Suspension rebuild and disc brake swap...by a noob for noobs
To position the car I set the parking brake, put the transmission in neutral (to unlock the steering), chocked the rear wheels, jacked up the front end by the K-member, and placed jack stands under both frame rails. I left the floor jack under the K-member and kept some weight on it, but most of the weight was on the stands. This was because somewhere I read that lifting the K-member can help ease out the torsion bars.
I decided to do one side of the car at a time so I would have the other side for reference. I did the left side first, but I didn't take many photos until I got to the right side. First things first: PB Blaster on every fastener.
To start the tear-down, I disconnected the brake line, leaving the rubber hose attached to backing plate.
The hinged line wrench is really helpful. The rusty clip right above the painted tab pulls out with pliers and taps back in with a hammer later.
Next I needed to disconnect the outer tie rod end from the lower ball joint. Not having a pickle fork, I did it by removing the Cotter pin and castle nut, threading the nut on upside down until its surface was flush with the end of the threads, and hammering downward on the nut and threads. I used this technique several times, and a few times the nut got jammed onto the threads so that turning the nut caused the whole joint to turn instead of unthreading the nut. In those cases I hammered the joint back in to hold it so I could turn the nut, then it only took a light hammer tap to punch the joint out again. A pickle fork would have made the job easier, especially if you're not trying to save the rubber boot. A couple of times I tried hammering from the side as some people suggest, but I never got that to work, perhaps because I wasn't using a big enough hammer.
With the tie rod separated from the lower ball joint, I then removed the LCA, UCA, strut rod, spindle, lower ball joint, and brakes as a unit, as follows. I removed the Cotter pin and nut from the forward end of the strut rod (right under the radiator), the nut from the forward end of the LCA pivot (those are both 15/16" nuts), and pulled the retainer ring from the aft end of torsion bar. Here's a pic of my wrench on the right-side LCA pivot nut. This is looking upward. My finger is pointing at the strut rod.
And here's the torsion bar retainer ring.
Next I backed out the torsion bar adjuster bolt to remove all tension from the bar. Here's a shot from beneath, looking up at the lower control arm.
Notice my gloves? Those are cheap rubberized gardening gloves. They worked really well for this job.
With the retainer ring out, only friction keeps the t-bar from moving aft. However, there can still be a lot of friction. To knock it loose, I put a one-foot length of 2x4 in front of the LCA and hammered it aft.
My son the photographer took a few bumper-reflection selfies while I worked.
Once the torsion bar was loose, I pulled it aft until it was hanging by the middle. On the left side bar, the boot was damaged slightly when I pulled it off the bar, so on the right side I just left the bar on the car. Here's what it looked like from the side:
and from the front:
Once the t-bar was out of the LCA, I removed the UCA cam bolts and knocked the UCA loose from its mount (this took a few hammer blows).
I detached the shock absorber from LCA, removed a little plastic shield to allow the strut rod to come aft with its bushings still on, and then just yanked the entire assembly aft until the LCA pivot and strut rod came loose. At this point the control arms, spindle, strut rod, and brakes were separated from the car. All that stuff together is pretty heavy.
With the whole assembly on the ground, I separated the upper ball joint from the spindle using the same technique I used on the tie rod end, and did the same again to separate the lower ball joint from the lower control arm. I left the upper ball joint in the upper control arm because I wasn't going to replace it (the upper ball joints were replaced less than 2000 miles ago). After I separated the strut rod from the lower control arm (one more nut on the rear of the strut rod), both control arms were free and I discarded the spindles, brakes and lower ball joints.
At this point I noticed my lower control arms did not have the tabs where the sway bar end link attaches. Apparently Ma Mopar only welded the tabs on if the car was to have the sway bar. I'm not adding a sway bar now, but I'd like to have the option later and so it made sense to add the tabs now. Several companies sell aftermarket bars, but since I'm trying to keep factory equipment, I wanted tabs that would fit the factory 1973+ bar. Hotchkis sells a factory-type bar along that comes with tabs to be welded on, similar though not identical to the factory tabs. They sold me just the tabs for a reasonable price.
