Now that I have the new bushings for the control arms, it’s time to tear it down and get the control arms out.  Just doing the lower control arm on the driver’s side took me all day.  What a learning experience.  I even managed to tear both my control arm ball joint boots on that side.  Something surprising – both torsion bars on the Dart are missing the lock clips that are supposed to hold them in place.  It’s a wonder they didn’t just rattle out when I was doing 70 on the freeway.  I managed to get the lower control arm off completely by the end of the day.  I think tomorrow morning I will try to tackle the upper control arm on the driver’s side.  Then it is wash, rinse, and repeat for the passenger side.  Andy suggested that I just take the control arms to a front end shop to do the actual bushing swap.  I think that’s probably an excellent idea!

Energy Suspension instructions
Energy Suspension instructions
Dart on jack stands doing a wheelie!
Close up of busted lower control arm bushing.
Extreme close up of busted lower control arm bushing.
Upper control arm and bushings.
I've taken the wheel off.
I've removed the bolt on the lower control arm ball joint.
I went to Checker to rent some tools.
I went to Checker to rent some tools.
Pop goes the ball joint.
Backed the torsion bar adjustment nut all the way off.
Removed the nut on one side of the radius rod.
The other end of the radius rod untouched for now.
Removed the bolt from the bottom of the shock.
Removed the nut holding the control arm into the K member.
The torsion bars on the Dart were MISSING the lock clips!
Starting to slide the torsion bar out.
Pop goes the torsion bar!
Got the lower control arm off the K member.
Now it is completely off.
One side of the lower control arm.
The other side.
The bushing that is supposed to go in the lower control arm.