Idler arm slop A body Dart

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71Demon

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Should there be slop on the idler arm? The bolt fits loosly in the bushing. Looks around 1/16-1/8 clearance. I can move the bolt side to side when in the bushing. When installed and the car raised I can move the tire side to side and see it moving a lot. The car seems to track a lot when hitting ruts in the road. I bought a new idler and it seems to have almost the same slop with new bolt and new idler. Is this right or should it be a real close/tight fit? The one I bought is MOOG which I thought was high quality.
 
Have you checked your wheel bearings? Look at the end of the spindle with the bearing cap off-should not be much free play there when you move the tire.
 
There is a spec for it. I forget what it is. We used to use a fish scale to pull on them X number of pounds to read X amount of movement. I forget what the spec is though.
 
Yep running radials. Centerlink looks good and tight. I can see the idler moving around and there is slop when I turn the wheels side to side. Any suggestions on where to get a idler that is a good tight fit on the bolt? Moog isn't very good at all.
 
Had the same problem.Drilled out the holes on the k-frame and had a machine shop make the bushings to match that on outside diameter and the bolt size on the inside diameter.
 
What year is the Dart? There is one idler arm that is no longer available, but they sub one anyway and it is loose like you describe.

I bought my K-Frame from a yard down in Southern Illinois, and I am having to use an old idler arm, as the new ones are loose in it.
 
Sorry, thought your slop was in the k-frame holes.You could have a bushing made for the idler arm the same way.
 
The more I look into this I see what might be happening. Is the bolt supposed to be what the bushing swivels on or is the bushing supposed to be tightened down between the K frame and not move and swivel outside of the bushing? Looks like I should shim the bushing to take up the slack in the K member and make it lock down and not move when the bolt it tightened. Is this correct? If so, my problem may be solved.
 
When I installed my idler arm (69 K-frame), I found it had vertical play between the upper and lower brackets. I shimmed it with heavy washers. Vertical play at this point causes slop throughout the steering -- the motion of the center link needs to be confined to a horizontal plane.
 
Thanks MHV. I finally figured it out and it was exactly that. Too much up and down movement. I shimmed with washers. Needs to be a tight fit and torque so the bushing inside does not move. I thought it needed to be somewhat loose so the bushing could swivel on the bolt. Wrong, it swivels on the outside of the bushing. The bushing remains stationary. Learn something every day.
 
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