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So if you do short sections when welding the seams up, move around and such, you shouldn't need a jig to keep the k-member square or anything, right? I've always wondered if things will deform when doing the seam welding. I have the Firm Feel plates ready for my k-member and have been holding off.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. After first looking at the LCAs and visualizing the range of motion the pivot could possibly run through, I thought that the open area looked pretty unsupported. Guess I'm not crazy after all.

Thanks, Jim. I'm gonna give it a whack.

Yes, I have swaybar-tabbed LCAs. I'm not sure I can cleanly split one side away. We'll see. Sounds like a good idea, though. I like your extra gusseting of the pivot area.

So, I have a set of '73-'76 swaybar LCAs. Before I knew any better, I welded on the stiffening plates. Now that I know better, I realize that was a huge mistake. I found Jim Lusk's video and one of the LCAs I have appears to be mildly bad, while the other one is at least as bad as the worst one...

Very cool. Great car. Would love to know more about the 360 in your Valiant.

Man...I bought my a-body 8-3/4", complete, in person, for $250...489 case, open gears. I guess you just have to look around, or know someone that hoards parts.

Check sticky at top of this forum for the LCA bushings...

Tried that...Four times. See sticky at top of this forum if it doesn't work.

Pretty similar to how dodge71demon has it is how I did it. I backed out the torsion-bar adjusters first, pulled the torsion bars out, let the LCA sit on a jack until I got the UCAs unbolted, disconnected the brake lines, unhooked the steering shaft from the steering box, unbolted the UCAs from...

There's a saying in the Jeep world: "friends don't let friends upgrade Dana 35s." If you plan on putting any real power down, I wouldn't bother with a D35.

Nice-looking '67. Sorry, I had no suggestions on springs. :)

I managed to get the template printed out and it's pretty much spot-on. 3/8" is too tight for the holes; 7/16" is a lot closer to the factory size. I think I'll revise the template to use 7/16" holes.

So, I want to build a set of casters/dollies for the rear of my Valiant. Everyone seems to bolt them to the front spring hangers at the rear of the car, so that's where I looked. I had my springs off the car so I measured the hangers. I'm looking to see if anyone has similar measurements, or...

Firm Feel still sells the reinforcement pieces for k-members. I just purchased a set.

Very nice. I had wondered how hard these would be to make and the hang-up for me was the k-member end. Would you mind shooting a pic of the k-member side assembled out of the k-member? Thanks.

Since I'm shopping for UCAs pretty soon I figured I'd ask in here...Why is RMS preferred to Firm Feel? What am I missing?

Check out the left arm, the one you can see the anti-sway bar tab on. See the weld on the right side of both of the verticals that attach to the LCA? There's no weld at all on the left side of either vertical. That's what I'm talking about. There's also no weld on the inside of the anti-sway...

So I obtained a set of '73-'76 LCAs with swaybar tabs. I noticed that the swaybar tabs are only welded to the LCA on one side of each vertical. Is this how they always did it? Since I'm going to be welding on the reinforcement plates I thought about welding the other side of the verticals as...

So I traded my '67-'72 LCAs for a set of '73-'76 LCAs with swaybar tabs. They came to me "crudely" removed: the strut rods were cut off the car, everything was badly frozen up, and so on.. Only took me two and a half hours to completely strip the arms, including outer bushing shells, using the...

I'm aware of powdercoating. Was hoping for other options.

So what do you all use for painting/coating suspension and steering bits? I need to finish spindles, lower control arms, k-member, steering box, etc. How durable is the coating you're using?

So, this may be an odd one, but since I'm piecing a front suspension for my Valiant together I should probably ask people that know...Is there any difference between a '73-'76 k-member that originally had a swaybar and one that didn't? Thanks!

RabidScott: did you ever take pics of the tabs you made? I'd like to see where they are on the arms. How far is the center of the hole from the side of the control arm? Thanks.

I put the tap in a vise and screwed the control arm on to the tap. Seemed to work well that way. Tap didn't go in very straight, but it didn't need to.

Look, ma, no outer bushing shells! :) The tap method worked perfectly. The arms are still covered in Kroil, but I'm going to blast them anyway. Thanks for the advice, especially hemi71x's tip on the tap.

Wow...That's harsh. Kroil works much better as a penetrating oil than PB Blaster does...Well worth getting some.

Found a new Champion 1-3/8-6 plug tap for $30.95 shipped on eBay. Worth a shot. :)

Ha, I like the idea of the 1-3/8" tap. Do you press the tap out directly? Finding a 1-3/8" bolt probably wouldn't be exactly trivial or cheap, either... I may just try chiseling/air-hammering it out. I'm nervous about welding the bushing shell itself to the LCA by welding inside.

I'd guess that the newer-style replacement tie-rod end is probably stronger than anything Chrysler used originally on the cars. Metallurgy has come a long way in the thirty-plus years since c-body tie-rod ends were used in production.