JR_Charger
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Can I get a complete list of what not to tighten until the car is down? Thanks!
Nuts that aren't tightened until the car is on the ground?
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dodgeboy440
BOHNALITE CHRYSLER HEMI PROTOTYPE 1951
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"The Loose NUT Behind The Wheel"!........................
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Mostly suspension stuff.
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anything that goes thru a rubber bushing I suppose
Beat me to it! LOL
gkent
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This is it !! Personally, I don't worry about the rear shackles though.
I have never had it happen to me, but I read somewhere that the rear shackle hangers could flip the wrong way. Don't know if that is true or not, but I just got in the habit of verifying their position before tightening.
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Had that happen when installing springs.
gkent
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I suppose its possible.
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I could have a witness testify under oath that he flipped it back. Not worth my effort though.
JR_Charger
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I'm installing drop spindles, so everything is off - it would be much easier to do the upper ball joint nut now than with everything installed and on the ground. It looks like it might not be possible to get at that nut with an 8.5" rim on the car, and a 2" drop.
JR_Charger
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Ain't no wrench big enough for that nut!
BearDodge67
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"The Loose NUT Behind The Wheel"!........................
As a owner of a 70 Coronet found out not long ago..
As a owner of a 70 Coronet found out not long ago..
gkent
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??? Who said anything about an upper ball joint nut ?!?!? Tighten EVERYTHING except the LCA pivot nuts ... (and rear shackles I guess !!)
JR_Charger
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I may have seen it in another thread - "better safe than sorry," "there's no such thing as a stupid question," etc.
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I thought on this topic and the only fasteners that come to mind are the LCA mounting pins. I have urethane shackle bushings but I've read that the factory used some type of soapy liquid that evaporated. Upper and lower ball joints are not affected by suspension movement, neither is the steering linkage.
The lower shock bolts and strut bushings should be at ride height as well.
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Strut rods.
I don't know what the "correct procedure" is for tightening these, I never looked at a manual. When I've replaced them, I first looked at the amount of threads showing outside the nut...
In the above case, I used cheap calipers then when I put it back together, I tightened the nut to get back to this number.
This works if you have something to start with but what if you're building a car that is apart and you didn't see it beforehand?
With the nut too loose, the LCA will have slop, causing the wheel to move rearward during hard braking, making the steering toe IN a lot.
If the nut is too tight, it could split the bushing. I use Urethane in the strut rods so you'd really have to crank the nut down a LOT to damage it.
Plus, look at the nut at the end in the above picture. That is just one design Ma Mopar used. I've seen at least 2 others in the 1964-76 year model cars that I have worked on. Unless the nuts are all the same height, there is no proper "thread count" to go by. I've torn down many cars where the nut is a few threads deeper than the roll pin they often have in place. That roll pin seems like an afterthought but maybe the cars I've seen had a front end rebuild long before I got the car and maybe the bushings were thinner than stock?
I don't know what the "correct procedure" is for tightening these, I never looked at a manual. When I've replaced them, I first looked at the amount of threads showing outside the nut...
In the above case, I used cheap calipers then when I put it back together, I tightened the nut to get back to this number.
This works if you have something to start with but what if you're building a car that is apart and you didn't see it beforehand?
With the nut too loose, the LCA will have slop, causing the wheel to move rearward during hard braking, making the steering toe IN a lot.
If the nut is too tight, it could split the bushing. I use Urethane in the strut rods so you'd really have to crank the nut down a LOT to damage it.
Plus, look at the nut at the end in the above picture. That is just one design Ma Mopar used. I've seen at least 2 others in the 1964-76 year model cars that I have worked on. Unless the nuts are all the same height, there is no proper "thread count" to go by. I've torn down many cars where the nut is a few threads deeper than the roll pin they often have in place. That roll pin seems like an afterthought but maybe the cars I've seen had a front end rebuild long before I got the car and maybe the bushings were thinner than stock?
gkent
Well-Known Member
There’s a sleeve in the strut bushings. You tighten the nut till it bottoms out.
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