Above is the crossmember once it was uninstalled, painted and rebuilt. Looks great doesent it!
STEP 1
The first step is to disconnect the Emergency Brake Cables. This can be done by getting two 10mm wrenches. Get inside your bus and pop the rubber cover off of the e-brake lever. You will see two nuts on each side of the lever for a total of four bolts, with a long bolt coming through on each side. This long bolt is part of your e-brake cable. Take both nuts off, on each side. Get some WD40 and spray it the best you can. These can be somewhat tight. Once you get the nuts off of the bolt shaft, slide the shaft through the bottom, so they drop to the ground.
STEP 2
Disconnect your clutch cable. Many people would rather just cut it. The clutch cable you have is most likely 30 years old. I cut my cable, because I am going to replace it. If you dont want to replace it, then you will have to go to your transmission in the rear, disconnect the cable from the tranny and then slide it back through the front. This can be somewhat of a headache.
STEP 3
Disconnect the brake lines. You will need to take off both your drivers and passenger front tires. If you look you will see a brake hose go to a little mount. Get a line wrench, and loosen the brake line. You may have some fluid come out of here so be prepared to get a little pan or bucket to catch the fluid. Do this to both your drivers side and passenger side. See Picture Below on the right hand side.
STEP 4
The linkage is most likely the hardest part of this job. The linkage has sat for years with a bolt in it. This bolt has a square head. I tried taking vice grips to the bolt. It just busted the head off of it. The head on this bolt is very weak. You will need to most likely drill out the bolt. Drill it back through the center of the shaft if you can. There is a brace that holds this bolt, this brace holds the two pieces of linkage together. You may need to get a grinder and grind off part of this brace. Make sure you save the brace. Grind it off parallel to the linkage. With a little luck the two pieces will come apart. Take your time with this part.
STEP 5
You will need to pop your drag link off. The drag link goes in between the crossmember and your tie rods. To do this get your 16mm wrench, and undo the bolt holding it. You can disconnect this directly from the idler arm of the steering box. Get your pickle fork, shove it between the idler arm and the drag link and pop it off of there. I recommend backing up and using your feet to do this when using the pickle fork. Put your Feet on the pickle fork and push.
STEP 6
You will now need to take out the remaining linkage that goes between the two crossmember beams. To do this get inside your bus with a 13mm wrench, and take the two bolts out that hold the e-brake lever down. Undo these bolts, and then see if the e-brake lever is free. If it is free then you need to get under your bus, and pull the remaining linkage that comes from the bottom of the e-brake lever out. This just slides out of a shaft. Get back inside your bus and completely take out the rest of the e-brake lever.
STEP 7
Next, you will be removing the main bolts that hold the crossmember to the frame. There are 6 bolts on each side. I recommend having two friends come over and help you with this. Take a jack to the center of the crossmember, and put some tension on it. Have your friends start undoing the bolts on each side. Once all the bolts are out you will feel that the crossmember is somewhat loose. Have each one of your friends get on the brake drums and and hold them while you lower the jack. This should do it! You will now be able to take your crossmember to your local shop, have the front end rebuilt, put new shocks on it, repaint it and much much more!
Brock Eastman
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TOOLBOX Pickle Fork Phillips Screwdriver 2 10mm Wrenches 17mm Wrench & Socket Grinder ( possibly ) 16mm Wrench & Socket |
See the e-brake lever?
Another View of the repainted & rebuilt front end.
Right here you can see the brake line disconnected.