Stut Rod Bushing Fix

[BillGrissom]

The strut rod bushings on my 65 Newport failed. Surprising, since I rebuilt the front end in 1999 w/ a kit from PST and have driven the car daily only a total of ~3 yrs since.

Only the front bushings were worn, with the driver's side totally gone (1st photo, lower middle). The rear bushings are loaded only when braking in reverse. To replace those requires sliding the lower control arm back, and possibly un-bolting the upper control arm. I just replaced the front bushings, which requires simply removing the front strut nut.

I suspect the rubber was defective, since I could pull it apart by hand. I would prefer a better material like polyurethane, but couldn't find. Rubber ones are available from RockAuto, Autozone, etc for ~$30/set. I found a NOS set, Elgin HB-1035, on ebay for about half (1st photo, top).


I am currently rebuilding a 65 Dart (A body) and used polyurethane strut bushings (rockauto ~$30/set). The "improved design" is 2 disks similar to C-bodies, except front and back are indentical with a shoulder, rather than the nested shoulders in C-bodies. Would be nice to use those, but would they fit? My Newport strut rod is 0.725"D vs 0.615"D in the Dart. Also, the frame hole is ~1.18"D in the Newport, don't know about the Dart (assembled). Maybe with a little trimming an A-body polyurethane bushing would work. If you try that, assemble with the bushing washers curved outward as in A-bodies.

Another polyurethane possibility is modifying a ball-joint boot. I had a cut-off end from an Energy Suspension 13024 boot (from 5.1302 kit, red in 1st photo). Probably for later A-bodies since most didn't fit my early-A ball-joints. It perfectly fit between the strut sleeve and frame hole (2nd photo). I didn't want to rely on the rubber since the frame appears to tear up the rubber shoulder (1st photo, lower right). I put the "flat" rubber bushing in front and the red poly fit into the rubber's recess. It seems one could trim down a ball-joint boot to serve as a complete "shoulder" bushing. We may need such tricks in the future as replacement parts disappear.

I tried to "follow-the-book", paying big bucks for a suspension kit, but looks like a poor-boy cobble-together approach works better. I'll know in a few years if this old Elgin rubber bushing is any better than the rubber PST supplies. BTW, the bracket bolted next to the strut (2nd photo) is a trailer "leaf spring bracket" that serves for tow bar attachment. If my car fails, I can call my wife to come and be gone in a minute. Used it once so far, when a freeze plug came out of the block.

Sorry for the tiny photos. I had to keep cropping and compressing before they would "take". I use www.forabodiesonly.com a lot and have no such problems posting photos. The admin should investigate, since many complain here.

 

[cbarge]

Indeed the control am has to slide out to remove the strut rod.
Which means the lower ball joint and shock have to be detached.
Sux.
Now is a good time to inspect the lower control arm bushing and replace if needed.
I did the poor boy approach and bought NOS strut bar bushings for my car.

 

[BillGrissom]

cbarge,

Nice parts you have there, and a really clean Lower Control Arm (LCA) and frame for Canada. Interesting that your sway bar appears to connect to the strut rod, same as my Newport. I thought it an after-market kit, but perhaps that was the factory design. A-body owners spend much time and money trying to get LCA's with welded-on sway bar brackets when they could just connect it to the strut rod near the LCA as in our C-bodies. That is my plan to someday add a sway bar to my Dart.

I hope to never have to pull my LCA's until I have a pair of replacement torsion bars in hand. But I can't see paying FirmFeel's $300 price. Maybe a competitor will jump in at an affordable price. I have seen that for some A-body parts (front rotors were rare and $100 ea, now $22 from Centric). I got a set of used torsion bars for my Dart for $10 and they were the thicker "340 type". Parts for C-bodies are a continual treasure hunt.

If no new alternative, I may try a hillbilly trick, which is to swap sagging torsion bars left & right. The FSM says to always install on the correct side, and I have heard claims that they take a set in one direction and if you swap them, the reversed twisting will cause them to break fairly soon, though nobody has stated "saw it myself". BTW, keeping them on the same side but changing end-end doesn't change the direction of twist or the sagged clocking of the hex's (some owners thought such).

I inadvertently swapped L & R in a 69 Dart years ago during a front end rebuild. I didn't think about L & R then, and didn't even have a manual in those dumF kid days. I barely got each bar in on the wrong sides, and the front end sat high with the adjusters all the way out. After I figured out my mistake, I decided to drive it that way, and did so daily ~4 years until the car was stolen. If they snapped, it served the thief well. Problem is I never see C-bodies in the junkyards here, so even finding sagged bars is tough.

 

[cbarge]

All my front end parts I found on E bay or from my local Mopar guru.
IIRC,Just Suspensions has a listing on new C torsion bars--but I may be wrong.
65 to 69 Chryslers and Dodges used the same length bars.
So scoring a good used set -- even from a Polara cop car - is possible.
You just have to expand your search.
Azblackhemi has several parts cars in AZ.Maybe he can help.Tell him I sent ya.

 

[BillGrissom]

cbarge,


Thanks for info on torsion bars. I'll keep on the lookout. I will sideline the Newport when I switch to the Dart soon, so no rush. I forgot to mention that I have been riding on a hillbilly fix since ~1996. Actually, I used my engineering background to select coil springs from the McMaster-Carr catalog. The springs sit around each shock absorber and at the installed height add ~400 lbf lift (recall), so no more front-end sag. They also increase the spring rate so less boat-like handling. The ride is slightly less comfortable, but it slaloms better. I don't recommend this approach since I had to cut and bend back the tubular housing to form a spring seat at the top, where the springs sit on the LCA may cause fretting corrosion (haven't noticed any yet), and worst of all, there is direct metal-metal contact so I probably pickup road noise, though it seems much quieter since I replaced the strut bushings. Maybe if one added rubber seats for the springs, or even better coil-assisted shocks (haven't seen any). But new torsion bars is best.


Re strut bushings. I didn't trust the fix above long-term, since I imagine the frame will again cut thru the shoulder of the rubber bushing, I ordered a Moog K-7027 bushing set off e-bay for $22 w/ shipping (seller has another set up now). Rockauto showed them for slightly more when I ordered, but show "NA" currently. I try to grab wear items when I can since it avoids treasure hunts later.


These bushings are the "improved design" which fixes the "frame cuts rubber" problem. All 4 bushings are identical. I show both sides in photo below. You can barely make out on the rubber side a protruding metal shell which sits in the frame hole and prevents the frame wearing against the rubber. The washer is integral to the bushing. My dimensions above were incorrect, those are for the main strut rod. Where the bushing installs, the rod diameter is ~0.610"D in Newport and ~0.560"D in Dart.

 

[Dodge Phoenix]

Hi All
Are the strut bars straight or do they have a bend in them ?
i have just removed mine and they have a bend in them and the bush sits off set ?
doesnt look right to me

 

[BillGrissom]

Dodge Phoenix,

The strut rods are straight in my 65 Newport and 65 Dart. Yours might have been bent by somebody hooking tow chains to them or resting them on jack stands.

It probably won't affect your handling, as long as your toe-in is correct. I learned to do that at home using just a tape measure, from a post on a Jeep forum. It is easy if your tires have a straight tread.

A bent strut rod might even improve your handling since it would move the lower ball joint forward slightly. That would increase caster, by moving the point where the line between the upper and lower ball joints hits the road further in front of the tire patch. That makes the wheels follow behind better - like a shopping cart. Our cars were designed for bias tires which deflect, putting the tire patch further aft. We need more caster for radial tires.