So perhaps you've got a 510 and you're not happy with the feel of the steering. It's hard to control at high speeds, it feels loose, and the rubber bushings are all disintegrating. Well, you could use a front-end rebuild. This article will describe the components of your front suspension and steering systems, and what parts you should replace to tighten it all up like new. Next quarter's issue will have descriptions of how to do the job.

It may cost you several hundred bucks to have a shop do this work, but you can do it yourself for much less, and it's not really that hard. All you'll need is your basic toolbox, one or two inexpensive specialty tools, and a few hundred bucks for parts.

First of all, find a nice flat spot to work on your car. Jack up the front end and support it on jackstands. After the car is on the stands, walk around and shove on it in at least three places. Push hard and rock the car a little. This will verify that the car is properly supported and won't fall on you when you're working under it. Now you can crawl under and wrench away without worrying about getting crushed.

Now get under the car and take a little survey. Look at Figure 1 to get an idea of where these parts are located. Under the fenders, you'll see the MacPherson STRUT (#61) coming down with its spring, the whole wheel and brake assembly attached to it. From the bottom of the strut to the outer end of the crossmember runs the LOWER CONTROL ARM (#42). On the outboard end of the control arm, there is a rod running toward the front of the car which attaches to the body. That's your T/C ROD. AKA Tension/Compression rod or radius rod. (#78 & 79)

There is also a rod that sticks up from the control arm, which then attaches to a bar that goes forward, makes a 90 degree bend toward the other side of the car, and attaches to the other control arm. That's your SWAY BAR (#51). It's your friend.

That takes care of your front suspension system, for the most part. Now let's take a look at the steering system. Check out Figure 2 for this section.

The steering wheel is connected to the steering shaft, which goes into the STEERING BOX, which is attached to the frame rail down by the exhaust manifold on the driver's side of the car. On the bottom of the steering box is an arm that comes out. It's known as your PITMAN ARM (#25). It connects to a rod that goes side-to-side under the car, that's the CENTER LINK, AKA Cross Rod (#17). The other end of the center link is attached to second arm that goes up to another pivot point attached to the passenger-side frame rail. That's your IDLER ARM (#22). The extreme ends of the center link each have another link attached to them. Those are the TIE RODS (#11 & 15), which attach out to short STEERING ARMS that point out rearwards from the bottom of the strut.

Now, lie under the car and have an assistant turn the wheel back and forth. Observe how everything moves. It's really a pretty simple system, which helps make it easy to repair. At this point, you might want to have your assistant put a bar underneath a wheel and lever the wheel up and down a little so you can watch the motion of suspension.

Ok, pull up a milk crate next to one of the wheels and have a seat. Take the key out of the ignition and lock the steering wheel. Grab one of the wheels with both hands, at 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock, and rock it. You should feel absolutely no play here. No movement back and forth. If it rocks a little, your front bearings are out of adjustment and could probably use replacement. Now put your hands at 3 and 9 o'clock and push back and forth. Again, you should feel very little play. You'll feel a little more than the up/down play because you'll be compressing the steering system bushings and the steering wheel will still rotate a bit. You might have a helper do the pushing and pulling for you, and get under the car with a light and look for any of the joints moving. If you've got more than a little play here, one of the joints in your steering systems is loose and will need replacing or adjusting. More likely than not, if one piece is bad, the rest should be replaced at the same time. Watching the places where the components connect together while your assistant pushes and pulls on the wheel may help you locate the particularly bad part of the system.

The next step is to remove your wheels. You'll either have to drop the car back down or wedge something under the wheels to keep them from turning as you remove the lug nuts. Take the wheel off and put it out of the way, but make sure you remember which side it came off. It should go back to the same side. Now you can take a closer look at all the workings behind the wheel. You can see the caliper assembly, the hub, and all the different rods, bars and arm attachments.

So you need to determine if there is any play in your steering system, and try to isolate its location. Alternately, you've decided to replace all or some of the joints just for preventive maintenance. I'm going to assume you're going to leave the control arm inner bushings alone, since they usually hold up pretty well and are more difficult to replace.

You've got several parts that frequently need replacement: T/C-to-body bushings, sway-bar bushings, tie-rod ends, and ball joints. I'll go over each of these parts and some options for their replacement.

Where the front of the T/C Rod attached to the body, there are two big rubber bushings. These are a large source of compliance of the front suspension, and I highly recommend upgrading them for a tighter suspension. These bushings deform under braking, hence change the front suspension geometry, making the car less controllable. Stiffening those joints will help make the car handle better under braking, at the expense of perhaps some added noise and ride harshness. You have two options here: Delrin balls/ Aluminum cups or Urethane bushings.

The Delrin system is probably the stiffest, but is prone to disintegration, so I don't recommend it on a street car. They'll last for a year or so, then the Delrin falls apart from the hammering of bumps. My favorite solution is the urethane replacement bushings. Energy Suspension makes a nice set, available at many auto parts stores at a reasonable price. They basically go in just like the stock bushings but are much stiffer, and the urethane lasts a long time. Round up the parts you want for re-installation time!

The vertical links that connect your sway bar to the control arms each have four rubber bushings on them (#52, Figure 1). These are usually pretty degraded. Energy Suspension makes nice urethane replacements which will make for a slightly stiffer front end. You can also replace them with original equipment bushings from your local dealer. I suggest you round some up and have them on hand to replace them when you've got it apart.

The joints at each end of the tie rods and between the center link and the idler arm and steering box are sources of play in your steering system. If you notice any play in any of them when you turn the wheels, they should be replaced. I usually buy Moog replacements at my local import-car parts store, although the parts are still available from the dealer. I like to get urethane boots from Energy Suspension to replace the rubber boots that come on the rod ends; they'll hold up a lot longer.

Now is the time to check out your ball joints. Those are the two joints located at the bottom of each strut. They are the lower pivot point of the strut, which allows the wheels to turn for steering while still moving up and down for suspension. This is also where you install bumpsteer spacers. You can identify this ball joint by its black rubber boot located between the bottom the strut and the lower control arm. The ball joint is attached to the bottom of the strut with two large bolts. Bumpsteer spacers fit between the ball joint and strut, and require longer bolts to hold it all together. These ball joints wear out periodically, particularly if the boots get ripped and water enters. If yours need replacing, I usually get the Moog parts, though they are also available from Nissan. Again, Energy Suspension also has urethane boots for these!

So that about covers it for where everything is and what probably needs replacement. Try to locate all the parts you need, then in the next issue we'll have the second part of this article that describes the process of replacing all the parts.

Copyright 1997 The Dime, Quarterly