My idler arm is somewhat loose, possibly affecting toe adjustment. The arm itself is fairly new and in okay condition, the problem is the tapered stud is not tight in the bracket that is part of the K frame. If you put a floor jack under the arm and pump it up you can get a .047" feeler gauge between the washer and the bracket. When it is jacked up, the arm does not bottom out against the bracket, indicating there is still some taper in the hole. I'd swear this thing was tight once, in fact Doug Dutra and several others helped me tighten it up at Columbus many years ago.

The problem is I can't figure out how to get the nut off the top of the stud. Ordinarly when you put a jack under it, it will force the tapered stud into the hole with sufficient force to keep it from turning so you can get the nut off. The fact that the nut is on tight indicates that the taper was jamming when last put together. Any Ideas how to get that nut off with torching it? It looks like it just needs a thicker washer between the nut and the stud, but this seems too easy. Do these holes tend to wear even when the stud is tight to start with? If so what is the best way to restore a tight fit? Any other advice? I have thought of making a slightly tapered U shaped shim .047 thick that would fit between the bracket and the washer and forcing it in. Would that just pospone a more serious problem? Thanks for helping.

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If you didn't drive it there, it's not a street car.

Is there enough room to get an impact air wrench on the nut, when you have the jack holding the arm up into the tapper??

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

With enough extensions and universal joints you probably could, but I don't really have an inpact wrench. I can get a 3/8" ratchet and socket on the nut but it just spins, even when the jack is under the idler arm and the whole weight of the car is pushing down.

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If you didn't drive it there, it's not a street car.

seymour,
use a zipdisc to cut a slot in the end of the tapered stud. now, with the jack applying pressure to the joint, use a torch and heat the nut to a dull cherry, and remove it with an open end wrench while holding the stud stationary with a screwdriver in the slot you just cut. if the clearance is tight, you can jam the screwdriver into the slot from the side.

tapered sockets will not wear out unless the assembly works loose and the stud works back and forth in the hole. it is possible, and i have had this done many times before, for a machine shop to repair the bore-hole by pressing in a bushing and reaming it back out to the correct taper. in the case of a $300 spindle, the cost savings of this repair are significant. the k-frame will have to be removed and stripped of all removable parts before sending to the machine shop, so that it can be held in a fixture for this machine work. in some cases oversize tapered studs are available as service replacements, but i cannot comment on your car directly. if the hole is indeed worn oversize, and the stud has to be pulled upward an excessive amount to become tight again, the boot might become shredded from interference or the joint itself may interfere against the bracket.

an alternate solution you may want to explore is using a repair polymer like belzona, and using their release coating on your *new* idler arm stud to restore the taper on the k-frame bracket. i do not have direct experience with this type of repair, but if you explore their website you will find an archive of case histories where various formulas were used to solve very unique and demanding problems. it is interesting reading. start here to find a location near you: http://www.belzona.com/locations.aspx

i hope this information is of use to you, and it is an honour to provide it to someone of your standing. best of luck to you.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

I would probably get a new idler arm and just cut the body off the old one, then clamp the ball end with a big vise grips (or weld something to it) and loosed the nut. Then, take a look at the tapered hole in the K bracket...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I'm betting the tapered hole in the K-frame is worn out. A K-frame R&R sounds daunting but it really isn't all that bad. It can fairly easily be done in a day or less. The last one I did took around 4 hours if I remember correctly.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

You may want to try jamming a wedge in between the nut's washer and the top of the bracket, a fine blade screw driver or simular tool. doing this may pull the tapered shank up enough to allow you to crack the nut loose.

Once you have the assembly apart, inspect the bracket hole for wear. A thicker top washer could pull the shank deeper into the bracket, before the hold down nut or the idler arm body "bottoms-out".
Grinding some material off the bottom face of the bracket can allow more room for the taper to seat and lock into the bracket's hole.
DD

I believe these and the ball joints use standard Morse tapers. I know I looked it up a long time ago when I needed to do a similar repair.

You can get the right taper reamer to clean the hole up, and do it in the car.

Then use a washer(s) an maybe grind the face down like already suggested.

Yes It is a standard Morse taper. Good Luck

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.