings.

I'll keep ya posted, and pics when I get there.

Done with the drivers side except for the stupid snapped stab bar clip bolts.

Has anyone ever successfully drilled those out? They seem like the holes themselves are tapped.

After some forum searching it looks like I'm going to go to a shop and have them do the weld trick to extract them. I don't trust my drilling skills enough to get these out without damaging the "nutserts" which is my new least-favorite word. I should have just left the sway bushing be, I'd be done... but NOOOOOOOOO......

Wrong thread, my bad.

Alright, yesterday I had a mobile welder come over to get my rig back on the road. He found good metal and re-attached the rear lower control arm to the frame. I know some people poo-poo'd this idea, but I needed this thing back on the road ASAP. This did the trick, she's riding straight as an arrow and feeling great at all speeds.

Now without concentrating so much on survival while driving, I can concentrate on how much groaning the front wheel bearings do at certain speeds. Chances are I'll be doing those within the next month.