1965 Ford Galaxie Suspension and front end repair and

Action said:

The struts are not meant to be bent.
My memory is fuzzy about alignment adjustments. I think if an adjustment is needed the threaded end with washers might be where it is done.

DesertXL may have that answer.

Action

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DesertXL said:

Hello,

The front radius arm rods are supposed to be straight. You can try to bend that back in a press since it's not to badly bent in the first place. However do not use heat whatsoever. Those are heat treated. If unsure just replace it, however finding them are getting more and more pricey. Your best/easiest bet will be DVAP or CTC junkyards and just be ready for CPR on your wallet. As the years move forward attrition takes more and more parts that aren't being reproduced and drives up the cost of the dwindling supply old parts substantially.

The Caster and Camber adjustments are all done using the upper control arm only. Toe is accomplished with the tie rod sleeves. The radius arm bushings must be tightened fully when assembling them.

Cheers

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DesertXL said:

Hello guys,

So on the front backing plate gasket, you can use a thin finger smearing of RTV when putting it back together. The reason why it's foam is that the open cell foam instantly collapses to the full extent when the backing plates are tightened to the spindle. If you were to use something like paper gasket material, it would slowly compress after the initial torquing of the backing plate and the backing plate could become loose and since that is stopping the car the small movement in the backing plate every time you used the brakes would wear away metal. Do that enough and eventually you'll have catastrophic failure. Obviously you can retorque everything after a bit, but for a new car, that's out of the question.

All the gasket does is help keep water from getting into the brake shoe area from the spindle side.

On the topic of the bushings, if you've never pressed them in or out, make sure you use spacers in the 'C' channel area of the control arms otherwise you will bend them when pressing.

On the topic of the rivets in the ball joints, the centre of the rivet does not usually mean the centre of the drilled hole in the control arm due to how they pressed the rivets in originally. The rivet heads actually are mushed over to a side usually. If you drill a large hole thinking it's in the centre, you may end up removing metal in the control arm itself. Your best bet is only drill into the old ball joint area and no deeper just to remove the head of the rivet then remove the ball joints and push out the remaining portion of the rivet through the arm. You won't hurt the control arm that way.

I did cover the ball joint removal and I think bushings in this thread 1966 galaxie 500XL Refurbishment it's about 3/4 down the first page if you're interested.

Cheers

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