Lower Control Arm Question

[chargers_r_us]

I have the engine removed from my 73 Charger Se. I am getting many front end parts! I am putting new torsion bars on it, and I noticed the bushings where the torsion bars go into the front are real bad. Can the bushings be changed, or will I need a new lower control arm? If they can be changed, how is it done? Thanks for your help! Summer is coming and I want to get this car on the road!

[John_Kunkel]

The lower control arm bushing can be replaced, it's about the most difficult of the front end bushings to change. Everybody seems to have their own trick for getting the old one out, after it's removed it's a simple matter of pressing in the new one. A book helps.

[Mike DC]

Yes they can be changed, and DEFINITELY do it!  (In fact that's a common spot for the K-frame itself to tear from metal fatigue.  Check the sidewall of the K-frame at the tube for the LCA shaft to slide into.  Re-weld and gusset as necessary.)


The LCA doesn't need to be replaced.  It's a serviceable item.  

Just take out the torsion bars first.  They slide backwards out behind the crossmember after a little locking ring has been removed from the rear hex mount.  DON'T SCRATCH THE TORSION BARS CLAMPING ONTO THEM or the bars may grow a crack there and eventually break.  There are some specialized tools out there made just to clamp onto these Mopar torsion bars for removal.  

Then the LCA comes off with the obvious couple of nuts & bolts.  


The mounting shaft rides in a rubber bushing, which rides inside the LCA.  Press out the shaft (may need a shop for this), and replace the rubber bushing.  (I would NOT use poly on this bushing even if I had used poly everywhere else on the whole car.  Remember the metal-fatigue issue I described above?  Poly ain't exactly gonna help that.)

[tricky lugnuts]

I pulled my lower control arms out and took them to the local machine shop to push out the old bushings and press in the new bushings. They charged $20 per lower control arm to do that and weld up a couple small cracks. That was $40 out of my pocket, but hundreds of dollars less than a local front end shop wanted for the work.

That's the real job, getting the bushings in and out. Everything else is just bolts. Might want to do strut rod bushings too, while you're taking everything else apart, and new torsion bar seals with grease, too, if yours are worn. Of course, MAKE SURE you torque everything up back to spec.

[Skitsbox]

Do any of yall happen to know where I can buy the bushings where the torsion bar goes into the lower control arm. I have had a tough time finding them? They did not come with my suspension rebuild kit.

[HDCharger]

They come in most kits!  I have changed many of them with a cheap hydraulic press.  If you do not have access to one take them to a reputable place you trust.  My first time doing this I carried it to a shop that didn't have a clue and they bent my LCA and then used a torch to burn out the bushing.  Hydraulic press using a socket or equivalent the right size works good.   Careful with the press and pressure, things like to shoot across the shop.