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Labor hours for front suspension rebuild?

R

Ronald Radeke

Silver Level Sponsor
How many labor hours should a shop charge for a front suspension rebuild? The suspension seems pretty solid, but some of the boots are split open, some are ragged. The bushings defanetely meed replaced.1967 S5 w/55,000 mi.
 
I would get in touch with Doug Jennings in Ohio. He has rebuilt many of them and upgrades them too.
A friend just took two complete crossmembers for him to do. PM me for his contact info.
 
65sunbeam said:
I would get in touch with Doug Jennings in Ohio. He has rebuilt many of them and upgrades them too.
A friend just took two complete crossmembers for him to do. PM me for his contact info.
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What Eric said.

The typical auto repair shop (even a "British" shop) does not have the knowledge or tools / fixtures that are necessary to work on the Series Alpine front suspension which has several oddities and gotcha's. After 55+ years and 55,000 miles, all of the rubber parts (especially the A-arm bushings) are probably long gone and the ball joints and tie-rod ends should, at the very least, get a thorough inspection by someone who knows what to look for.

Sections F (Front Suspension) and J (Steering) of WSM-145 are very detailed and will give you an idea of what is involved with rebuilding the front end of a late Series Alpine.

https://sunbeamalpine.org/original-tech-manuals/
 
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First I would confirm that the shop has experience and tooling to rebuildi unbeam front suspensions - if they do not I would be hesitant to use them. Also suggest the work includes dropping the crossmember out of the car, full cleaning and inspection. There are several online tech articles including reinforcing the top shock tower area that can crack (factory welding sparce). How many hours labor were you quoted? Let us know, my guess for labor hours would probably be 8-14 hours but I really don't know. The shop will need a press to R&R the A-arm bushings (and tooling to press without damaging). I do know that working on a 50 year old car is nothing but opportunity to find something else needing attention thus making one project turn into 4 or 5. I also know it takes me a month working some evenings and weekends to do this - I could not make $ as a mechanic for sure - ha.
 
There is quite a bit of difference between early and late Series front suspensions. We usually take about 6-8 hours to completely strip down and rebuild a Series IV or V front suspension unit. BUT we have home made tools that help and have done it several times. Never stripped an early one.
We only ever fit original style metallastic bushes now, we don't go near the nylon replacements (don't last and way too much trouble).

You can do it yourself if you have basic tools and little mechanical knowledge. This video might be of use.

Tim R

 
He has a late "rubber bush" suspension, so the video is well covering that. Nevertheless would recommend to go to an expert as mentioned before. Costs money, but saves you a lot of time and potential errors...

P.S. Proper press tools are needed too in order to avoid damage. Have a look on just some examples here:


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You can't overlook the difficulty of dissembling the front end. Bolts are prone to snap off if not done patiently and correctly, to include the caliper, upper a-arm and especially the lower a-arm bolts. A shop can easily add multiple $100's in machine work to extract bolts they carelessly broke off.
 
I am halfway thru a Tiger front suspension rebuild, mostlly on weekends last two weeks, 30+ hours a guess so far. What I have at this point is everything ready for re-assasembly, I took everything apart, had everything media blasted, edges deburred, measured, welds to reinforce weak areas, used tap to clean all threads, primmed and painted, fastners inspected (some needing replaced),, cleaned on wire wheel, soaked in EvapoRust (fastners took way more time than I expected and there must be a thousond or more it seemed). At halfway can say it has been mess and time consming for sure. Looking forward to re-assemble with all clean parts so my guess is to have it finished but the end of the month (at least thats the plan). Not difficult, very messy, will take up plenty of garage floor space, will put up a fight, and recommend you seek/find help to press out the A-arm bushings and upper ball joint. FYI I have probably done 5 of these so far in last 40 years and never look forward to doing. The video link in prev post is great.
 
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boss-tiger said:
I am halfway thru a Tiger front suspension rebuild, mostlly on weekends last two weeks, 30+ hours a guess so far. What I have at this point is everything ready for re-assasembly, I took everything apart, had everything media blasted, edges deburred, measured, welds to reinforce weak areas, used tap to clean all threads, primmed and painted, fastners inspected (some needing replaced),, cleaned on wire wheel, soaked in EvapoRust (fastners took way more time than I expected and there must be a thousond or more it seemed). At halfway can say it has been mess and time consming for sure. Looking forward to re-assemble with all clean parts so my guess is to have it finished but the end of the month (at least thats the plan). Not difficult, very messy, will take up plenty of garage floor space, will put up a fight, and recommend you seek/find help to press out the A-arm bushings and upper ball joint. FYI I have probably done 5 of these so far in last 40 years and never look forward to doing. The video link in prev post is great.
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Agreed with all of Kragh's ((boss-tiger) comments above. Especially that a pro shop really should press out the A-arm bushing so they don't get bent since it's really easy to do.

I have completely disassembled SV front ends to be sold as parts. This would eliminate your broken-bolts problem but, as you know, it's a pretty long drive to my shop.
 
If your car/front suspension is from (or has been) a rusty environment, clean the bolts and apply some penetrating oil - especially prone to rust issues are the bolts that attach lower A-arm fulcrum to the cross member (more on this ..). What I do while front end is still attached to car, jack up front end and pull off front wheels, use a scraper, large + small + whatever to get off as much dirt, greese, grime as possible. Next I use a can of degreaser or two from auto parts store and soak all down in car then power wash (is it just me or is this spray degreaser not as good as it used to be) -the cleaner the better IMO (best done outside like in the street if possible). Back to those risky, can be a problem lower A-arm fulcrum bolts, with car safely jacked up you can look into the large cross member attaching bolt holes on the bottom and at right angle see the inside of those bolts protruding into cross member (you will need a flashlight). Those bolts can rust easily and if they brake during removal you have a lot more work to do. To hopefuly avoid said 'lot more work', I take one of those long, inexpensive black toothbrush stainless brushes and thru those holes and you can get about 60% brushed - then soak with penetrating oil (a spray works). Let the oil soak, then repeat a 2nd time if back side of those bolts look rusty you may do this several times while backing out the bolts (and oil again). This is way too long but try NOT to break these bolts and you will be much happer I assure you.
 
I found I was unable to find a way to press out some of the bearing shells without bending the arms. So I cut through the shell with a hack saw, then pressed them out. Gotta be careful, but it makes an impossible job easy. Overall, I found the job to be exhausting. I in fact, after installing the rebuilt cross over, I posted the claim, ""It was a hellofa fight Ma, but I won.""
Bill
 
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