So, from what I can tell, the bushings on the front crossmember have completely disintigrated on the front left suspension area, so the wheel is shifting back and forth...

Any idea how bad this is and how urgent it is for me to fix it? I'm quite low on money as always but could figure it out if it's totally necessary. Thanks.

-KC

I can't tell which bushings you're talking about for sure, but if the wheel moves, at all, it is urgent. And I mean urgent in the sense of I wouldn't drive it until it was fixed. Best case failure mode is that it causes you to loose control of your vehicle. Worst case is that the wheel falls off while you are moving. Either one is a /very/ ugly scenario.

I once saw a guy who very narrowly missed wrapping his car around a power pole when he broke a tie rod end, and that was on a city street with a 30 mph speed limit. Thank god it pulled to the right instead of into the oncoming lane, or things could have been much, much uglier.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

I take that to mean the strut rod bushings.
Yes, you need to fix that now.
The strut rod controls the position of the lower control arm (LCA). If the LCA's are shifting around, the handling will be squirrelly at best.
If a strut rod loses a nut and comes loose, it could be really, really bad.

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"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO

Go poly all the way, dude!

W/D

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If it ain't broke, fix it!

My Dart had worn/rotted bushings in the front end, I put off spending the $250 for a front-end kit (balljoints, bushings, tie-rod ends, etc).

Then one day while driving on the interstate the Dart changed lanes on me all by itself... quite suddenly. Scared the hell out of me. Fortunately no one was in the lane next to me at the time.

I bought the kit the next day and installed it next weekend.

-Mac

When you replace the strut rod bushings, you'll more than likly have to replace the lower control arm bushings as well. Since the LCA is moving around due to the strut bushings being shot, they are taking a beating. Been there, done that. Its a nice improvement when its fixed! The most expensive part of this is having a machine shop remove and replace the LCA bushings for you. The bushings (use Moog) are cheap. When you get ready to do it, come back here and ask.....somebody will give you good advice on how its done.

One note...

If you are considering doing a disc-for-drum brake swap, then now is the time. You'll have everything apart anyways, and, if you are rebuilding the suspension, you'll want to purchase the parts that fit your new spindles (larger ball joints, etc), and put the new bushings into the "new" upper A-arms.

Brakes or not, you should definitely rebuild the entire front end while you've got it apart. If you've got access to a machine shop or a garage with a press you should be able to do the job in a weekend. Then bring it in for an alignment on Monday!

-Mac

Wow... sounds like this is going to be a much bigger deal than I thought.