Motoblag's '71 Duster
I keep forgetting to update this.
Despite talking about this exact piece, I still got the wrong idler arm:
A quick trip back to Firm Feel and I got the right one.
It goes here:
It went there.
$10 Harbor Freight torque wrench that does 150 ft/lbs and terrible things with adapters:
I have a not-embarrassing deadlift but I'll be damned if I could get the torque wrench to click for the upper balljoint so this happened:
All giddy about putting things together, I slam the torsion bar in, cut and pry out the old strut rod bushing in the kframe and work at reinstalling the lower control arm. Get everything in there with the new bushings and ran into a snag: the strut rod bushings I have are for '73+ cars. They are too thick for my year, which means the LCA doesn't sit forward enough in its mounts. This manifests itself with either the LCA pivot pin pulling out of its bushings if you've got bushings like mine or a suspension that binds and something-something-caster-is-worse.
From someone else on this forum: style I have up top, '73+ on bottom:
Note the spacing difference between the metal washers.
My LCA and strut rod after wrestling it out. The other bushing+washer is on my desk as I was researching what to do.
The strut rod is the only thing that should be keeping the LCA from sliding to the back of the car.
I had a quick phone chat with someone at Firm Feel and confirmed I've got the wrong strut rod bushings. I vaguely recall talking about these when I made my original order, so maybe I said the thicker ones are fine thinking I'd be buying different strut rods.
Instead of taking yet another trip up to Firm Feel for a swap of parts I ordered a set of Moog 7040 strut rod bushings from amazon that should fit my '71 strut rods.
Once that issue is taken care of I can complete reassembly of the passenger side and start on the driver's side.
I keep forgetting to update this.
Despite talking about this exact piece, I still got the wrong idler arm:
A quick trip back to Firm Feel and I got the right one.
It goes here:
It went there.
$10 Harbor Freight torque wrench that does 150 ft/lbs and terrible things with adapters:
I have a not-embarrassing deadlift but I'll be damned if I could get the torque wrench to click for the upper balljoint so this happened:
All giddy about putting things together, I slam the torsion bar in, cut and pry out the old strut rod bushing in the kframe and work at reinstalling the lower control arm. Get everything in there with the new bushings and ran into a snag: the strut rod bushings I have are for '73+ cars. They are too thick for my year, which means the LCA doesn't sit forward enough in its mounts. This manifests itself with either the LCA pivot pin pulling out of its bushings if you've got bushings like mine or a suspension that binds and something-something-caster-is-worse.
From someone else on this forum: style I have up top, '73+ on bottom:
Note the spacing difference between the metal washers.
My LCA and strut rod after wrestling it out. The other bushing+washer is on my desk as I was researching what to do.
The strut rod is the only thing that should be keeping the LCA from sliding to the back of the car.
I had a quick phone chat with someone at Firm Feel and confirmed I've got the wrong strut rod bushings. I vaguely recall talking about these when I made my original order, so maybe I said the thicker ones are fine thinking I'd be buying different strut rods.
Instead of taking yet another trip up to Firm Feel for a swap of parts I ordered a set of Moog 7040 strut rod bushings from amazon that should fit my '71 strut rods.
Once that issue is taken care of I can complete reassembly of the passenger side and start on the driver's side.