Lushlobster
New Member
New to this group and just acquired a 74 3500 - body is excellent and low mileage. Engine has a few leaks from the front timing chain cover and one of the brake calipers is seized, which I knew about. Car has been standing for 6-7 years, so I took the plunge...
Made some very strange noises from the suspension on the short 1 mile drive home (in hindsight I should have got it transported, but it was running and brakes worked OK) Got home and left standing on the drive, and looking at the car from the front, it seemed that the drivers side wheel was heavily tilted from the top towards the engine (I don't have a photo, damn..)
I removed the wheel and noticed the top steering joint seems to have been impacting the inner wing. All the ball joints look awful, but nothing appears to have popped out of it's socket. I can't understand the reason for this, unless it's had a serious shunt and knocked everything out of alignment - but there is no sign of this. The spring seems unbroken and all joints to the body are intact. Just waiting for a decent jack and axle stands to arrive before I go any further.
I do plan to completely strip the suspension, but hadn't planned for this. Now re-evaluating my decision and thinking maybe I've bitten off too much. The tyre now looks very close to the wing - something is seriously wrong and has collapsed or seized but I really don't know what. Sorry about the poor quality photos - I'll post some more in a few days.
Ideas and suggestions welcome on how to proceed from the huge knowledge in this group. (including sell it and move on)
Made some very strange noises from the suspension on the short 1 mile drive home (in hindsight I should have got it transported, but it was running and brakes worked OK) Got home and left standing on the drive, and looking at the car from the front, it seemed that the drivers side wheel was heavily tilted from the top towards the engine (I don't have a photo, damn..)
I removed the wheel and noticed the top steering joint seems to have been impacting the inner wing. All the ball joints look awful, but nothing appears to have popped out of it's socket. I can't understand the reason for this, unless it's had a serious shunt and knocked everything out of alignment - but there is no sign of this. The spring seems unbroken and all joints to the body are intact. Just waiting for a decent jack and axle stands to arrive before I go any further.
I do plan to completely strip the suspension, but hadn't planned for this. Now re-evaluating my decision and thinking maybe I've bitten off too much. The tyre now looks very close to the wing - something is seriously wrong and has collapsed or seized but I really don't know what. Sorry about the poor quality photos - I'll post some more in a few days.
Ideas and suggestions welcome on how to proceed from the huge knowledge in this group. (including sell it and move on)