How To Remove K-Member & Front Suspension - K-Frame Teardown

Disassembly begins with the brakes. Remove the calipers at their mounts, then the discs and dust shields.

Next, remove the steering linkage. We used a puller to break loose the tight tapered fit of the rod ends, but a pickle fork and hammer work too.

The control arms and spindles can be removed as a unit by unbolting the strut rod and removing the pivot shaft nut (arrow A). Here we can see the hook that holds the suspension up (arrow B).

You might need to tap the end of the strut with a lead mallet to release the tapered seat in the lower control arm. Then the parts can be removed and separated on the bench.

Unbolt the steering box and idler arm, and the K-member is picked clean.

Mount the control arm assembly in a vice and unbolt the lower ball joint from the lower control arm, separating it from the spindle/upper A-arm assembly.

To break loose the ball joints at their tapered seats, a pickle fork wedges them apart.

We've heard that ball joints should be pressed out. The ball joints actually screw into the upper A-arm and removal requires a special square-drive socket and lots of torque. We had the special socket for the larger B-, E-, and late A-Body ball joint, but had to make one for the small A-Body piece. Starting with heavy wall pipe, the drive flats were arc-welded in, precision cut to size, case hardened, and quenched. Heat the A-arm frequently with a torch around the ball joint and then lightly oil to break the joint loose-ours required that treatment.

The upper control-arm bushings are best removed using a jackscrew, not a press. Use 11/42-inch threaded rod with a drive nut welded to one end. Place a socket on one end to drive the bushing out, and use a heavy tube or pipe fitting to receive the bushing at the other end. Make sure the receiving fitting sits flush with the control-arm contours; ours is ground to rest on the edge of the lip at the bottom of the A-arm.

The rubber and outer steel shell of the original bushing remains in the lower control arm. Inexplicably, the typical advice is to heat the shell with a torch to release the rubber's bond with the outer shell. In fact, the rubber isn't vulcanized or bonded to the shell, and can be pried out of the arm cold with a screwdriver. Again, with poly bushings, the outer shell remains, but OE-type bushings require removal-a brutal job that requires splitting the shell along its length and prying it out.

The lower control arm only needs the pivot shaft removed from the inner bushing. We used a press and pushed out the pivot shaft from through the torsion-bar socket. A heavy hammer in a vice will probably work as well. The control-arm bushing consists of an inner and outer steel shell with rubber in between. The inner steel shell comes out still attached to the pivot shaft. When using OE-style rubber bushings, remove the shell from the shaft by staking it along its length. We're using poly bushings, so the shell remains in place.

Now we send the fully torn-down suspension and K-member for stripping. When it comes back, we'll paint and replate for the coming resto-detailing.

We'll reassemble the refinished components on the stand and add new components complements of a PST rebuild kit. Rather than going purist original, we opted for PST's Polygraphite bushings and a set of KYB gas shocks to add nimble corner-turning performance to our straight-line stormer.