Finally working on the front end of my 70

[johnnycharger]

Hi All,
I am finally starting to replace some of my worn out steering components so that I can drive the car this summer. As always I am battling distractions and scope creep. So far I have pressure washed the wheel wells and linkage , sprayed rust reformer on all of the metal that didn't have undercoating,  topcoated the undercoating just for a little more protection and aesthetics.
I have new front tires installed (the old ones had belts showing only on the far inside).


Parts I have purchased so far:


Rebuilt upper control arms
Moog 11/16 tie rod ends
Solid 11/16 sleeves
Moog lower ball joints

Center caps for my rims

Pickle fork kit

Rust Prevention Magic

Evaporust

Camero spoiler(lol)


Parts I still need:
Pitman arm
Strut bushings
Torsion bars?
Special tools?


Some before pics:

I am hoping to get started on the meat of it this weekend.....

[johnnycharger]

After spraying. I will do more once the shock and UCA are out.

[pipeliner]

You didn't mention your LCA,s. You going to rebuild them also? Sway arm bushings? Did you put the offset bushings in your UCA,s? My passenger side T- bar is weak so I'm replacing them with newer stronger T-bars. How's your steering box? Be a good time to put a Borgeson in it lol. I'm not a master mechanic but I did all of the work myself without special tools except for I'm thinking pressing the bushings out and in. Maybe a good time for new Timken bearings and pack with good wheel bearing grease.

[JR]

Nice work, youll be glad you did it.

Don't forget lower control arm bushings.

If you are going to completely disassemble the front end, I'd go on and box the LCAs with flat steel, and box in the steering gearbox mounting area on your k frame while you're at it.

Also, if you're going to buy a new pitman and idler arm anyways, and you're still running stock manifolds, you can upgrade to quick ratio pitman arm and increase your steering ratio speed to 14 to 1 (I believe).

Of course, you have to be running stock manifolds to fit them, but if you are, and you have to buy replacements anyway...

[johnnycharger]

You didn't mention your LCA,s. You going to rebuild them also? Sway arm bushings? Did you put the offset bushings in your UCA,s? My passenger side T- bar is weak so I'm replacing them with newer stronger T-bars. How's your steering box? Be a good time to put a Borgeson in it lol. I'm not a master mechanic but I did all of the work myself without special tools except for I'm thinking pressing the bushings out and in. Maybe a good time for new Timken bearings and pack with good wheel bearing grease.

I haven't figured out the lowers yet. Probably do need work as well. The UCAs have regular bushings in them. I could use a new steering box but a Borgeson is out of my reach.

[johnnycharger]

Nice work, youll be glad you did it.

Don't forget lower control arm bushings.

If you are going to completely disassemble the front end, I'd go on and box the LCAs with flat steel, and box in the steering gearbox mounting area on your k frame while you're at it.

Also, if you're going to buy a new pitman and idler arm anyways, and you're still running stock manifolds, you can upgrade to quick ratio pitman arm and increase your steering ratio speed to 14 to 1 (I believe).

Of course, you have to be running stock manifolds to fit them, but if you are, and you have to buy replacements anyway...

Thank you.
Yup. I am sure the LCAs will need work. I have watched the PST videos of welding the plates in I just am unsure if the benefit is worth the money. I don't have a welder.
I really like the idea of the fast ratio arms but I do have hedman headers.

[johnnycharger]

More pictures before I start....

[Kern Dog]

The lower bump stop on the drivers side is missing!
Too bad you are not just down the street. I love welding stuff! I welded up all the seams on my K member, filled in the gaps around the steering box mounts, welded in frame connectors and torque boxes and added my own plates to the bottoms of the LCAs. The plates theoretically reduce distortion in the LCA that occurs in extreme cornering.
I don't have a shop press so I usually take my stuff in to my local NAPA machine shop guy. He hot tanks or bead blasts the parts first then replaces the bushings. It is usually done in the afternoon if I drop stuff off in the morning.
Good luck!

[johnnycharger]

Good spotting! I wish you were! I am thinking about getting one of them Harbor Freight welders....

[johnnycharger]

Used Evaporust and RPM on my rear drums . Thanks Birdsandbees I learned about these products from your resto thread.

