Full front suspension rebuild, or not?

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GoldSwinger71

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My new to me 71 Dart Swinger came with some very lovely alignment settings (ridiculous amount of negative camber.) I was thinking of just getting in front of things and do a complete suspension rebuild / replacement of rubber parts , as I plan to drive lots of miles on this baby.

I have had a few people tell me "Just get it aligned!" My concern is if I bring it in for an alignment, they'll tell me they can't do it because of worn parts and bits. If I do the complete rebuild, I can make sure I touch all the bolts and parts, inspect, and torque down all the pieces.

So what does a guy do with a freshly acquired car? Roll the dice with an alignment, or go whole hog and know you're set for many miles down the road?

Thanks!

Daniel
 
Lot of work & expense to replace parts that may not be bad. Take it to a shop you trust & get an estimate of what needs done. I replaced some of my stuff to get some new boots that weren’t cracked & leaking grease when the parts were probably not bad.
 
Why not inspect it yourself and determine what's wrong?
 
Alignment is around 40.00 here in California, comes with three month warranty you would be surprised just lowering and higher it your car on the torsion bars a couple of turn how that effects driving and feel of the steering wheel. Get it checked out
 
"ridiculous amounts" of negative camber isn't something that's super easy to achieve with all the stock components if they're in good working order. I would be suspicious of the LCA bushings right off the bat if all of the suspension stuff is stock. It would also indicate that the car is probably sitting a lot lower than it should be with stock parts. Torsion bar suspensions do change alignment geometry with ride height changes.

If trustworthy alignment shops were easier to come by I would say just take it in, but the fact of the matter is that most of the alignment shops out there don't have the foggiest idea of how to do a proper alignment on a musclecar era mopar. So unless you already have a shop you know and trust, my recommendation would be to spend some time inspecting it yourself first. Even if you're not super familiar with the suspension, a thorough inspection will at least give you an idea of what to expect when the alignment shop inspects it.

Also, be sure that any shop you take it to will do a non-stock alignment on the car. The factory alignment specs are for bias ply's, and they are completely wrong for radial tires. So, if you're running radials, give them this chart and see what they say. If they say they have to set the factory specs, go elsewhere because they don't know what they're talking about.

skosh-chart-gif-gif.gif
 
Would you be doing the rebuild? If so, crawl under and see what youve got already. :poke:
 
Would you be doing the rebuild? If so, crawl under and see what youve got already. :poke:

Once I have the carb rebuild done (this weekend hopefully!) I can put it up on a pair of ramps and get a better vantage point.

I would plan to do the work myself and then have an alignment shop set the adjustments.
 
If you are capable, I would get it up on jackstands or blocks, a hoist if you have one, and do a complete inspection of the front end to determine what you actually need. The idea of having a new, tight and solid front suspension is cheap peace of mind, especially when you plan to put a lot of miles on.
 
A quick visual will tell you what you need to do, (i.e. Hard/cracked rubber bushings) need replacement.

Maybe somebody out there can recommend a competent alignment tech in his area. 72blu nailed it, if you can locate someone that has experience with older style torsion bar suspension will be very helpful. They should be able to dial it in without much trouble so long as the componets are serviceable.
 
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How does the car handle now? Is it tight or loose driving down the road?

I'll say, I went through my entire suspension at the beginning of the year and also rebuilt the steering coupler. It's night and day difference driving it now. We have a couple old school alignment shops around so that was easy.
 
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If you want to go with all QUALITY and N.O.S. U.S.A. made parts -- I have everything brand new....
Once you know what you need , or if you want to go with everything complete -- I can help you....
Yours, Craig.....
I just noticed where you are from.... I bleed PURPLE..... SKOL VIKINGS !!!!!!!
 
Once I have the carb rebuild done (this weekend hopefully!) I can put it up on a pair of ramps and get a better vantage point.

I would plan to do the work myself and then have an alignment shop set the adjustments.

Ramps will show you nothing. You need it on jack stands. Put jack stands under the lower control arms. That way, the tires are in the air supporting no weight. If you would like PM me your number and I'll walk you right through how to inspect the entire front suspension. I am a retired alignment and suspension mechanic. I am just too damn lazy to type it all out.
 
Ramps will show you nothing. You need it on jack stands. Put jack stands under the lower control arms. That way, the tires are in the air supporting no weight. If you would like PM me your number and I'll walk you right through how to inspect the entire front suspension. I am a retired alignment and suspension mechanic. I am just too damn lazy to type it all out.
I didn't make it to retirement, I was worn out at 25 so I went to college. Used to do mopar t-bar suspension work all the time. Checking the parts is pretty straightforward -

Jack the car up, stick stands under the frame rails. First, make sure the wheel bearings are tight enough to eliminate any slop there. Next use a crowbar to lift up on the front tires. Feel any slop? Replace the ball joints. The top one is harder to replace so it is likely old and worn out. Go ahead and replace the lower one, it's easy to do. Or stick your head under there and watch what's moving to cause the slop, you'll be able to see it.

Then get under the car on your back, tug and pull the tie rod ends, idler arm, and the pitman arm (use the crowbar if needed) and again, just look for slop and replace what has it.

The bushings are all a visual inspection, if you see cracks or missing chunks, replace them.

Negative camber could be caused by the torsion bars set too low, or one or more parts in the ball joints or control arm bushings are worn slap out.

You will need special tools, or not so special tools and some luck, to work on the upper ball joints and the lower control arm bushings. I forget where I got mine - maybe US Car Tool? Not sure off the top of my head. Or you can find poly LCA bushings that slide in to the piece of the bushing that's hard to remove, but I really really really don't like those. There are two different sizes of ball joints so you need the right tool for your car.

If you end up pulling the LCAs out, go ahead and replace the strut rod bushings while it's apart.

I think that pretty much covers it. If your luck is anything like mine, everything is worn out or near to it.

That's my word allocation for the month. Apologies for any mistakes, working from memory here.


Good luck.
 
Just as a follow-up, every piece of rubber on the car is cracked. The car ended up having 145K miles on it. Not happy about that fact, but that's the deal.

I ordered a complete PST rubber kit, a front end rebuild tool kit, a pair of LCA stiffener plates, and I'll be getting a new electric impact wrench.

No need to wonder, just gonna do it all and put lots of miles on it!
 
No surprise that 145k miles is the reality, I doubt you'll regret the investment in piece of mind and safety.
 
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