BillGrissom
Well-Known Member
A mini K-frame saga on my 64 Valiant.
The one on the right was on the car. With suspension & steering off for rebuild, I was cleaning rust and priming. I eventually noticed the right strut mount was dished in relative to the left. Apparently, the right wheel hit a hole or curb and folded back the LCA, pulling the the strut thru its mount. Must be common since my 65 Dart has a plate welded there to make a new mount hole. Bad to have the strut mount too far aft since that reduces caster and we need all we can get for radial tires.
No problem I thought since I bought an early-A K-frame at a local Mopar swap meet for $70 already painted, planning to replace my Dart's someday. I made a few measurements to verify, then raised the engine and swapped it fairly easy. After installing all suspension and steering box, I crawled under to bolt the idler arm. WTF? No idler bracket! Not sure how I missed that. I then fell back to repairing the original, pushing the dished-in part flat w/ my shop press (a bit hard to fit it) and hammer, then tack welded. I also added a few tacks to the LCA pivot hole since I have read those can fail. I was able to do more de-rusting w/ sand-blasting and to spray paint thoroughly inside the cavities.
Swapping back had me worried since not sure I could work the K-frame off the now-installed LCA and strut rods, but turned out fairly easy to work off (hint to others). It would have been a bigger retreat to remove the LCA's and T-bars. 2nd photo shows the LCA's supported by the T-bars and spindle. This time I jacked up from the oil pan since last time the cherry picker's legs made access harder. Took 2 hrs to swap.
Perhaps someday I'll cut the idler bracket off my Dart's K-frame and weld to the spare. It looks like the missing idler bracket was purposeful, perhaps by someone planning to fab a custom rack & pinion steering. I don't know if the guy selling the K-frame noticed it missing either.
The one on the right was on the car. With suspension & steering off for rebuild, I was cleaning rust and priming. I eventually noticed the right strut mount was dished in relative to the left. Apparently, the right wheel hit a hole or curb and folded back the LCA, pulling the the strut thru its mount. Must be common since my 65 Dart has a plate welded there to make a new mount hole. Bad to have the strut mount too far aft since that reduces caster and we need all we can get for radial tires.
No problem I thought since I bought an early-A K-frame at a local Mopar swap meet for $70 already painted, planning to replace my Dart's someday. I made a few measurements to verify, then raised the engine and swapped it fairly easy. After installing all suspension and steering box, I crawled under to bolt the idler arm. WTF? No idler bracket! Not sure how I missed that. I then fell back to repairing the original, pushing the dished-in part flat w/ my shop press (a bit hard to fit it) and hammer, then tack welded. I also added a few tacks to the LCA pivot hole since I have read those can fail. I was able to do more de-rusting w/ sand-blasting and to spray paint thoroughly inside the cavities.
Swapping back had me worried since not sure I could work the K-frame off the now-installed LCA and strut rods, but turned out fairly easy to work off (hint to others). It would have been a bigger retreat to remove the LCA's and T-bars. 2nd photo shows the LCA's supported by the T-bars and spindle. This time I jacked up from the oil pan since last time the cherry picker's legs made access harder. Took 2 hrs to swap.
Perhaps someday I'll cut the idler bracket off my Dart's K-frame and weld to the spare. It looks like the missing idler bracket was purposeful, perhaps by someone planning to fab a custom rack & pinion steering. I don't know if the guy selling the K-frame noticed it missing either.
