I would replace the front end bushing with a bronze or Oilite bushing. Your local machine shop can turn these out fairly cheap. The bushings are carrying about 50% of the total load (weight) of the Pulse and the loads are increased when braking is applied. Using rubber, Teflon or any similar type material will pound out in a very short time and created steering problems. As with other Pulse problems the factory design was not always the best solution.
Bob Cervero....Pulse #61.
My calipers are from a 1983-1987 Renault Alliance. The pad stock number is MD218.
Don Muddiman
Disk Brake Caliper: 1987 AMC Alliance (Passenger Side) - AutoZone P/N C945
Disk brake calipers are the same front and back.
Note: Somewhere between Pulse #142 and #147, OMCC switched from coil-over shocks to air shocks.
Outrigger adjustments
by: Bob Cervero 06/07/03
If you have coil over shocks you will have to have someone of about your weight sit in the Pulse while you do the same adjustments. Remember, with coil overs you don't have the ability to fine tune the ride height as you go down the road. It will be a compromise.If you ALWAYS ride alone then you can set the ride height as described. If you often have a passenger, you will have to adjust the ride a little higher as a compromise. It's not hard to add air shocks to the rear only. That solves the compromise problem. Think about it. No matter what,it will probably take a couple of tries to find the best heighth. Caution: When adjusting the turnbuckles be sure to leave at least 1 1/2 inches of threaded section inside the turnbuckles!! Too little and they may break! Not good. If you find that too little thread is left in the turnbuckles then you need to adjust the inside turnbuckle that is located under the rear seat to get the additional adjustment you need.
Dave Bauer #167
Dan Marks stated that his Pulse got very unstable at about 100mph. Mine had the same problem.
This is due to the shock setup. I replaced my rear shocks with coil over shocks used on street
rods and solved this problem. The vehicle is much more stable both at high speeds and on turns.
I took mine up to 140 mph with no problems.
John Leonard.......
RUNNING GEAR: The suspension is basically comprised
of Gabriel automotive type air shock absorbers mounted
on front and rear swing arms.
Don Muddiman
Air-Shocks: Gabriel P/N 729733 - AutoZone P/N 49212
Gabriel Shock length compressed 13 1/4" Extended 20
Not all Pulses use the Gabriel shocks.
From what I can tell they started using the Gabriels around Pulse # 189
Pulses approximately before S/N 189 used Monroe 575 Shocks (Coiled Overload Shocks).
Gabriels will not work in place of the Monroe shocks unless you relocate the shock mounts on the Pulse. This would require cutting and welding. The Monroes are shorter in height than the Gabriels Also the Gabriel shock mounting bushing will have to be cut to length to fit the Pulse shock mounts.
According to Bob Hichborn.......
Name of automobile - Horizon Omni
Year - 1979 - 1990
OE size - 13 x 5
Bolt - 4 x 100
Lug Nut - 12mm x 1.5
CB (center bore) - 57.1
Offset - +40
This spec is also found on the Chevette and Audi Fox 1976 - 1984
The 1988 - 1993 Pontiac Lemans matches this spec except the wheel width is 5.5 instead of 5.0. So it may fit, depending on your shock/tire clearance.
I'm in the process of verifying this info, by finding some of these vehicles. I also noticed that with the original tire/wheel/and hub, that the distance between the tire and springs is not equal on both sides. This means that the wheel mounting plate on the hub was off by about 1/4 inch when first designed, but never fixed. If anyone gets a chance, try making this measurement and see if my evaluation holds on other Pulses.
Several owners have different ideas on changing the front tire. Read and print off.
Change Front Tire.....Steve Schmidt
******Jack up front end....just behind front tire
******Remove two cotter pins on front axel. 'LOOSEN' all nuts. (NOT SHOCKS) Even the four lug nuts on the rim. When everything is loose, remove brake rotor. 4 Lug Nuts must be loose to get the rotor off. Use a bungee to hold rotor from breaking brake line.
******Carefully remove 4 bolts in each of two end blocks on forks. Its a good idea to have help holding the tire to when removing tire because of the weight and to slip off the speedo head which is fragile.
******When replacing wheel, make sure that you are very carefull with bearings and that the speedo head lines up with the metal ring with the tabs on it.....or your speedometer will not work.
******Loosely tighten all bolts and nuts. Replace brake rotor and tighten. Then tighten the two large axel nuts until the will not rotate and then back them off. Tighten eight bolts on the end blocks. Then tighten 4 lug nuts. Replace cotter pins.