First picture is before RPM. I didn't  take one before evaporust.

[johnnycharger]

Well I have finally started doing some of the work. Unfortunately one of my items isnt threaded correctly. I believe my ES352R is reverse threaded and ahould not be.

[johnnycharger]

I called Moog and they confirmed it was wrong so now I will wait for the replacement.

[bakerhillpins]

So I rebuilt the entire front end on my 69 last year and it was a LOT of work but in the end it was WELL worth the effort. Few things that caught me and other suggestions:

Replace the rubber in the sway bar bushings. You can't replace the full bushings, buy the rubber/poly ones and cut off the metal mount. Put in the new bushing and weld back up. It's super easy and much faster. Just wrap the bushing in a soaked towel to keep from melting it while welding. Also spend the time bending the brackets back to correct mounts/angles BEFORE you replace the bushing if they are boogered up. Mine are bent all funky, i forgot to correct them, and I've tried to get them straight but it's not going well/quickly. I need to take them off again and get it worked out first.  (Whoops, brain working slower than hands here... you have a 70 so the complete bushings are are available aftermarket)

Replace the LCA bushings.. This can be a bit tricky if you haven't done it before. If you have the FSM follow the instructions as they know what they are doing. Read them 3x and then start. Trust me from experience... Press out the inner bushings first, then cut out the rubber, and then cut out the outer sleeve. I suspect you will want to replace the T-bars too. When I took out my bars I found that one was a RT and the other a 383 bar. the 383 bar was so over twisted it was actually bent to a curl at one end.

The replacement UCAs I bought are total and complete GARBAGE. I got into a jam and didn't get time to rebuild my OEM ones. That will happen this year because the new ones don't fit correctly (ball joint not seating down far enough) and are actually just ever so slightly nicking the balancing weights.

The only special tool I needed was the socket for the upper ball joint. A bud had one so I used it. I think summit racing has them for like $20. Summit also has T-bars with OEM numbering on them for L/R. I went up one size on my R/T to .96 IIRC.

Don't tighten the LCA nuts in the Air. These need tightened under suspension load.  Another problem caused by not paying attention when reading.

If you have access to a lift it's going to make life a LOT easier.

[johnnycharger]

Thank you Bakerhilpins. This is good info. The kind I need. The LCAs do seem intimidating.  I have ordered the plates to weld on like JR suggested. I have bought a HF unit and have been putting in some hours practicing.

[bakerhillpins]

Oh, another tid bit I wish I knew before I went after the LCAs.  Sometimes when you push out the LCA shaft it takes the inner bushing sleeve with it. I spent probably an hour pissing around trying to carefully cut it off. A while back in a DC.com thread I noted that someone posted up a cool solution to the problem. They said to cut threads onto the bushing sleeve stuck on the shaft. Then twist on a nut and then have the press push on the nut to pull the sleeve off the shaft.  Sounds like a LOT less work.

Also, expect to have to go out and buy/cut some tubing to make press tools to get at the individual bushing elements. You can get some good ideas by using google to search DC.com... "site:www.dodgecharger.com LCA bushing remove" for example.

[johnnycharger]

Ok I may have more questions on this later when I get to this part. I'm not quite wrapping my head around it.

[Kern Dog]

I always defer to the guys at my nearby NAPA store and machine shop for my press work. For $20 each, they press the junk out and the good stuff back in....Also the man soaks the parts in the hot tank and they come back clean!
I wish I could be there to help out. I love this sort of stuff. I'm just so busy with work, I don't have much free time.

[bakerhillpins]

Ok I may have more questions on this later when I get to this part. I'm not quite wrapping my head around it.

Not a problem. It all starts to make more sense when you actually pull everything apart.

I'm subscribed to this thread so I'll get an email if there is a post and do my best to get back to you in a timely fashion! 

[johnnycharger]

Thank you guys I really appreciate it . I will definitely check with the local machine shop first just to save some of the headache. 
Amazon sent me the correct tie rod end.  They even included a spare. I called them and they said to just keep it. Next part ordered will be the pitman arm. I would like the fast ratio one but I have Hedman headers.