Green69rt's suspension, steering column. fuel tank

[green69rt]

I'm starting to accumulate the parts for the suspension and first thing I ran into is that rubber bushings for the leaf springs seem to be hard to come by, especially the front bushing (1 1/2".)  I looked at PST, Just suspensions, FFI, Mancini and others, all polyurathane.   I've read all the threads I could about the pros/cons and decided to stick with rubber.  Now where will I find them?  I even dropped by the local O'Reilly Auto Parts and all they have is poly!


Edit: found front bushings on Megaparts;  $35/each!!  Do they really cost this much?  Doesn't say if poly or rubber, fingers crossed.

[Dino]

As I recall, poly is used on the leaf springs even if you buy a rubber kit because it takes the sideways load better.  If everything else is rubber, you'd still have a cushy ride. 

Someone please correct me if I'm making stuff up again.

[green69rt]

I called megaparts and they said the front bushing that they offer is rubber. 

We'll see when I get it, it's ordered.

[HPP]

O'Reilly offers rubber fronts and rears. JC Whitney has em. Rock Auto should have em. Didja check your local Dodge dealer as well?

[green69rt]

O'Reilly offers rubber fronts and rears. JC Whitney has em. Rock Auto should have em. Didja check your local Dodge dealer as well?

I asked O'Reilly and all the guy turned up were poly.   Didn't think about JC Whitney.  Anyway I found some and they are coming.

[fy469rtse]

 
oh my god , Mitch , back on its own wheels again, soon

[green69rt]

Edit: found front bushings on Megaparts;  $35/each!!  Do they really cost this much?  Doesn't say if poly or rubber, fingers crossed.

Well, the bushings came in and they were rubber and it turns out they are only $35/pair.   That's more reasonable, (I sent the extra pair back.)

[green69rt]

Been doing a little bit of shopping for front end parts.  Found the TB adjuster blocks but $82 for a pair of blocks of steel and two bolts seems excessive but that was Mancini price  (Y1 was $100!! )  Found them at JUSTSUSPENSION for $7.78 each.  When I find that much difference I start to worry about the quality of the low priced part.  Anyone got any experience??

[fy469rtse]

Run a tap through you old ones, a fair amount of thread to hold bolt, I've never seen one with thread pulled out , but will clean up threads easily,
I saw the same Mitch and wondered how bad mine were , little bit of work and my time , that was all
Geoff

[green69rt]

Run a tap through you old ones, a fair amount of thread to hold bolt, I've never seen one with thread pulled out , but will clean up threads easily,
I saw the same Mitch and wondered how bad mine were , little bit of work and my time , that was all
Geoff

Yeah, I have come to the same conclusion, run a tap down the threads, wire brush the bolt and be done with it.  The actual piece looks ok and the threads, that I can see, are really sharp looking so I will reuse them. 

[fy469rtse]

Sorry Mitch , didn't see that you had replied
But get new top arm arm bolts,with offset washes for caster camber adjustment,
there the ones that seem to fatigue ,

[green69rt]

Sorry Mitch , didn't see that you had replied
But get new top arm arm bolts,with offset washes for caster camber adjustment,
there the ones that seem to fatigue ,

Haven't got close to that point yet but never fear, the old cm washers and bolts were in such bad shape that there's no way I would use on the car.  By the way, I've got all the parts to put the rear end under the car ( got them and then remembered I don't have any tires .)  But I am starting to accumulate front end parts.  I've been checking out the various UCAs.  Seems like there are 3 choices, stock stamped steel, welded tubular and the fancy tubular with the funny attachment points ( I think they are called Heim joints  .)  Got any advice, opinion, warnings?

[fy469rtse]

Helm joints I don't like , race item , unless you can put boots on them to protect the actual joint,
I like I think there from hoskist ? Tubular uppers , rubber or nolathane bushes, nice looking gussets to these
No spacers , to upper bolt's
That's another thing I don't like about helm joint's
Wide bushings, the loads over a bigger area then the helm joints
What I like, stronger lighter, able to do wheel alignment with a lot more caster already built in
My next purchase with I think the torsion bars bill on here used
1.03 diameter with I end hex on bars indexed a further 20 degrees,
I have .96's in Mitch ,
Not enough mainly because I have it down lower than factory ride height
These will allow me to have it down low with bars already under load even with the adjusters not even done up yet
Haven't driven one in four years building this car , maybe I just have get used to her,
But I don't think I'm finished yet

[green69rt]

So beginning on the leaf springs, got a rebuilt set (curtesy of CDR, thanks Charlie.) of RT springs with 7 leaves on one set and 6 on the other (pic #1.)

