1970 Chevy Chevelle - Front Suspension - Upgrade & Install

Yuck! The front suspension on project Cheap Street Chevelle was complete junk. When driving the car on the highway it wandered, floundered in corners and emitted loud squeaks when going over bumps. Plus, the entire front suspension was covered with gunk. For photo clarity, we used a car hoist to support the car during the upgrades, but it can be done in your garage using a pair of sturdy jackstands.

Project Cheap Street Chevelle has come a long way since its rusting hulk was purchased from a guy living out in the hot California desert. When Car Craft took over ownership, the Chevelle barely ran, looked horrible and didn't even roll that well. Since then, the car has undergone a slew of low-buck upgrades, including being fortified with a new drivetrain (including an engine, trans, converter and rear gears). It has also received a host of visual upgrades, such as fresh paint and bodywork complemented by trim parts from Original Parts Group.

With all of the upgrades that have been done over the last year, the Chevelle has become a lot more driveable and much quicker in the quarter-mile. A few issues ago, we upgraded the wheelhop-prone stock rear suspension with new heavy-duty components from Hotchkis Performance, but the front suspension was completely worn out and in need of replacement. To follow along with the theme of project Cheap Street Chevelle, we scouted around to find a new front end kit that included everything for a complete upgrade but didn't cost a lot of money.

For Cheap Street Chevelle we opted for a Super Front End Kit from Performance Suspension Technology (PST). The kit contained everything needed for a complete front end rebuild and only cost $279. PST also has regular Front End Kits for $139 if you're really on a budget. If you have a few extra bucks, you can upgrade to a kit with polygraphite bushings for improved handling.

The PST kit was easy to install, but you'll need a couple of special tools (such as a ball-joint splitter and coil-spring compressor) along with a good pair of jackstands to perform the work properly. Being that the entire front end will be torn apart to replace the old, worn-out parts with the new PST components, a front end alignment will be needed after the new parts are in place.

Contained within our PST Super Front End Kit were upper ball joints, lower ball joints, upper inner control-arm bushings, lower control-arm bushings, strut-rod bushings, upper inner shafts, outer tie-rod ends, inner tie-rod ends, tie-rod adjusting sleeves, an idler arm, stabilizer links, antiroll-bar bushings and control-arm bumpers. This kit can also be had with polygraphite bushings for a few extra dollars. It's also available for a variety of Ford, Mercury, Dodge and Plymouth applications.	With the front of the car securely held up off the ground, start by removing the two front tires. Then remove the two front shock absorbers. We recommend determining which bolts will need to be loosened/removed to do the front suspension upgrades. Spray them with Liquid Wrench, giving the bolts a chance to soak while you're removing other components.	Disconnect the front antiroll bar from its attaching points on the lower A-arms and on the frame. Once disconnected, remove the antiroll bar from the car. Do not discard the unit, as it will be reused in conjunction with new PST bushings.
Slightly compress the brake-caliper pistons to relieve the rotor-to-brake-pad contact and loosen and remove the two caliper mounting bolts. Next, remove the caliper from the rotor assembly.	Rather than completely removing the calipers or having them hang in the way, use a piece of wire to tie the calipers to the frame, thereby moving them up and out of the way.	Use a floor jack to slightly compress the front coil spring. With the spring compressed, loosen and remove the upper and lower ball joints and the assorted linkage. Carefully lower down the floor jack, allowing the lower A-arm to drop. With the lower A-arm hanging down, remove the coil spring. There shouldn't be any pressure on the spring at this point.
Begin removing the lower A-arm by loosening and removing the A-arm bolts that attach the unit to the frame. Even though the bolts are loose, you may need to use a hammer to tap the bolts out of the A-arm/ frame assembly.	Begin to remove the upper A-arm by loosening the upper inner shafts. Be sure to save the small adjustment shims so some (or all) of them can be reused when the car gets realigned later on.	Once the upper A-arms are removed, begin removing the upper inner shaft and the inner A-arm bushings. We had good results by clamping the upper inner shaft in a bench vice, then supporting the A-arm with our hand while we loosened the various nuts and bolts.
With the bolts and washers removed, use an air hammer (or a hammer and chisel) to remove the worn-out upper A-arm bushings. Use the same procedure to remove the old bushings from the lower A-arms.	On our Chevelle, the stock upper ball joints are held in place with rivets. To replace the ball joints, the rivets must be removed by using a chisel (preferably an air hammer-type chisel) or by drilling them out. The lower A-arm ball joints are a press fit that can be removed by hitting them with a hammer.	After all parts have been removed from the upper A-arms, thoroughly clean/degrease the units (we used a bead blaster). Then use a drill to enlarge the original rivet holes so they are large enough to accept the bolts supplied with the new upper ball joints. Bolts are used to hold the new ball joints in place rather than original-type rivets, which are a pain in the butt to work with.