Next: freshening up the lower control arms.
To position the car I set the parking brake, put the transmission in neutral (to unlock the steering), chocked the rear wheels, jacked up the front end by the K-member, and placed jack stands under both frame rails. I left the floor jack under the K-member and kept some weight on it, but most of the weight was on the stands. This was because somewhere I read that lifting the K-member can help ease out the torsion bars.
I decided to do one side of the car at a time so I would have the other side for reference. I did the left side first, but I didn't take many photos until I got to the right side. First things first: PB Blaster on every fastener.
To start the tear-down, I disconnected the brake line, leaving the rubber hose attached to backing plate.
The hinged line wrench is really helpful. The rusty clip right above the painted tab pulls out with pliers and taps back in with a hammer later.
Next I needed to disconnect the outer tie rod end from the lower ball joint. Not having a pickle fork, I did it by removing the Cotter pin and castle nut, threading the nut on upside down until its surface was flush with the end of the threads, and hammering downward on the nut and threads. I used this technique several times, and a few times the nut got jammed onto the threads so that turning the nut caused the whole joint to turn instead of unthreading the nut. In those cases I hammered the joint back in to hold it so I could turn the nut, then it only took a light hammer tap to punch the joint out again. A pickle fork would have made the job easier, especially if you're not trying to save the rubber boot. A couple of times I tried hammering from the side as some people suggest, but I never got that to work, perhaps because I wasn't using a big enough hammer.
With the tie rod separated from the lower ball joint, I then removed the LCA, UCA, strut rod, spindle, lower ball joint, and brakes as a unit, as follows. I removed the Cotter pin and nut from the forward end of the strut rod (right under the radiator), the nut from the forward end of the LCA pivot (those are both 15/16" nuts), and pulled the retainer ring from the aft end of torsion bar. Here's a pic of my wrench on the right-side LCA pivot nut. This is looking upward. My finger is pointing at the strut rod.
And here's the torsion bar retainer ring.
Next I backed out the torsion bar adjuster bolt to remove all tension from the bar. Here's a shot from beneath, looking up at the lower control arm.
Notice my gloves? Those are cheap rubberized gardening gloves. They worked really well for this job.
With the retainer ring out, only friction keeps the t-bar from moving aft. However, there can still be a lot of friction. To knock it loose, I put a one-foot length of 2x4 in front of the LCA and hammered it aft.
My son the photographer took a few bumper-reflection selfies while I worked.
Once the torsion bar was loose, I pulled it aft until it was hanging by the middle. On the left side bar, the boot was damaged slightly when I pulled it off the bar, so on the right side I just left the bar on the car. Here's what it looked like from the side:
and from the front:
Once the t-bar was out of the LCA, I removed the UCA cam bolts and knocked the UCA loose from its mount (this took a few hammer blows).
I detached the shock absorber from LCA, removed a little plastic shield to allow the strut rod to come aft with its bushings still on, and then just yanked the entire assembly aft until the LCA pivot and strut rod came loose. At this point the control arms, spindle, strut rod, and brakes were separated from the car. All that stuff together is pretty heavy.
With the whole assembly on the ground, I separated the upper ball joint from the spindle using the same technique I used on the tie rod end, and did the same again to separate the lower ball joint from the lower control arm. I left the upper ball joint in the upper control arm because I wasn't going to replace it (the upper ball joints were replaced less than 2000 miles ago). After I separated the strut rod from the lower control arm (one more nut on the rear of the strut rod), both control arms were free and I discarded the spindles, brakes and lower ball joints.
At this point I noticed my lower control arms did not have the tabs where the sway bar end link attaches. Apparently Ma Mopar only welded the tabs on if the car was to have the sway bar. I'm not adding a sway bar now, but I'd like to have the option later and so it made sense to add the tabs now. Several companies sell aftermarket bars, but since I'm trying to keep factory equipment, I wanted tabs that would fit the factory 1973+ bar. Hotchkis sells a factory-type bar along that comes with tabs to be welded on, similar though not identical to the factory tabs. They sold me just the tabs for a reasonable price.
Next: freshening up the lower control arms.