1974 Chevy Nova My first project car

Preparation for Front Sub-frame Removal

Yesterday, I actually accomplished quite a bit. On my way home from work, I called my self-proclaimed "unnamed uncle", and talked to him about the comment he left on the blog on my previous post found here. He determined that it would be best to disconnect the front sub-frame from the body and have it sandblasted.

After finishing a few chores at home, I went to the garage and got started right away. Let's see, I located all of the brake line and fuel line brackets and removed all the screws. I disconnected the brake line from the master cylinder and removed the whole brake line from the engine compartment. I removed the passenger upper control arm and all the bolts. I removed a few sway bar bracket screws, but I decided to wait to take it completely off until I have the lower control arms off, because of the awkward location of the screws. I removed the center drag link, by disconnecting the idler arm from the frame and the drag link from the Pitman arm. I also removed the steering gear from the column and the frame.

Last but not least, I followed the correct procedure in the Hayne's manual—at least I thought I did—and removed the driver side lower control arm. The manual said to strap a chain around the spring and put a jack under the control arm while taking the bolts out. I did that up until after I took the bolts out. I didn't realize that the spring was still compressed, so I took off the "chain" (rubber hose) and removed the jack. As I was unbolting the the shock absorber at the shaft, the shaft came completely out and that's when the control arm finally broke free and the compressed spring shot the control arm to the floor where my foot was. I almost broke a toe, but luckily I'm ok.

All that's left to do now is remove the passenger control arm safely and then unbolt the front sub-frame from the body and then finally I can make a trip to my unnamed uncle's house to use the sandblaster on all my disconnected parts. I hope I will have time to do this tonight. I also took a few more pictures of my progress and tools. These can be found in the photo gallery. The left photo below are all the labeled bags I have so far full of nuts, bolts, screws, etc. The middle photo is of the culprit. And the right photo is a shot of most of the parts I took off yesterday.