manhours for front suspension rebuild?

When I did my 65 Dart a year or so ago, it was much elapsed time, so hard to say. Most of my time was spent wire-brushing rust and repainting. I had Carquest press in the bushings which wasn't cheap and I now have a shop press to do such at home. I have heard of shops ruining LCA's because they don't support them correctly when pressing.

You could spend hours/days trying to disconnect the ball joints if you don't know the tricks or have the right tools. The tough one is the lower ball joint into the LCA, since few pullers will fit in there. The FSM shows a special tool which is a "pusher bolt & nut" you jam in there and turn to push down on the ball joint stud. You might make one from hardware store parts. Next time, I'll try the "2 hammer method", which you can find on a Mustang site. With the suspension still assembled and the wheels hanging, so the torsion bar is helping pull down on the lower ball joint, and the stud nut loosened, strike the LCA end simultaneously on both sides with 2 hammers. It is supposed to make the metal oscillate enough that the ball joint stud just falls out. Of course, squirt WD-40 on it a day before. Sounds like that was a classic mechanics trick.

Make sure you get the strut rod bushings with the "improved design". When I got a PST kit decades ago, it had the one piece "original design" that you are supposed to squeeze thru the K-frame hole. You might spend hours on that and it is a crappy design since the frame cuts thru the rubber over time.

In my experience, the kits cost more than shopping around for indivdual parts, and often are lower quality. Original Moog parts are good, but newer Moog is mostly made in China or India. Check your parts before you buy. I re-used my upper ball joints and my steering linkage joints since they all seemed tight, but I did put on new polyurethane boots and removed all to de-rust and paint. You need a special socket to remove the upper ball joint, which is different for early ('72-, smaller) and later ('73+, larger) models. Many clueless shops have pressed them out and ruined a customer's UCA. They screw in. You can use a large pipe wrench, but it will scratch the paint.

Re alignment, search on the web for do-it-yourself (a jeep site). If your tires have straight tread it is easy to measure with a tape measure and set the toe-in, which is the most critical adjustment. I have done that on several cars and they drive perfectly, the steering wheel is straight, and no abnormal tire wear. It did take several iterations to perfect it, and keep notes about which way and how much to turn the tie rod adjusters or you will be at it all day. The car must be on the ground and the ride height adjusted first. Adjusting toe-in is mainly so you can drive safely to an alignment shop after a major rebuild. Camber you can do with a carpenter's level and it is an owner's preference (most incline the wheels in at the top more than FSM). Caster requires a shop or special tools. Most cars I adjusted (minivans) don't have a caster adjustment or I didn't touch it if they did (300D). On a Dart with radial tires, you need all the caster you can get (line thru ball joint centers in front of tire patch on road).