Need help with front suspension rebuild

[Andre68]

Well I need to rebuild the front suspension on my 68 dart. I've been googling front suspension kits and I cant really seem to find one, and the one that I did said for drum bakes, but I have discs up front.

If anyone can tell me where to get a front suspension rebuild kit that would be great. Not looking for anything crazy I simply want to renew my stock suspension.

Also I did by the service manual for the dart, hasn't come in yet. Im curious, did this car originally have springs in the front? Because all I see are control arms and shocks.

 

[crackedback]

Is it a 73+ disc set up, BBP or the KH small bolt. The difference in disc/drum on 67-72 cars is the lower ball joint hole for mounting to your spindle are larger on disc vehicle. If you find a set of drum LBJ's you can ream them to disc bolt sizing.

Sometimes looking at rockauto or even amazon can get you a kit at a good price buying individual parts.

Here's a list of moog part numbers from BBD
http://www.bigblockdart.com/techpages/moognumbers.shtml

 

[67Dart273]

All these cars have torsion bars, the long bars which run parallel to the front frame members from the lower arms to the rear.

A service manual is a wise first step

Not sure about "kits" but this is a good read:

http://www.bigblockdart.com/techpages/techindex.shtml

http://www.bigblockdart.com/techpages/moognumbers.shtml

You pretty much want

Upper ball joints

Lower ball joints

upper Arm bushings, and consider getting the Moog "offset" bushings which allow for more caster / camber adjustment

Lower control arm bushings

Strut rod bushings

If you have a sway bar, you'll need bushings for it

You may or may not need new dust boots for the T bars

On the steering linkage:

Check the pitman arm ball for wear, you may or may not need a new pitman arm

new idler arm

Check the tie rod ends, you may or may not need all 4 of them.

Lots of threads on here about alignment. If you are using radial tires, don't use the factory alignment specs, this is a good read. Pay attention to the "skosh" chart:

http://www.allpar.com/history/mopar/front-end-alignment.html

and some threads from this site

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=183214

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=140927

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=195810

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=226484

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=183607

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=231627

 

[Andre68]

lots of good info thanks a bunch!

 

[Andre68]

im sure I probably need a new pitman arm, I took it off the center link today and the bushing was done, and the weird thing is the crew from the joint turned when I tried to tighten the nut back on and the screw thing turned too, so I pushed it back into the center link a little more and then it stopped turning and I was able to tighten the nut on it. Don't know if that's okay or not.

 

[67Dart273]

If by "screw" you mean the tapered part of the stud, the only thing that keeps it from turning is "luck" as you tighten it down. Normally on new parts the nut will snug up "by hand" or you can give the center link a little smack with a mallet or 2x6, etc, to "seat" the tapered stud.