My dad purchased this '87 about 5 years ago with 41k miles. Soon after he developed health problems and only put about 200 miles on it in 5 years. This spring he and my mom moved in with my brother and the elks came to live with us in Madison, WI. In 6 weeks I out about a 1,000 miles on it and enjoyed every minute of it, but I also noticed a slew of issues that I expected I'd find with a low mileage, 35 year old car.
Currently, the climate control system isn't working, nor is the cruise control. And, the 305 produces a fair amount of smoke. All of which I can live with, but in all my driving I noted that the suspension seemed non-functional. So we begin with a suspension rebuild.
I contemplated going all out in the beginning, but ultimately decided to replacing the stock bushings, add a 1/2" taller lower ball joint, KYB Gas-A-Just shocks, UMI lowering springs, airlift bags for the rear, and a UMI rear sway bar. Tear down began on June 26th.
My first surprise was on the passenger side wheel bearing. It was almost non-existent and as a result scored the spindle pretty good. A perfect opportunity to upgrade to S-10 Blazer brakes. Thanks to car-part.com I found a set of spindles and had them shipped. Picked up new dust shields, wheel bearings, caliper, rotors and pads.
On the driver side, the shock fell apart when I took out the bottom bolts. Yep, it was definitely time for a refresh. While I await a friend to remove teh bushings and ball joints on the front lower control arms, I went to work on the rear. The ball joint removal toll made short work of the rear lower control arm bushings. The the lower arms re-installed, we began to work on the uppers. And that's where I'm currently stuck, trying to remove the bushings from the rear housing.
