required tools
welder and knowing how to use it.open end wrenches and sockets 13mm, 14mm, 17mm and 19mm is about it.
pickle forks....very important
pipe cutter...makes perfect cuts in pipe (your frontend).
floor jack
maybe some other stuff too, but this is about it.
remove frontend
1.drain gas tank or better yet, run it dry so there's no gas to deal with. pull a hose out of the fuel pump, attach another long hose to it and let the gas drain into a gas can. don't do this when the engine is hot!2.remove gas tank. four 13mm bolts, the gauge sender and whatever gas lines are attached. things will be quite acessable now.
3.get the front of the car up high on jack stands or a stack of old wheels or your ex-girlfriend or something. put it in gear, have the parking brake on, chock the rear wheels, etc. take the front wheels off.
4.remove spindles from torsion arms. if ball joint, remove the ball joint nuts and wack the lower one with the proper size pickel fork. get some paint or white-out or something to mark where the adjusting nut on the upper balljoint is in relation to the spindle before disassembling. for king pin, look it up in a shop manual because i have no idea.
5.disconnect the steering coupler. 14mm nuts and bolts unless you have one with the coupler rivited on (sucks). disconnect the steering damper.
6.remove tierod ends from the steering box pittman arm. undo the bolts (watch for cotter pins) and wack them with the proper size pickle fork. do the drivers side one first then the passenger side one. support the now free and hanging brake drums/spindle assemblies with cinder blocks or something so the brake lines don't get damaged. doing it this way means you don't have to open up the brake system and thus, you won't have to bleed them later.
7.remove front end. everything should be disconnected now, remove the four front mounting bolts (19mm) first, then do the two upper mounting bolts (17mm). when the last upper mounting bolt is undone, the frontend will fall to the ground, don;t be under it when this happens or get a floor jack under it first. lower the front end or drag it out from under the car and put it on saw horses or some stacks of tires or whatever.
cut and turn lowering
this is the free method, once it's done it's done, there's no ride height adjustment.you don't have to take the torsion arms off if you aren't installing adjusters. it's quicker and easier if you don't care about having the ride height adjustable.
get out the pipe cutter and have at it. scribe a reference line horizontally across the center section somewhere.
it doesn't matter where you make the cuts becasue you aren't going to be replacing the center section with an adjuster. just make the cuts like an inch or two out from the center line. when you have one center section free then move it with a pipe wrench or make it move by turning the torsion arms so that the arms point down less. yeah, that's scientific. if you observe the original position of the torsion arms and move the arms up however many inches, the car will be lower, that many number of inches when BOTH torsion tubes have been turned the same. another way to think about it....about 1/8" of turn on both tubes will lower about an inch. 1/4" turn on both tubes will lower about 2 inches. it's like 1/8" incriments lower an inch, but don't hold me to this. when happy with the turn, make sure the center section is aligned properly with the rest of the tube and weld it back in place. then do the other tube.
i lowered my 67 bug about 1/4" turn in both tubes and it dropped about 2". i turned one tube and installed the front end back on the car and it didn't go down at all. so i took it off again and cut the other tube, then it dropped 2", a nice subtle drop.
installing adjusters
you have to totally dissassemble the frontend when installing adjusters. you also have to make very precise cuts when cutting out the center section. you also need big clamps to hold the adjuster in place when welding it in. i've never done this, i've been content with simple cutting and turning of the stock center section in both lowering and lifting. just follow the instructions that come with the adjuster, i reckon.reinstalling frontend
the frontend is really rather cumbersome. try to raise it into position with a floor jack. you might end up standing in the car and pulling it up yourself (it's not that heavy when the spindles are not on it). hold it in it's position and install the upper mounting bolts first, then the front ones. you will be cursing alot by this point.install the spindles, bolt the tierods back to the pittman arm, reconnect the steering shaft, install gas tank, install wheels, get car off jack stands and take it to an alignment shop.
i think that's it. go cruise.
