Warning to anyone thinking they were going to loosen the Kframe, drop it a couple inches with a pole jack, and "slide" spacers in; There is a metal guide sleeve tacked to the upper bushing retainer (traveling though both halves of the rubber bushing) that will NOT allow you to slide the top bushing out without a good 4" of clearance... but as you lower the Kframe the upper control arms contact the top of the frame rails right around the 3" mark.
The upper control arm plates do need to come off to do the job correctly.
A method I have used in the past (when not dropping the entire K-frame down), is to:
First EITHER Measure the distance from floor to fender well and record somewhere. I recommend adding a piece of masking tape so measurement location will remain the same. OR the official way is to measure from floor to bottom of control arm bushing (and record) – which is not as easy to perform.
Loosen all four K-frame bolts. Drilling a small hole into frame rail to insert rust penetrating oil straw (or less preferred, WD40) to soak the bolts, a couple of times, a couple of days in advanced – might be recommended. Also, use penetrating fluid on any suspension fasteners you can see, including shock studs (sometimes easier to access with front wheels off) and on the torsion bar adjustment bolt threads.
Remove front wheels
Remove the plates that cover the upper control arm fasteners, from inside of engine compartment. Depending on year of production, it would be painted black steel, or unfinished aluminum plates – as shown in red circle (under the air cleaner hose)).
For my personal cars, I like to leave the plates off - so that way the alignment shop wont lose or damage the plates or screws. Then reattach the plates once you are happy with the alignment.
Support the K-frame from below. A transmission jack attachment works great in this case (if available).
Loosen the tension from torsion bars via the adjustment bolts. They do not need to be completely loose but mostly loose does make job go faster.
Be sure to count and record how many turns/rotations you make when loosening the torsion bar bolts! If you tighten those torsion bar bolts back to same turns/rotations, then ride height should end up very close before this operation was started and less time spent overall.
Leave the four (two per side) upper control nuts to studs alone (blue arrow, below) for loosening them will cause your alignment to be off afterwards. By leaving them alone, the alignment should be the same before vs. after.
Remove cotter pin between upper ball joint to spindle (Chrysler calls this a knuckle). Remove the upper ball joint nut and disconnect the ball joint from spindle/knuckle using an appropriate tool.
Remove the lower shock nut. I recommend changing shocks in our cars at this point because they wear out in time and, sometimes, it can be impossible to remove those nuts – which means cutting off the nuts (studs) might be easier.
I find it easier to remove the lower shock nut in car, and upper nut on the workbench – but your experience might differ.
Loosen all eight (four per side) support bracket (red arrow and purple circles, above) to K-frame bolts. Remove the four bolts and plate on Left side – but don’t remove the Right side, yet (there is a reason for doing Left first) – if replacing K-frame bushings only. If you plan on dropping the K-frame as an assembly, then go ahead and remove all eight bolts (both sides) at once. Remove the upper control arm, support bracket and shock straight up and off. This would be a good time to attach the new shock, if changing them that is, to support bracket. If a gas shock, keep the wire or strap in place – if possible.
With car supported (on a lift or on jack stands) and K-frame support, remove the four 4 K-frame bolts.
Lower K-frame down. The Right side bracket will contact the frame after a certain distance – which should allow the Left side to drop down, more. Some cases, the Left side rear bushing will slip out – sometimes not. If not, it is time to get out the Sawzall and cut through the bushing and metal insert to remove. I would plan on keeping the saw nearby, just in case. Install the Left side solid mounts (leave bolts out for now, or things will bind up later. Raise K-frame up and re-install the Left side support bracket/control arm/shock in place, first. Go ahead and tighten the bolts attaching the bracket to the K-frame to 50 ft/lbs. (222 nm).
Repeat for Right side, but for me, most often the bushings will pop right out (no saw needed – in most cases).
Once the Right side support bracket is reattached, then install the four K-frame bolts. Once all four bolts are in and sung, tighten to specs (see below).
If you loosened the upper control arm bolts, then tighten nuts down to 150 ft/lbs. (667 nm). Note alignment will be off so you will need to get car aligned afterwards, if those nuts were loosened
!
Most cars need an alignment every 30k miles or so anyway - even if you did not affect alignment angles for this.
Turn torsion bar bolts back to the number of turns you loosened them to, to get ride height back to an approximate height.
The official factory ride height (lower part of lower control arm bushing to ground) is:
1977 FSM (Factory Service Manual) is 10½” (266.7 mm)
1982-1989 FSM is 12½” (317.5 mm)
I don’t have the official specs for other year FMJ’s.
If you measured the fender well height earlier, you can still use that to get back to original height (which doesn’t mean it is correct). Changing the ride height does affect most alignment angles – so it is good idea to take time to get right height correct, before taking car to get aligned.
Also, once you have the correct ride height set, using the fender well measurement will work for future reference.
Torque specs are:
K-frame bolts (unless the solid mount supplier suggests otherwise): 80 ft/lbs. (355 nm)
Upper control arm nuts: 150 ft/lbs. (667 nm)
Support to K-frame bolts: 50 ft/lbs. (222 nm)
Upper control arm pivot arm to bushing nuts (for bushing replacement, only) 110 ft/lbs. (489 nm)
BudW