Front Suspension Volvo 122S

All the rubber bushings were probably over 40 years old, the ball joints and shocks were still original, surface rust had replaced most of the paint... Time for some renovating!

Front Suspension Volvo 122S

Upper wishbone - front axle Volvo 122S

Rusty subframe

All the bolts and nuts were soaked in WD40 a couple of days before I started. First take of the stabilizer and take out the shocks. Then you can start with the ball joints, I started with the lower ball joint. But... before you start you have to secure the spring so it won't jump out when it releases it's tension all of a sudden. I took a long thread with 2 big washers and two nuts, mounted it in the holes for the shocker and turned the nuts until the spring was under pressure.

Securing the spring with a long thread

Ball joint splitter

You can try to hammer the lower ball joint out but it's better to use a ball joint splitter. Just turn the nut on the splitter until you hear a big bang, .. it's loose. :). Now you can slowly remove the tension from the thread until the spring is tension free, remove the big bolt from the lower wishbone and take it off. The upper ball joint is a bit simpler, just take out the bolts and it's loose Don't forget to support the wheel hub. 

Supporting the sub frame of the 122S

I put 2 jacks under the subframe and secured it with a rope on the engine crane before loosening the bolts.

Securing the sub frame

Then the worst part... cleaning all the greasy and rusty parts. 

Subframe - Front axle Volvo 122S before painting

Cleaning the lower wishbone of the Volvo 122S

Lower wishbone, spring, the old and new ball joint and bushes

If you want to replace the bushes and sleeves in the lower wishbone you need a press. It's possible to get the old ones out with a bench swivel, but to put the new ones in without damaging the wishbone is something I couldn't do myself. So I brought them to Sam and 10 minutes later it was done. 

Pressing out the old bushes

Putting everything back together can be done in reverse order: Bolt on the front axle, the upper wishbones and the new upper ball joints. In order to place the bolt which locate the joint in the stub axle I used a clamp. I used the torque settings from Haynes but.. The torque for the ball joint are incorrect! According to Haynes it should be 90 kg fm for the uper ball joint bolts... result a broken high tensile bolt. A better torque is 40 kg fm for the upper ball joint and around 50 kg fm (instead of 115!!) for the lower ball joint.

Fitting the bolt from the upper ball joint

Broken high tensile bolt

After fitting the new upper ball joint put back spring and the long thread.  The lower ball joints can be pressed in just by turning the big bolt. I also replaced all the nylock nuts and most of the bolts for high tensile ones.

Fitting the new lower ball joint

I scored some nice unused second hand B6 BILSTEIN shock absorbers (F4-B46-0283-H0). Tighten the nuts until the rubbers of the shocks start mushroming.

BILSTEIN B6 shocks for the Volvo 122S

Ready for the stabilizer and the brakes..