[RallyBob]

I'm told that the chroming process can make things brittle. Not a big deal, probably, when it comes to blinging up your engine compartment, but you don't want your suspension stuck to crack. It's probably unlikely that chroming will make stuff so brittle that it cracks and I've never had any stuff that I chromed break or crack, but they say it's possible.

Yup. Hydrogen embrittlement, it’s a thing. Look it up!

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Hooray! Spring Saddles Arrived!

12+ weeks waiting for a-arm gussets and spring saddles to come is finally over! The wait totally destroyed my time line and do-something-every-day work ethic. Now it's hot as balls outside and in the garage. Luckily I get to put it all together in my nice cool basement in the coming days. I can then take it out to the garage early in the morning and put it on in a jiffy before it gets hot. I have to bend and install new metal front brake lines and the flex hoses and put some juice in the brake system. Then, the bottom of the car will basically be done and I can put the wheels back on and get the car off my lift.

I've decided to put the new fuel injection system I ordered from England, which should get here tomorrow, on my red GTX car. I'll put the red car on the lowered lift and be able to get the FI working in the coming weeks. The yellow car sitting dead on my lift was screwing up everything.

The new saddles seem to have about 10mm(3/8") of nice, new, rubber on them and they have a common gold anti-rust coating on them. My previous ones were usable, but worn halfway down, rock hard, and pock-marked. If you think about it, the whole weight of the car sits on those rubber-padded saddles and any road vibrations transmit through the leaf spring to those rubber pads. I went to a lot of trouble and expense to install the original rubber suspension parts, plus some mods, and it really sucked that I was very close to being forced to put the worn 50 year old saddles back on. Now I'm good to go!

 

[kwschumm]

I’m very interested in your FI, I spoke to him about a 4 injector system on twin Weber intakes and it sounds mighty sweet. The throttle bodies are 90mm from face of flange to end of trumpet so that gives ~30mm more room to work with on the intake side.

 

[Will I. Finish]

Hooray! Spring Saddles Arrived!

12+ weeks waiting for a-arm gussets and spring saddles to come is finally over! The wait totally destroyed my time line and do-something-every-day work ethic. Now it's hot as balls outside and in the garage. Luckily I get to put it all together in my nice cool basement in the coming days. I can then take it out to the garage early in the morning and put it on in a jiffy before it gets hot. I have to bend and install new metal front brake lines and the flex hoses and put some juice in the brake system. Then, the bottom of the car will basically be done and I can put the wheels back on and get the car off my lift.

I've decided to put the new fuel injection system I ordered from England, which should get here tomorrow, on my red GTX car. I'll put the red car on the lowered lift and be able to get the FI working in the coming weeks. The yellow car sitting dead on my lift was screwing up everything.

The new saddles seem to have about 10mm(3/8") of nice, new, rubber on them and they have a common gold anti-rust coating on them. My previous ones were usable, but worn halfway down, rock hard, and pock-marked. If you think about it, the whole weight of the car sits on those rubber-padded saddles and any road vibrations transmit through the leaf spring to those rubber pads. I went to a lot of trouble and expense to install the original rubber suspension parts, plus some mods, and it really sucked that I was very close to being forced to put the worn 50 year old saddles back on. Now I'm good to go!


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Of course I have been following your thread and as I have said before I learn something new almost everyday. So Gordon, since I have not rebuilt my front suspension, but I am accumulating parts and knowldge for the project, - I have a question about your pictures - based on what I think I see it looks like there are two sizes shown on the picture above, perhaps one inner and one outer for a total of 4 per project or two on each side - and it also looks like the new one does not have rubber attached, so does that mean the new ones are made in two pieces, rubber insert for the new metal part? Perhaps I am looking at the pictures incorrectly or I am interpreting them incorrectly so your help is greatly appreciated. Also how is the fit of the new ones compared to the original, I hate running into issues with fitment when I purchase a new part and just expect it to fit correctly.
I know that you are relieved to receive the parts after such a long wait and know you are looking forward to freeing up that lift, wish I had one. I looking forward to seeing the finished project but more importantly looking forward to learning more about the parts and how it is done and any problems encountered and that statement applies to the entire project. Thanks, Carl

 

[The Scifi Guy]

I’m very interested in your FI, I spoke to him about a 4 injector system on twin Weber intakes and it sounds mighty sweet. The throttle bodies are 90mm from face of flange to end of trumpet so that gives ~30mm more room to work with on the intake side.

When it arrives tomorrow I'll lay it all out on the carpet, with the wire harness spread out and going to all the devices that replace your various carburetor functions and the ones that carbs don't have. This way, novices or just the curious, can try to wrap their minds around the basic parts that make FI work.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Of course I have been following your thread and as I have said before I learn something new almost everyday. So Gordon, since I have not rebuilt my front suspension, but I am accumulating parts and knowldge for the project, - I have a question about your pictures - based on what I think I see it looks like there are two sizes shown on the picture above, perhaps one inner and one outer for a total of 4 per project or two on each side - and it also looks like the new one does not have rubber attached, so does that mean the new ones are made in two pieces, rubber insert for the new metal part? Perhaps I am looking at the pictures incorrectly or I am interpreting them incorrectly so your help is greatly appreciated. Also how is the fit of the new ones compared to the original, I hate running into issues with fitment when I purchase a new part and just expect it to fit correctly.
I know that you are relieved to receive the parts after such a long wait and know you are looking forward to freeing up that lift, wish I had one. I looking forward to seeing the finished project but more importantly looking forward to learning more about the parts and how it is done and any problems encountered and that statement applies to the entire project. Thanks, Carl

You're looking at my pics wrong. The black spray painted ones are my old ones, the black and gold ones are the new ones. There is only one on each side. I show both the right/left sides and the top/bottom of the saddles. When mounted to the crossmember, the gold metal side is recessed into the suspension crossmember facing up, the rubber side faces down, and when the spring is in place it presses against the rubber bottom side. There is nothing holding your spring to the crossmember, it "floats" within it. It's only attachment is at the ends of the lower a-arms. When everything is assembled and painted black, you would almost never know that the saddle was there. These pics might help you visualize it better:

Just the spring laying inside the crossmember:

The saddle:

The saddle in place:

A-arm slid over the spring, cast iron piece in position, saddle NOT in place:

A-arm slid back a bit to show the saddle in place:

A pic of the other side with spring bolted to the a-arm, but the bolts and saddle removed:

 

[First opel 1981]

Is this an aftermarket add on?
I didn't have these saddles on the front suspension I just disassembled.

 

[RallyBob]

Is this an aftermarket add on?
I didn't have these saddles on the front suspension I just disassembled.

Factory on all GT’s and Kadett B’s.

 

[First opel 1981]

Factory on all GT’s and Kadett B’s.

Interesting.
I did see holes in about the same place as Gordons pictures but there was nothing bolted there that I remember. I'll have to look on my work bench.
I don't have good pictures of the underside of the front suspension and right now it's in someone elses hands.
It looked like this had been rebuilt in the past. I wonder if they omitted them.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Is this an aftermarket add on?
I didn't have these saddles on the front suspension I just disassembled.

Interesting.
I did see holes in about the same place as Gordons pictures but there was nothing bolted there that I remember. I'll have to look on my work bench.
I don't have good pictures of the underside of the front suspension and right now it's in someone else's hands.
It looked like this had been rebuilt in the past. I wonder if they omitted them.

OH MY! THAT'S A SERIOUS SITUATION!!!!!

Without the saddles there's nothing to stabilize the spring. I would think that it would cause your spring to dance up and down enormously. They're expensive at $50 each and were unobtainable for decades. I could send you the used, but servicable, ones in the pics as give back for the vents you sent me. Give me your address in a message if you want them.

Below are all the pics from the FSM and Parts books, excluding the pics of the a-arms, that I could find. You'll notice that the spring saddles are maddeningly poorly illustrated and located. They're referred to as "Front spring seats". The other pics are just to show other aspects of assembly, like washer and bushing placement, to aid folks in visualizing what were talking about.

Notice in this pic that it says that there is supposed to be a rubber bumper above the spring in the center. I don't have that on either of my front suspensions. Now, all my cars have the 1" lowering spring, so they don't arc as high and don't have clamps and brackets, so maybe I don't need the bumper. Any thoughts on this?

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Now, could you slip the saddles in when the suspension is in the car, if you forgot to install them? Yes, for sure, you can if you have the 1" lowering spring. I don't know about trying to do it with the highly sprung oem spring. You might have to use a c-clamp or something to keep the spring somewhat compressed.

Another FYI: Each of the 2 bolts on each saddle, 4 total, has a weird shaped, sort of rectangular, washer at the top. This is to reinforce where the top of the bolt contacts the crossmember. Those 4 bolts and where they contact the crossmember are under enormous stress. I detected elongation of the holes in the saddles and the crossmember, due to movement of the various parts. This suspension had been monkeyed with before and was missing parts, incorrect washers and bolts were substituted, and one upper and one lower a-arm were badly bent, probably due to an accident or incident. There was substantial wear on the driver's side saddle, but not much at all on the passenger side one. One of the rectangular washers was missing, I had to make my own replacement.