Took them to a local mechanic shop to get the front bushings removed and the the new ones pressed into the eye, they said the old ones were pretty much rusted up but they came out (pic #2.)

The rear bushing were long gone and the eyes were a mess of old bushing material and rust (pic #3.)

Took after the rear bushing with a brake cylinder hone (pic #4.)

[green69rt]

Ok, got the rear suspension installed (except for shocks.)  Not really that hard, just a lot of crawling around on the floor.

Pic #1 is the rear end assembly ready to slide under.  I guess you have the choice of connecting the shackles, etc to the springs first, I chose to mount them to the car.   All new bolts, shackles and bushings.

Pic #2 installed, now just need tires and lug nuts.

Pic #3 I saved the old tires that came with the car, after setting outside for 6 years, they still hold air!!  Had to go to Autozone to get some new lug nuts,  Got home and I had forgotten that this car had left hand threads on the left side lugs
Rooted around in my parts till I found four of the old nuts so it worked out.

Pic #4 I built up a temporary K member so I could mount some wheels on the front.  Now it rolls around again.  Next steps are to put the doors hood and fenders back on and see if the body is still straight and everything still fits.

[fy469rtse]

looking good Mitch,

[green69rt]

I keep nibbling away!

[cdr]

awesome 

[green69rt]

awesome 

Thanks, in part, to you Charlie.

[mopar4don]

It's great to see progress! Even if it is a little at a time.
Cause in the end it all adds up. 

[Mike DC]

  
I'm not necessarily against splicing subframe rails, but that joint could use some plating to reinforce it.  Remember it needs to hold up during a wreck as well as just driving around.  

[green69rt]

 
I'm not necessarily against splicing subframe rails, but that joint could use some plating to reinforce it.  Remember it needs to hold up during a wreck as well as just driving around.  

What you can't see is the sleeve that I put inside the rail.   These rails were bought before AMD or anybody else came out with the full versions so that's all I had.  I think I bought them though Dante's.   I felt the same way as you just mentioned, I wanted to make that connection as strong as the rest of the rail.  The new piece came with a flange so you could insert it in the old piece and weld it in place.  I did that and welded it inside and out.   Then I took a small length of old scrap rail, cut about a 6 inch section out, fit it inside the new stuff.  Drilled a few holes so I could weld through the patch then welded every edge and hole that I could find.  I was trying to make the joint as strong as possible.   Hope I did enough..

[Mike DC]

 
Sounds like you covered it.   


I've driven around for years on a spliced Mopar subframe before.  Its not a big deal if done right.  Not on these old cars. 

But with modern cars it's another story.  Now everything is designed-to-the-hilt for crumpling in just the perfect fashion, they use HS steel, etc.  Modern cars are car liable to be worse off for it even if you make the joint stronger than original.

[green69rt]

 
Sounds like you covered it.   


I've driven around for years on a spliced Mopar subframe before.  Its not a big deal if done right.  Not on these old cars. 

But with modern cars it's another story.  Now everything is designed-to-the-hilt for crumpling in just the perfect fashion, they use HS steel, etc.  Modern cars are car liable to be worse off for it even if you make the joint stronger than original.

I thought about what you said and I can see how things are different.  Today's cars are designed to have every little part take a little of the collision force so if you make one stronger then the balance is upset.  Don't really know but sounds good doesn't it??

[green69rt]

Got the LCA's blasted, reinforcement plates added and new bushings.   Then I painted them with cosmoline.  If I was doing it again, I think they would just get powder coated or painted black.  I used Resto Rick's spray.   If you don't need absolute original detail then I don't recommend cosmoline.   It's sticky, gooey and it never gets hard or dries.  I can imagine that if it is installed that it will pick up every piece of road dirt that hits it.   I followed a thread on here and painted over the cosmoline with clear Rustoleum and that seemed to help, at least it's not sticky anymore.  But the coating is pretty fragile.  I set the LCAs on my workbench and the clear got a little scatched up just from setting.

Pic of LCAs below.