February was extremely warm and mostly snow free this year. By March all the roads were washed of salt, so I got the Dart back on the road. I had mothballed the Dart a month later than usual mid December after installing a new Borgeson steering gear, PS pump and hoses, and it test drove about 2000 feet. The and next day snow and cold hit Maine, and I put the car in storage.

A warm snow free March provided a longer than a five minuet test ride around the neighbor hood. I like the new box. Car should have an alignment, but have held off driving until new highly adjustable upper control arms and hopefully squeak free adjustable strut rods land here sometime this coming week.

A few years ago I installed a pair of QA-1 upper control arms, nice arms well built, but the line up guy can't get enough adjustment from them to hit factory specs never mind any extra caster. Now I'm trying SPC arms.

The first set of adjustable strut rods I tried employed a Heime joint instead of a rubber bushing that has begun to squeak and groan. Hopefully the adjustable strut rod with urethane hockey puck like bushings Firm Feel sells will not be as noisy.

This week I had hoped the parts would be here and installed so I could be driving in summer mode... Well that dream is spoiled with a 10" snow drop we are receiving today. The recent April like weather we have been enjoying since mid February has reverted to February weather in the last few days. I knew global warming was too good to be true.

A side note, this is the first winter storage with the new FITech FI. It started right up, idled down like it had just been running the day before, and once the transmission pump primed its self she moved right out side.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

I would avoid the spc arms. They just look flimisy in my opinion.

Instead add a set of lower adjustable strut rods instead if you don't already have them.

That might allow the adjustment you need.

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

I already have lower adjustable Dynamic strut rods. They are hard to get orientated such that the Heim joint won't bind. One alignment guy loosened them up, turned the Heim 90*, that was not helpful. As I said they are getting noisy from dirt and water.

One would think that an adjustable strut rod would take care of a caster problem. That is why I installed them a few years ago. I think some of the problem is today's techs doesn't understand our old cars four front end adjustments, and the order they need to be set.

As for the flimsy looking arm, remember they are held in place by two sheet metal ears and a cam bolt. I have to think some mechanical engineer has made the calculations & put his PE Stamp of approval on them that satisfied the lawyers and product liability insurance paper pushers that adjustable arm is stout enough.

I don't plan on jumping any streams AKA Dukes of Hazzard stile. The SPC parts look better built than the first set of tubular arms I got from CAP c 2009. Those were held together with a small bead of weld at the ball joint ring with no gusseting, poor water sealing & grease retention, and no bump stop provisions.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

The SPC adjustable upper control arms arrived this morning. These suckers are stout.

The ring holding the ball joint is 1/4" stock, the three bolts attaching the arms are 7/8" grade 5, the adjustable arms are threaded 3/4" stock that act like a turnbuckle, and the chunk that fits between the ears where the old eccentric adjustment was made are cast with rubber bussing held in place by 1/2" grade 8 bolts & 3/16" washers. The whole contraption weighs in at 7 1/2 pounds.

I'm going to continue this install over in "Suspension & Brakes" in a few days once the Firm Feel adjustable strut rods arrive from the west coast, and I build up enough ambition to rip into the install. I ain't getting any younger.

A week or so I replaced the door handles that are sold in pairs. The "factory fresh" 57 year old driver's door kept trapping the thumb push that required a bit of encouragement to pop back out with each use, and the other I though was causing a persistent rattle on the road. Its thumb push did flop and rattle a bit. That rattle I discovered during the install was caused by a bent lock rod that protrudes from the door sill was hitting on something in the door. A little English applied to the rod cured that PIA rattle.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC