Front end rebuild on the menu

[47heaven]

Hey guys...hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year's. Have been off for a while but ready to get back into the swing of things.

Anyway, took the Plymouth in to have an alignment done on it. As I was watching the mechanic testing the front end by moving the tire and wheel back and forth, he noticed a lot of play. I told him that The car had a viberation at speeds over 50 mph. As he kept checking, he noticed something alarming; the stearing box was coming loose from the frame. It really shook me up because I don't know how long I had been driving it like that, and the day before I had 4 people in the car, including myself, going down the freeway. He told me that if it had come loose it could have been a tragic situation. So he tightened it and tried the shaking the wheels again, and even though there wasn't much looseness anymore, there was still a lot of play on both sides. Long story short...I need to have the front end rebuilt.

Anyway, this is what I need to replace.....inner and outer tie rod ends for both sides, as well as new king pins. The stablizer bar could use new bushings as well. He told me that those items should be enough to stablize the front end and make it safe. Is there anything else that should be replaced, as well? Also, where do I start looking for these parts? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Darin

[Andydodge]

Darrin, have a look on ebay at present, I have a 41 Plymouth Coupe and check "41 plymouth" regularly and there is a couple of king pin sets, plus other front end bit, do the same under 47 Plymouth, there are always lots of stuff listed, also check out the various mopar vendors, like Andy Bernbaum, www.oldmoparts.com who generally have most parts available........as for your steering box, it bolts to the chassis with 3 bolts that go thru from the outside into the steering box case, it uses a rubber insulater between both the steering box and the steel plate on the outside of the chassis and this rubber can perish and should be checked/replaced also.........have you got a workshop/service manualas all the bits are shown....andyd

[Young Ed]

I bought my 1 new tie rod and my king pin kit from napa.

[Normspeed]

Hi Darin, mine had the loose steering box too. It was the rubber insulator pad that had deteriorated, between box and frame. In my case I tightened the bolts and have never replaced the insulator but some day I will. It's a good idea to replace it at the same time as the rebuild and alignment, as replacing it later will affect your tow-in adjustment. They are available from different sources, not real cheap but under $50. Personally I would stay away from Roberts on rubber parts because I've had a couple of their rubber items rot away within a year.

I just bought a tie rod end and a kingpin kit from RockAuto.com at a good price. They offer two grades of name brand tie rod ends, I went for the good'uns.

By stabilizer bar, you mean the sway bar across the front? Not sure where or how the shop would locate those bushings for your P15 but maybe they have a source. The rubber bushings are enclosed in a bracket that's spot welded together so I think to replace them you would have to drill out the welds, replace the rubber, then either weld or bolt the brackets back together.

Let us know about how that part goes. I broke my sway bar earlier this year and replaced it with a used one that has very loose rubber bushings. Need to fix that eventually.

[Young Ed]

I believe on a p15 the front mounts and the control arm mounts for the sway bar are all bolted on.

[Normspeed]

Bolted to the frame, but it looks like the rubber bushings are captive inside spot welded brackets that bolt to the frame. Might be easier to replace than it looks. I'd sure like to hear from someone who has replaced them with new.

[Young Ed]

I bought a set of NOS ones but never tried to put them on my car

[desoto1939]

Insulator set, steering housing to frame. Replaces #684980-1. Set includes both inner and outer pieces.

1940: Dodge, DeSoto (6cyl), & Plymouth

1941-52: All Dodge & Plymouth

1953-54: Dodge (6cyl) & Plymouth

40-0422-36.....$ 90.40/set

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did a search on steeles webpage and he has the steerbox insulator that mounts on the fame and the steering box. This is not a cheap item but this is what you might need

Rich Hartung

[47heaven]

Ok...here's the run down.

I checked numerous places for the tie rods and king pins. Napa, Rock Auto and Car Quest carried some of the things, but they didn't have complete sets of tie rod ends that they could order. I tried another place called Brother's Auto Parts, and though they located the tie rod ends and king pin set, but when all was said done, it came close to $300 just in parts. It looks like Berbaum is the guy that has everything I need, and at a better price, as well. I couldn't tell if he had the right rubber bushings for the sway bar because it mentions upper and lower, and all I see is about three total along the bar. What do you guys think? Can I trust the parts from him to be good quality? I always hear bad things about him, so I don't know if I should take a chance or not, but it seems I have no choice. Kanter may also have the parts, but I'll have to look.

Rich, thanks for looking up the insulator set for me.

Norm, the brackets that hold in the bushings are bolted in. Is the insulator pad that important? How about if I use a piece of rubber from a 1/4" heavy duty thick sheet?

[Normspeed]

Darin, I may have been barking up the wrong tree. I was thinking the P15 might be the same as my P24. here is a photo of the two sway bar mounts that came off my broken P24 sway bar. There are also two more rubber mounts at the extreme ends of the bar.

On these mounts, the rubber pieces seem to be captured pretty tightly in the mount which is spot welded together.

Sorry to get you off the track. The P15 setup might be way different.

The insulator pad, I can't say, since I'm still running with a badly deteriorated one. My guess is that the main purpose is to dampen road vibrations so they don't transmit to the frame.

[47heaven]

Darin, I may have been barking up the wrong tree. I was thinking the P15 might be the same as my P24. here is a photo of the two sway bar mounts that came off my broken P24 sway bar. There are also two more rubber mounts at the extreme ends of the bar.

On these mounts, the rubber pieces seem to be captured pretty tightly in the mount which is spot welded together.

Sorry to get you off the track. The P15 setup might be way different.

The insulator pad, I can't say, since I'm still running with a badly deteriorated one. My guess is that the main purpose is to dampen road vibrations so they don't transmit to the frame.

Yeah, Norm. That looks more like mine. I wonder if anyone has an exploded diagram of the whole steering system.

[desoto1939]

from my information the king pins from 1939-53 for plymouth all used the saME NUMBER AND FROM AN old napa catalog the number was momouth A290

tie rod ends 39-54 right 1 pair Monmputh 5060

39-54 left 39-54 1 pair monmouth 5131

hope this helps in your search also look on ebay these parts are always being listed but maybe not buy the same manufacturer.

rich hartung

[BobT-47P15]

I recently bought this king pin set on e-bay for about $50.

Seller was PST online sales. I don't see an ad from them on

this product right now.

Rock Auto now has this set for sale--$62.79 "Buy It Now"

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PLYMOUTH-SPECIAL-DELUXE-King-Pin-Set-RAYBESTOS-5301025_W0QQitemZ160390999833QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item25580c6f19

[47heaven]

Ok, after days of searching and not coming up with exactly what I need, I turned to Andy Bernbaum for the front end parts...he had all of them. Also, got some upper and lower arm bumpers, as well. Let's hope I made the right move by getting the parts from him.

[RobertKB]

Ok, after days of searching and not coming up with exactly what I need, I turned to Andy Bernbaum for the front end parts...he had all of them. Also, got some upper and lower arm bumpers, as well. Let's hope I made the right move by getting the parts from him.

When I started on my '38 Chrysler way back in 1985 there was no internet so I used car magazines and Hemmings. Andy was one of the guys in most magazines so until I improved my parts base, I used him a lot. Never had a problem with any of the mechanical stuff I got from him. On the phone, I found him a bit gruff, but not rude. You should be OK.