Gosh, I hope that the crossmember isn't bent due to whatever incident occured. It shows no sign of damage, but it's really hard to tell if they are bent a little bit. My long time GT had a problem with pulling to the left, I replaced everything and had alignments, but nothing would fix it. The problem persisted for years. Under it's previous ownership, it had it's whole front end nuked by running under the crossbar at the back of a delivery truck. All the body panels from the windshield forward had been replaced with factory new ones. Finally, I had RallyBob send me a new crossmember(late 80's) and had my repair shop install it. Problem solved! But, looking at the old crossmember, it was impossible to detect anything wrong with it.

 

[First opel 1981]

I might take you up on the offer. I also might just buy new saddles.
I'll have to wait til the front stuff comes back from the blaster to be sure I'm missing them. I might just have overlooked them as being part of the crossmember, glued into place by decades of placement.
I do remember seeing those weird washer/spacers.

Thanks for the pictures of the FSM. I'll probably refer back to them during reassembly.

 

[kwilford]

If I recall correctly, the saddles also MUST be oriented correctly. There are a few obscure words in the Factory Service Manual about which off-set holes are to the outboard (or maybe inboard) side. I am tied up this morning but I'll try to find the passage in the FSM later today

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Front Suspension Finally Assembled
After almost 4 months of waiting for replacement A-arms, A-arm gussets, spring saddles, and assorted missing bolts and spacer washers, plus blasting, welding, and powder coating, my front suspension is finally done. It's non-oem parts are a 1" lowering spring, A-arm gussets, OGTS sway bar, KYB shocks, and the big vented rotor aluminum caliper OGTS brake package. All parts have been rebuilt or replaced. I'll put it on tomorrow and commence work on bending front brake lines and juicing up the brake system. That will basically wrap up the under the car stuff on my "Banana" project car and I can get it off my garage lift for a while. Next project will be to remove the Motronic FI system from my GTX car and install my new 2 injector twin throttle body modern FI system. Then I'll resume work on the Banana car.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Hooray! I installed my nice silver front suspension, routed and connected my front brake lines, and put the front wheels back on for the first time in 5 months. Yeah, you can see all the places in the engine compartment that the crappy Maaco missed when they painted it. I'll see of I can fix some of those missed spots with spray paint. I still need to put some grommets in the wheel wells and the radiator wall where the lines pass through. Not the nicest car, but it was a disaster when I got it. At least it's rust free.

Now I can get it off my lift and roll it around, so can put my red car on the lift and install my 2 injector twin throttle body FI system on it. The next project for this yellow car is to begin the wiring operation. That won't happen until the temps outside get a lot cooler.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Brake lines:
I was told to beware that the front brake lines, and especially the passenger side one, that OGTS now sells might be a little short. My other car has the titanium coated lines that OGTS used to sell and they went on just fine, but now he's selling a plastic/vinyl wrapped kind. Yeah, hoo-boy, there's just barely enough passenger side line to reach the big MC and I had to keep straightening out bends to give me the extra length needed. The driver's side isn't too bad, but you still have to be frugal with your bends.

 

[The Cub]

Where did you get the rubber grommet that passes through the wheel well? I didn’t see it in the OGTS catalog. If you picked it up at the hardware do you have the specs? It’s a pretty critical part, mine are shot, I used a rubber hose to insulate the brake line but I’m not too happy with that solution.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Any ole grommets you find will suffice and the rubber hose you're using works just as good or better, assuming they don't fall out. Some auto and hardware stores sell "kits" of all different size grommets. You can also try looking on the McMaster-Carr website below. Try real hard to make sure that your brake lines aren't leaning HARD against any of those openings, try to relieve the force that is pushing them against the side of the holes. Not doing so will wear through the grommets. Right now, the lines passing through my wheel wells aren't touching at all........which is a miracle. The big oval one at the firewall may be hard to source. I just checked the OGTS site and I don't see any grommets either. Some stuff isn't on the site, best to call Gil and see if he has any.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

 

[The Cub]

I guess I’ll measure it. We have a great hardware that has all that stuff called Marshall’s Industrial Hardware, you can easily spend a day in there like a kid in a candy store. Nobody beats McMaster-Carr though. Good tip on the brake line leaning I bent mine to center best I could. I’d suggest everyone takes a look at this spot on their GT. I didn’t notice it until I had the engine out painting the engine bay, the grommet on the passenger side was completely gone due to all the heat from the exhaust.