The time has come to remove the tired original AMC suspension and replace with with the ControlFreak IFS with rack and pinion steering and Viking coilovers. To say the suspension on this car was in need of attenion would be an understatement. We originally lowered the car by cutting the coils, and the shocks have been entirely blown for the duration of the time I’ve had the car, giving it a ride similar to that of a pogo-stick.

Rather than just doing ControlFreak coil-over conversion I opted for the complete IFS with power rack and pinion and 6 piston, 12″ Wilwood disk brakes.

Teardown was pretty straight-forward; I removed the sway-bar, pulled out the steering assembly contraption and disconnced the strut-rods from the lower control arms. I also decided to disconnect the balljoints from the upper control arms, although I guess I could have dropped the whole thing as one giant piece, that made me a little nervous.

At Harbor Freight I discovered an engine support bar that made this entire ordeal a hell of a lot easier – I just had to pull the carb off and bolt on a lifting plate, tighten up the chains, and hope for the best…

…4 bolts and a little wiggling and the crossmember was liberated from the car; much less scary than I expected it to be. This left me with the upper control arms, shocks and springs to remove. After some dicking around with a rented spring compressor and a few moments of terror imagining a coil-spring to the dome, I was done and ready to clean. To say this car’s undercarriage was grimy would be an understatement. 50 years, no less than 8 Hot Rod Power Tours, and who knows how many miles certainly showed.