Fuselage front suspension rebuild

[pmschmitt]

i am starting this thread for encouragement as well as technical support as I have jumped head first into completely rebuilding the front suspension on my 1969 Chrysler 300 and at the same time upgrading the front drum brakes to 1973 spindles and discs.

I would thank commando1 for his very complete front end rebuild thread which you can find a link to below

Front end rebuild - complete.

I would also like to thank zymurgy as it is also a very complete post that you can find here:

Rebuilding the entire front end.

I ended up choosing a PST front suspension kit and steering kit that included inner outer tie rods leaves and a new pitman and idler arm. These were not cheap by any means but I wanted to do it ALL at once to minimize wrench time ... So I hope.

 

[polara71]

Very nice car...

You'll be fine. When I did my first front end 30 years ago I didn't know I needed a special socket for the upper ball joints but I figured it out. At 18 or 19 you don't know much.... I certainly didn't

 

[pmschmitt]

The tear down as described by other authors was daunting but once it had begun went quite smooth. The best example of how in my opinion is found on zymurgy's thread by saylor. I took other authors advice and purchased a torsion bar tool from eBay and a tie rod separator tool from my local auto parts store.

I was fortunate enough to have an air impact and my brother in town this weekend, but unfortunately no lift

There was a lot of Greece and road grime caked under that suspension since 1969

The work continued into the night, but a few cold beers kept us going until we had it completely stripped

 

[polara71]

That right there is a sense of accomplishment. After that progress its hard to go to bed

 

[pmschmitt]

Haha yup it was kind of an o **** moment.... No going back now!

In the autopsy of the suspension parts I think I found why the car would pull to the left while breaking. Below is the lower control arm bushing from the drivers side

 

[pmschmitt]

Pic of BIG RED between 2 Chevys. She always gets the most attention when our car club goes cruising. Haha drives the bow tie guys crazy.

 

[saylor]

wow dude thanks for the props, and I too used the same threads you referenced to do the same.

you are gonna love it when its done

 

[pmschmitt]

I am cleaning up and painting some parts today and got to looking at my old struts. Do these spacers look correct or do they need to be replaced? They are identical on both sides, but just seem a bit odd. I only received rubber bushings for the struts in the PST kit no spacers or sleeves. All help appreciated

 

[pmschmitt]

I need some help I am 90% complete on the front end rebuild and disc brake conversion with 73 spindles.

My problem.. I do not have a 73 FSM and am trying to remeber how these pads and calipers and anti rattle clip go together ...looked up pics online but nothing was very helpful.. If anyone has pics or can walk me through it I would appreciate it. Does the wire clip go on the inside of the caliper? Very confused.

 

[SF-66TC]

I am cleaning up and painting some parts today and got to looking at my old struts. Do these spacers look correct or do they need to be replaced? They are identical on both sides, but just seem a bit odd. I only received rubber bushings for the struts in the PST kit no spacers or sleeves. All help appreciatedView attachment 72294View attachment 72295

The sleeves slide off the rod and yours definitely need to be replaced. Unfortunately when you order new strut rod bushings they don't come with sleeves. It was suggested by 330dTA to buy the ones from rareparts @ Rare Parts Online Catalog Diamond Series RP15450 Unlike the Moog brand, these include washers and upgraded sleeves.

Steven

 

[SF-66TC]

I need some help I am 90% complete on the front end rebuild and disc brake conversion with 73 spindles.

My problem.. I do not have a 73 FSM and am trying to remeber how these pads and calipers and anti rattle clip go together ...looked up pics online but nothing was very helpful.. If anyone has pics or can walk me through it I would appreciate it. Does the wire clip go on the inside of the caliper? Very confused. View attachment 73441 View attachment 73439View attachment 73440

Looks like you're missing the spring clips for the pins. Here's a photo of what they look like installed.

BTW, I did not install those wire rattle springs - really don't need them, but the spring clips you're missing retains pressure on the pins to keep them from vibrating loose. The clips usually come with the conversion parts, but apparently yours didn't. You can find them on ebay and are pretty costly, but they know they got you by the kuhunas. Maybe you can find someone who has a set of 4.

1969 70 71 72 73 74 MoPar Caliper HARDWARE PKG Cuda Road Runner 300 Charger R/T

Steven

 

[SF-66TC]

Haha yup it was kind of an o **** moment.... No going back now!

