Step 1 - Get all of your shit together. Try to get most of the parts you need before hand. If you can try to get your hands on some air tools and a floor jack. It makes doing this IMMEASURABLY EASIER
Step 2 - Loosen Wheels, Jack up car and put like 50 indivual jack stands under it. Check it to make sure that it will not fall on you and squeeze all your guts out of your ass like you were a bottle of Cheese Whiz
Step 3 - Remove wheels, Now remove drum units or calipers and rotors (depending on what you currently have). Just cut the rubber brake hoses as those will need to be replaced with ones from a 72 B-Body with discs. Now remove the wimpy stock sway bar and get a nice big FAT one somewhere.
Step 4 - Take out the Shock Absorber and disconnect the tie rods at the spindle end. Put a floor jack under the lower A-arm and jack it up until the spring is compressed then loosen both ball joint nuts a couple of turns. once that is accomplished let the floor jack drop and the spring will force the ball joints to loosen up in the spindle. It saves you from hammering them senseless until they seperate. IMPORTANT : Leave the ball joint nuts on the ball joint stem or else the whole A-arm spring assembly will exlplode once you let the jack off.
Step 5 - Put the floor jack back under the lower A-arm and jack it back up. Make sure you do not cover the shock hole
Step 6 - Rent/Buy a quality spring compressor that is designed to go onto the inside of the spring via the shock hole.
Step 7 - Tighten the spring compressor until it will hold the springs current compression, remove the ball joint nuts and slowly lower the A-arm to the floor. The still compressed spring should drop out. Remember after it drops out, uncompress the spring via the spring compressor. Don't leave it lying around compressed as its kinda like a time bomb waiting to go off
Step 8 - Now you can take the control arms. Take off the top A-arm by taking out the 2 bolts holding the control arm shaft to the frame. Carefull with these bolts because they have a ribbing on it that bites ito the frame. Don't turn it by the head of the bolt. Just take the nuts off from the inside of the engine bay. Remove the old A-Arm.
Step 9 - While your at it, remove the lower control arms and replace the bushings. Ya might as well since its all apart. I found that using a propane torch on the nuts for a few minutes makes taking the bolts out a whole lot easier. Take them to a shop to get the new ones pressed in. shop around, I got raped for 20 bucks a bushing on another car, but other people have done it for as little as $5.
Note : - Lower Ball Joint. Using B-Body spindles requires a different Ball Joint from stock. I bought mine from Global West as a set so it came with it. If you are using Hotchkiss control arms then get a lower ball joint from an 70-81 F-body (Moog # K6145) and take it to a machine shop have it turned to 2.010 inches so it will fit into the A-body Control arm.
Step 10 - I used Del-Alum bushings from Global West, if they are too harsh I will swap them out for rubber bushings. I have heard bad things about poly bushings driving people insane by their squeaking. I have also heard the graphite impregnated ones start sqeaking after about a year. Rumor has it that the Del-Alums are about as harsh as poly's but I will post results when I get this thing on the road. I sent my lowers into Global West because they had the Oval bushings and the Del-Alums are round. They pressed the old ones out, the new ones in and also pressed in the ball joints AND powder coated them! Not bad for $150 bucks ($100 fee, $50 shipping)
Step 11 - Install your new upper A-arms (Global West or Hotchkiss), Mine came pre-assembled so all I had to do was bolt em on.
Step 12 - Install your Lowers (If you took them off) and use new grade 8 bolts with self locking nuts (I think its worth it). Mine took a little bit of hammering to get the lowers lined up properly, so prepare for a fight!
Step 13 - BIG FUN!!! Now its time to put in the springs. I initally used HO racing 1" drop front springs. They just fell right in. Unfortunately the car was too damn low. The A-Frame was about 3 inches above the ground. I ordered a set of Moog 3440's on recomendation from the Classical Pontiac Board. They were a lot taller, the one in the middle is the Moog surrounded by the HO racing ones.
If you go with the moog, use the spring compressor you used to remove the old ones. Compress the new ones until the fit into the frame and lower A-arm. This is a REAL Bitch! You have to get them to seat properly in the upper frame (There is a lip it must go around) and the lower A-arm cup. Remember to index them! This means that on the lower A-arm there is a hole that you put the bottom of the spring over so that you can see the edge of the coil. There are were 2 holes in the passenger side of mine, look to the drivers side for reference for the right one. It helps a lot to have a buddy with you so you can both use brute force to mash these things in and make sure they are indexed.
Step 14 - Once you finish the miserable task of getting the springs in, put the B-body spindles on and tighten snugly. Now go through the task of removing the compressor. This takes patience and you probably have to disasemble them inside the spring. It can take a half hour to do this so take it easy. Once the compressor is out tighten ball joint nuts to factory specs (50 uppers, 85-90 lowers) and be sure to put the cotter pins in.
Step 15 - Hey, starting to look like a real car again. Now its time to put the the rest of the front suspension on. You MUST replace at least the outer tie-rods since the stock pieces will not fit the B-body spindles. I replaced everything. Here is a hint, Remove the whole assembly in one peice. Disconnect the outer tie-rods from the spindle, the idler arm from the frame and the drag link from the pitman arm. Take out the whole assembly and keep it, that way you can look at it as a refernce to see how the whole shebang fits togther, especially how long your tie-rod assembly was so you can match it with the new one(s).
NOTE : - Before you do this, consider upgrading your steering box since the pitman arm is dissconnected now. I used full tubular tie rod sleeves instead of the crappy stock ones. Tourqe all this crap to factory specs.
ANOTHER NOTE : - The B-Body Spindles require you to use different outer tie rods. IF you have a 71-72 A-body use the tie rods from the 73-76 A-body's (Moog # ES427R, Say a 75 Lemans). For a 64-70 A-body use the outer tie rods meant for an mid 80's G-body (Moog # ES2033RL, say an 84 buick regal)
Parts 1 Parts 2 Assembly 1 Assembly 2