The torsion bar front suspension was one of the key engineering features that distinguished Chrysler Corp cars from their Ford, GM and AMC competitors during the 1960s and 70s.
But, as tough and effective and versatile as the Torsion Air suspension was, it has a design shortcoming that has cursed all aging Mopar A, B, C, D, E, FMJ bodies with unpredictable handling and difficult, unorthodox repairs.
This is the story of the Lower Control Arm Bushing. Why it exists, how it works, what makes it suck, and what you need to know before you rip in to repair or replace yours.
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Every stinking Mopar I've seen has been a rust bucket! As a former street racer and Van Nuys Blvd Cruiser, I was never beaten by a Mopar.
I need to do this on my Dart eventually. I couldn't figure out how it was put together until now, thank you. The other thing that sucks with these is when the upper ball joint pops out. Just had that happen last week. New, name brand upper control arm and ball joint, came assembled, the ball joint popped out and took the threads with it after only 6 months and 10k miles. Put a new ball joint in and welded it in being there were almost no threads to hold it. I also had this happen on a Scamp about 6 years ago, but with its original control arm and ball joint. The Scamp also broke a torsion bar going down an off ramp from the highway. And the one thing I refuse to do to any car and will gladly pay someone to do is u-joints. I hate them. I will rebuild an entire car myself and I will pay someone else to do u-joints.
Bu that same thing is used throughout suspensions , even in my Isuzu trooper and MG midget..where the bushings are so tight that nothing moves but the rubber bending and it NEVER made any sens to me..
You should bring that lower control arm to a machine shop and maybe you guys can come up with something different to fix that problem
Problem number 1 no one charged the torsion bars regularly that’s why people hated them
Trying to use a front coil spring compressor on a 70 to 81 camaro or firebird with out killing your self or innocent bystanders is way down on my having fun with old cars list.
I raced stock body Mopars on circle track for 25 years and they held up well. I even used Mopar racing torsion bars. I can't say it's a bad design.
I am a GM guy to the bone. But I dig Mopars. Not all of them are pretty, but they are all cool looking. I wish there was a vintage GM channel like UTG.
You are over thinking it. I pop those out with an air chisele in seconds.
Can you do a video on 79 duster front suspension
Instead of just yakking about the problem and sticking your finger in the damn hole, how about showing us how it is fixed?
Quit crying about something you feel is a bad design when it has lasted HOW MANY DECADES??????? These cars were designed to last 7-10 years and again, HOW MANY DECADES????? Sheesh!!!
2007 Chrysler 300 same problem front end is junk never had that problem with the old cars
Thank you Uncle Tony for all the content.
I like mopars of that era also but lets not forget they were the cars that rotted from the top down, Lol, cheap sheetmetal sorry mopar fanatics but thats the facts, is that where chevy learned to build sheetmetal in the mid 70s, Mopar, Lol.
The sketchiest chunk of stamped metal in automotive history.
But… I wanted to know how to do it without a press :`)
I like first gen dakotas….So I get to deal with upper AND lower control arm bushing problems. Apparently this ball joint delete thing is becoming popular in the off roading community. Maybe someday I can get something like that.
When you absolutely love a brand. I think you are in full right to criticise the parts that annoy you.
I've gotta suspension mech freind and the big fella can push em out with his little dick beater finger U aint got the weight for the job farm it out mr mechanic type no it all Italians with the little feet are drivers horrible mechanics
45 years rebuilding automatic transmissions the 727 torque flight ,and 904 tf are my favorite ! Remember,,,,u have to deal with the bar ,,,no problem if u have a pit ,,and I still do,,,,!
99% of the time I’m changing a ball joint or bushing in the Chrysler control arms I have to make a jig. Screw in ball joints are the worst. They get so tight they flex the frame when you remove them. Sometimes the control arm gets destroyed in process. End up getting a big steel I beam, drilling holes into it to mount control arm and wedging the I beam between two trees. I would proceed to use a 3/4” breaker bar with a special tool for Chrysler ball joints. The breaker bar was 4ft long, and the cheater bar was 4ft long. Watching the breaker bar flex was very uneasing. Probably 800+ ftlbs to break loose atleast. Took a control arm to a machine shop where I watched them struggle and dance around the control arm with massive impact wrenches to get them off.
My brother had a 1970 Dart Swinger 340 back in 1973. He hit a pothole and the anchor bolt snapped off flush at the shoulder where it met the rubber bushing. His car was suddenly very hard to steer. We stopped and looked underneath the car and couldn't see anything initially. I had him go inside and move the steering. Spotted it right away. We limped home and bought a new control arm assembly. Probably if we knew better we could have bought the new anchor stud and pressed it in. That was the only trouble we ever had on probably a dozen Mopars back in the 70s. Drag cars and street cars. I personally like the design. We didn't own many high mileage ones though? Great video as usual!
Interestingly enough, my 1972 International Harvester Travelall Station Wagon has torsion, bars that go to the upper control arm, BUT it uses identical control arm bushings to a vintage mopar.
Also, dont know if you knew this but the 1960 and 1961 chevy C10 pickup had torsion bars but they learned their lesson and went to coils!!!
The upper control arms on those old MoPars are also petty crappy. The thin metal camber adjustment tabs get pretty useless after some very common rusting. Had to replace mine with after market tubular units just to get it to specs.
Yes, used the welded washer trick years ago on the lower arms.
I can see where that welding a washer onto the bush to remove them could be used in other situations, thanks for sharing, all the best to yous and your loved ones
Seems to be a good spot for machined nylon, strong and stiff
What and where did you get bushings from Tony?
I re-bushed and rebuilt the front end of my 73 nova with sledge hammer on a tree stump. Took two days and a huge amount of determination. I was 19 or so. I still have the car.
Back in the day the parts houses had rebuilt arms in a box with new bushings already installed. You could just swap them out and return the cores. They had shitty paint on them like a radiator. It was usually not totally cured and got all over your hands. We used to do them at Sears in the early 80's. They didn't want to pay us to rework anything. That was about the time that all the bushings were failing on 68-74 cars. I hated the torsion bar cars. Especially if the bar mounts were bashed up and the adjustment bolts were bent.
I'm the same way with my hudson. I love everything but the oil bath clutch is stuck and needs to be taken apart.
I hope that the new urethane ones work out as easy as predicted. I have had the kit for a couple of months, but have yet to do the job on my 74 Dart daily driver in fear it may put the car out of commission for more than a weekend. I replaced the uppers about 6 months ago. Piece of cake!. I only got 6k miles from a new set of tire due to the lowers still being bad due to age. the car only has 57k miles on it, so it isn't due to mileage. If you were in east TN instead of west TN, I'd try to bring the car to you!