Front Tire Change......Steve George
If the tire looks questionable at all or even suspect, worn it wouldnt be a bad idea to change it and save the future grief of changing on the road sometime. I changed both of mine even though the Odometer showed 19 miles.
First go buy a good sissor jack and a couple of towels (folded) to put on it jack right behind the wheel on the body where the frame tube is covered with fiberglass, use another jack or ramp to steady the outrigger.
Get the Pulse up in the air, remove the lower shock bolt to lower the wheel even further and remove the wheel axel, brake, and wheel.
When placing the wheel back on, what I did was put the assembly back together, then lowered the machine back down until the shock/spring bolts lined up and then put them in.
While your wheel is off check the head bolts up inside they are the one that attach the front steering to the frame. These have come loose on mine and I have had to safty wire them.
Steve Cole
I just thought I would share the procedure I use to remove the front wheel on my 1986 pulse #195. Using this procedure the wheel comes off in about 8 minutes without disconnecting the brake system hydraulics. (Left and right are from drivers orientation.)
1. Place jack under vehicle and lower air shocks all the way. This limits the travel of the wheel when the Pulse is raised preventing the speedometer cable from being stretched excessively, I learned this the hard way.
2. Raise Pulse until just before the wheel leaves the ground, remove the lug nuts that hold the wheel to the hub, Pull the wheel to the right side away from the brake rotor. If wheel rotates while breaking loose the lug nuts, lower vehicle a small amount. Moving the wheel first eliminates the need to disconnect the brake lines.
3. Remove the brake caliper mounting bolts They go directly through the brake caliper into the caliper bracket, slide the caliper off of the rotor and lay aside, leave brake lines attached, do not touch the brake pedal after caliper has been removed, support if required to prevent brake line damage. Mine lays on the ground with ample slack in the line.
4. Remove the two brake caliper bracket bolts. They go through the swing arm just behind the axle nut.
5. Remove the cotter pins from both axle nuts and remove axle nuts.
6. Put wheel back on studs and replace a lug nut hand tight. This will keep the hub and bearing assembly from falling during the next step.
7. Raise Pulse until the wheel just clears the ground.
8. Remove swingarm cap bolts and caps. paying attention to their orientation. May require seperating caps with a screwdriver or light tapping with a hammer. Cap on right side has eyebolt welded to it to hold speedo cable so cap will not com off all the way, just move it far enough to clear the axle.
9. Pull the wheel and axle forward toward front out of swing arm, lower wheel to the ground, remove spacer and speedometer drive off of axle. Lowering vehicle may help removing spedometer drive if cable is too tight, by allowing wheel to raise into Pulse. I find this to be easier than lifting the wheel.
10. Remove lug nut from wheel and withdraw hub from wheel, hold axle in hub from the left side as it will fall out from the left side, with the left bearing and could get damaged. You can also just raise vehicle and remove wheel and axle as one piece. Keep in mind the axle and left bearing can fall out on the left side if not held, or removed right side down.
11. Wheel can be pulled out from under vehicle.
12. When reassembling, a "C" clamp may be required to compress the brake caliper. I haven't figured out how to determine the correct amount to tighten the right axle nut, this one controls how tight the bearings are, if it is too loose they will turn on the axle and damage it, if too tight the bearings and or cups could be damaged.
The method I use is....reassemble everything, tighten the swingarm caps making sure the speedo drive and spacer are fully pressed against the bearing. The spacer on mine does not extend enough for the nut to put pressure directly on it, I think that would work better, but I tighten the nut against the swingarm, which is clamped down on the spacer, which in turn pushes the speedo drive into the bearing.
Tighten the left axle nut. Tighten the right axle nut as previously mentioned rotating the wheel until the seal/bearing stops spinning with the wheel these should stay stationary.
Changing the Front Tire................ Bob Hichborn
On a motorcycle, you would have an axle with a nut on one side. First remove the nut, then pull the axle thru the wheel hub, which allows the tire/wheel to be taken somewhere for tire replacement.
On the Pulse, you loosen the nuts on both sides, but then remove the 4 smaller bolts that attach the axle clamps. Once they are off the wheel/tire drops down. Be careful not to let the speedometer cable to get pulled out, if the tire should suddenly drop from any distance. You may or maynot have to remove the brake caliper to get the wheel/tire assembly out.
At this point you can remove the 4 nuts that hold the tire to the "hub" (the part that houses the bearings and also attaches to the rotor.)