73 Duster Lower Control arm question

[SpeedRacer62]

Guys,

I'm working on a father/son project, a 73 Duster. My son always wanted a Duster so we found a nice clean driver and we've started to fix her up so that my son would have a safe and reliable first car.

We're going to convert from drum to disc on the front so we decided to replace all front end components. I'm a Chevy guy so all this Mopar stuff is brand new to me. I have a few questions for you guys about the lower control arms and the mounting pin/shaft. We've removed the old lower control arm bushings (and sleeve) from the lower control arms and pressed in new MOOG rubber bushings. The old pin/shafts that goes thru the K member and is bolted on the front side of the K had a sleeve on the control arm side that was from the old bushing. We cut that sleeve off and cleaned up the pin/shaft (is there another name for this?)

My question is this...the pin/shaft does NOT go into the new bushing very easily. It will go on because I used my press to push it in just a quarter inch or so just to see if it would go. Is this normal? Do I need to press this pin/shaft into the lower control arm bushing first, then mount the arm into the K frame?

I'd appreciate your comments!

 

[doug 371]

yes...

 

[Snake]

From what I remember,the pin gets pressed into the bushing first than the bushing & pin gets pressed into the lower controll arm.I hope your replacing the strut rod bushings also.Good luck.

 

[gregpurcell]

I call that part the lower control arm pivot. It presses into the bushing. It needs to be so tight that the shaft cannot turn in the bushing when you tighten the bolt down. Good Luck!