1970 Chrysler Suspension Rebuilt - Putting on a Good Front

The upper control arms are now removed by taking out the alignment adjustor bolts giving us access to the bushings. From the looks of ours, they were long overdue to be replaced.

After removing the cotter pins and castle nuts, a tie-rod separator is used to force the tie-rod ends from the lower ball joints and center link of the steering. The center link is then removed from the idler and pitman arm in the same manner. The idler arm can now be removed from the K-member.

The pitman arm can now be removed by utilizing a pitman arm puller. This is a nice tool to have around if you regularly do suspension work, if not, it can usually be rented from your local auto parts or tool rental store.

After giving our control arms a thorough cleaning, the upper ball joints are replaced using a ball joint socket and an impact wrench. Remember that ball joint threads are cut with a small amount of interference, which keeps them locked in place so it's normal for them to be tight when removing and re-installing them.

We painted our control arms to keep them looking good, and used a press to remove and install the upper and lower control arm bushings. If you don't have a press, just take the control arms to a shop that does. It takes less than an hour to replace all the control arm bushings so the price for the labor should be reasonable. Fortunately, we had a press and did the job ourselves.

Factory tie-rod sleeves are known to flex during aggressive driving. Just Suspension designed these heavy-duty units to eliminate that problem. Side by side with the stock tie rod sleeves, the difference is dramatic.

With our new bushings installed, we re-installed our suspension components, tightened the retaining nuts, and installed the provided cotter pins for safety. Always get the components snug, and then tighten the nuts until the cotter pin will line up. Never loosen a suspension component for cotter pin alignment; accelerated wear will be the result.

This is what Brake Tech Solutions had to start with. Upon receiving our brakes, they completely disassembled, cleaned, and inspected our components before rebuilding them. Believe it or not, they have resurrected parts in far worse condition than ours.

Once cleaned and inspected, our calipers were packed with new pistons, seals, and bleeders and were ready to ship. Severely corroded calipers can be machined and sleeved if necessary.