In the autopsy of the suspension parts I think I found why the car would pull to the left while breaking. Below is the lower control arm bushing from the drivers side
View attachment 72265

This might be a little late since your last photo shows the LCA installed. Anyway, here's the write-up I got from 330dTA that I used to replace the LCA bushings. I didn't have a welder so I brought mine to a suspension shop, gave them the instructions and had them replace them. They charged an hour which was totally worth it to me. Replacing Front Suspension's Lower Control-Arm Bushing - Mopar Muscle Magazine - Steven

Photo of Washers welded on the sleeve to press them out. The shop said the write up was perfect because it took a lot of pressure to press the sleeves out. It's hard to see because of the angle, but the sleeve on the left where there is hardly any weld bead... the washer itself started to budge outward and separate due to the amount of pressure it took to press them out.

 

[pmschmitt]

Thanks for all the input. I will look into the caliper clips. I was reading another forum that said they never used the caliper clips onthe pins? I did not have any on the complete set of 73 spindles from Murray park. I have bled the brakes but not road tested yet as my firm feel stage 2 box arrived today. Hoping to be on the road by tomorrow pm.

I have already installed the struts without new sleeves .

 

[SF-66TC]

Thanks for all the input. I will look into the caliper clips. I was reading another forum that said they never used the caliper clips onthe pins? I did not have any on the complete set of 73 spindles from Murray park. I have bled the brakes but not road tested yet as my firm feel stage 2 box arrived today. Hoping to be on the road by tomorrow pm.

I have already installed the struts without new sleeves .

I'd say if you were able to use the old sleeves that would have been fine. Yeah, there's alot of folks who don't use either clips or rattle springs. I figured there was a reason for them - to keep the applied pressure to the pins so they wouldn't work themselves out, but I guess if you put some lock-tite on the threads it should also be fine.

Let me know how the Stage-2 box feels. I drove a friends Coronet with a Stage-3 and wanted to get that, but Dick at Firm Feel highly suggested against it. He said he's driven a C-body with all 3 stages and thought the Stage-1 was the best for a C-body so I went with it. I'll take the car out on the road Sat and see how it feels. I did pull it out of the garage into the drive way and it was a little bit firmer than OEM, but I'm thinking I should have gone with a Stage-2. But since I installed FF's Tubular Upper Control Arms that should help out too.

 

[pmschmitt]

Success. Got the new steering box in and all the new brake hardware etc installed.
Firm feel box 2 is much stiffer than stock... Kinda hard to get used to it since I am so used to the feather deal of the old box.
The suspension floats like a dream and the PST sway bar is a great addition. Now I just need to get it aligned.

Question. I put on new break rotors and new pads and calipers with the 73 disc upgrade. when breaking the car seems to not have any real grab power. I bled the brakes but they don't jolt me to a stop. Is this because the need to break in? I did not put a metering valve in. There is a distribution valve but I have not looked to see if it has adjustment. I do have a power disc brake master cylinder.

 

[SF-66TC]

Success. Got the new steering box in and all the new brake hardware etc installed.
Firm feel box 2 is much stiffer than stock... Kinda hard to get used to it since I am so used to the feather deal of the old box.
The suspension floats like a dream and the PST sway bar is a great addition. Now I just need to get it aligned.

Question. I put on new break rotors and new pads and calipers with the 73 disc upgrade. when breaking the car seems to not have any real grab power. I bled the brakes but they don't jolt me to a stop. Is this because the need to break in? I did not put a metering valve in. There is a distribution valve but I have not looked to see if it has adjustment. I do have a power disc brake master cylinder.

For mine, the discs do NOT feel like the drum brakes at all. Like you mentioned the drums give a jolt that the discs do not. The discs to me have a much lighter more controlled feel, but do stop better than the drum brakes without the jolting feeling. Take a pic of your metering valve and post...

 

[pmschmitt]

Here are images of the metering valve master cylinder and booster as always he input is appreciated

 

[saylor]

did you bench bleed the MC before you put it on the car?

when you apply brake, does the pedal stay in one spot or does it sink? at all? to the floor? any?

spongy or hard pedal feel?

 

[saylor]

as far as break in - I say no break in. I mean, you don't want to drive up someones *** and skid stop,, go easy on em for the 1st 50 miles or whatever, but no they should stop. greatly. no break in time needed.

 

[65sporty]

Is the valve in the picture the one from the drum brakes? You need a proportioning valve to change the pressure, the disc's require different pressure than drums.