K member question

AJ/FormS said
Brian, Youll be more disappointed if the receiver tube cracks out on your 318 K. I dont know if you noticed, but the half-washer gusset is actually a horse-shoe, and the washer is more like a slug with a hole in it. I have only seen a few of those Ks, but the hole was never centered. So if I saw your K with a true washer welded on, then Id call bs, lol

I inspected the K member closely when we did the freshen up on it, and it looks fine. If it cracks, I'll pull it back out and reinforce it or replace it. No worries.

If you called BS on me at a car show, then we'd strike up a conversation. I've had people look at my VIN and say things like "that is a 67 not a 68" or "that was a six cylinder car". I don't care, I usually just ask them where their car is parked. Some times they stop and talk, some times they tuck their tail and move along. Either way, I enjoy talking to other Mopar guys about Mopars.

72bluNblu said
There really wasn't much to it.

But, considering the factory method of attaching the LCA pivot tubes, even that "washer" with crappy welds was an improvement over nothing at all. The LCA pivot mounts didn't have a whole lot holding them in to begin with.

It's pretty easy to reinforce the K-frames though, and any reinforcement would pretty much be superior to anything the factory put out. I've done a couple so far, I do a seam weld around the entire edge of the K frame, go over all of the factory welds, and add gussets to the LCA, idler, and steering mounts. I also gusset the torsion bar anchors in the crossmember, as it seems that A-bodies in particular had pretty lousy welds there.

That last half a sentence is the understatement of the week. A drunk monkey could have welded better than the guy who built my K member! I wonder why no company has offered a reinforcement plate for this yet, or have I just missed it. I probably would have welded one in when we went through the K member last year.