Before heading off on a big road trip it is a good idea to make sure your automobile is in good working order. I would like to point out that the Saturn front control arm is a rather simple piece. It is held on by just three nuts at the ball joint to spindle bolt, at the control arm to front subframe bolt, and at the tension strut (sway bar) end.
While I managed to get a front tension strut off a 1996 Saturn SL1 in the junkyard without removing the control arms, it was a pain to pry out, and the sway bar to arm bushings ripped in two during the removal. I latter learned the trick is to loosen the arms first, and then the tension strut can be easily installed. My plan was to install the smaller diameter tension strut and polyurethane bushings on the SC2 when replacing the control arms.
The right control arm came off the SC2 rather easily, but the control arm to subframe bolt on the left arm was seized in its bushing. I did manage to spin it and move it about half an inch, but it wouldn’t move any further. There wasn’t any more time to fight a stubborn bolt so I just tightened it back down to wait for another day. Luckily, I only needed a right arm for the wagon. The left control arm and sway bar exchange could wait.
Installing the new right arm on the coupe was relatively easy. The toughest part was pushing the arm in against the tension strut while trying to put the control arm to subframe bolt in. With the SC2 back together I put the old SC2 arm on the SW2 using the same procedure. The wagon now just needed an alignment, and the trip was a couple days away.
The next day I left my wife a sheet of hand-written alignment specifications and instructions to bring the wagon to an alignment shop while I was at work. At work I called around to a few places nearby, but, of course, none could get us in that day. One of them talked about “setting the toe” when I mentioned alignment and they wanted $60. Fine, I thought, I’d just do it myself.
I generally do alignments in my parent’s garage as it is large and level enough to make decent measurements. After I get home from work we pack the baby and kids into the wagon and head over to my parent’s. As we pick up speed on the highway we all notice the vibration hasn’t left. So, I slow down a little and then I notice a smell. I pull off the highway and get out and check the right front wheel. Sure enough the rotor is sizzling hot. So, I drive back to get a C clamp and make some calls to see if I can find a caliper in stock anywhere.
Luckily Saturn calipers are easy to find. At least one of the rear drums on the wagon worked with the parking breaking brake lever allowing me to drive without using the hydraulic system. I take the back roads over to pick up the new caliper, and we make it to my parent’s house a couple hours latter than we originally plan.
The caliper went on quickly. I remember how nervous I used to feel about working on brakes. I avoided disconnecting any brake lines on my Storm until one of its calipers locked up. With the caliper on and the line bleed I was ready to do the alignment on the wagon.
I had decided on 1.5° of negative camber in front, just a little negative camber in back and just slight toe-out front and back. I ran inside for a couple minutes to use the Calculator application in Windows to covert the camber degrees into measurements I could use on the 15” rims (~0.4”). The right wheel was measuring -0.25” and the left wheel was at -0.5”. So, I hadn’t set them too badly when I installed the struts. I had used camber bolts on the Storm so wiggling the slotted struts into the right position was a little more challenging. I got both near -0.4” of negative camber and then spent the rest of the night setting the toe. I didn’t even bother with getting the steering wheel centered.
We made it back home sometime after midnight with the car handling great. So much for getting to bed early for the long drive the next day.