<VV> RE: Replacing the Crossmember

[Anil Mittal]

Hi John,

  It's been a little while but I removed the crossmember from my 66
Monza Cvt and rebuilt it a while ago. It is pretty straight forward.
Depending on your budget I would highly suggest sand blasting and
power coating the "new" crossmember. Or at a minimum clean it up and
coat it with POR-15. 

  The crossmember is bolted to cage nuts, these are square nuts that
are captured in metal cages. I suggest a blast of Kroil or something
similar to all of them twice a day for a few days before you start.
If one of the nuts does start spinning you can usually wedge
something between it and the remaining cage to hold it still.

  The crossmember can come out as a whole unit but I found it easier
to remove and install the springs with the unit in the car. In my
case since I was installing new parts I used a pickle fork to
sepperate everything, this does damage the dust boots but as I said I
was installing new parts. If reusing the parts there is a 2 hammer
method for removing tie rods. You loosten the nut on the tie rod,
back up the knuckle with one hammer and hit the other side of the
knuckle with another hammer. A few blows should loosten any rust.
Another method is to unthread the castell nut to the end of the stud
then wack it with a hammer. 

  Good luck!

Anil