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Expert
Posts: 1348
  
Location: Valley Forge, Pa. | Hello,
I am not a knowledgeable MOPAR or even a real dedicated "car person" but I love my cars. This is my unprofessional expereince and that is about it.
I bought my 1960 Plymouth full size Suburban barn find 6 years ago with 60,000 org. miles. Drove it to 70,000 and the front end was getting bad. I bought a "new" center link and an NORS idler arm kit on Ebay and a full Kanter rebuild kit. Completely rebuilt it then. All was good! At 80 and 90,000 it developed play and I replaced the center link both times with Ebay "new" links. I just replaced it again at 103,000. I cut open one of the old "new" ones. They simply rebuilt an old one by sand blasting it, leaving the old rotted rubber bushing, and pushing in a plastic sleeve which was very tight when new, and painting it. They only last 10,000. ASK before you buy, that they are totally NEW. The whole front end started developing slight play at 90,000 and it got so bad I could barely drive by 100,000. Shop guy says "everything looks good and all is tight, bad steering box". Found a P.S. box. Spent $250 for box and professional rebuild. Went to a more reliable shop and they too said that the front "seems tight" but I know there is something wrong when it developed a real bad "klunk" in tight turns. He removed the torsion bar and the bushing was shot. Without tension he could see the upper ball joint was bad. This was just the start. Basically, I had to replace almost every component of the Kanter kit. He had the car for 2 months but I took my time and spent a lot of money for NOS and top name brand stuff. For now, it runs and drives great and I do drive my car a lot. Will it last longer that the Kanter kit?????
Bottom line, I don't know if all these "kits" are the same but ASK question. Where are the parts from, who makes them, are they guarenteed and how long?
Does anyone even make a "GOOD" kit??????????
To those of you new to these cars like me and looking for any answers, I hope someone found some of this interesting and possibly usefull. I don't claim to be a know it all. This is what I learned and some of it may be wrong.
Hope this helps someone,
Karl.
P.S. I've read people asking about a banging when down shifting. I have a 318/powerflight and had the same problem, so I followed those forums. Here is my experience. I replaced the front joint on the drive shaft at 70,000 with a complete NORS joint[no noises, just a vibration]. At 95,000 the car picked up a very slight noticable vibration during acceleration and a bang when down shifting and sometimes up shifting but ujoints FELT nice and tight. The banging became louder and the vibration more noticable. We thought it was in the rear or trans. I actually rebuilt the rear because of that and because it sat in a barn for 30 years. I thought it probably has rust in parts that were above the oil but nothing really bad inside and problem continued to get worse. I broke down and had a completely new drive shaft with currect joints built. WHAT A DIFFERENCE![around $460 at a speed shop but may be cheaper places?]. In my case, the noise and vibration were completely gone + I can replace joints for a fraction of the price, IF they ever goes bad. ++I still have the complete old shaft stored.+++I feel it's more reliable and should it go bad far from home, I can find the part in stock at any parts store. |
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Veteran
Posts: 168
Location: SD | Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences...you'll probably save others some time and frustration! |
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Expert
Posts: 3399
Location: Chestertown, NY ( near Lake George) | These " kits" sold at marketing outlets can be of poor quality, your experience is not unique. PST components seem to be better than most I have used, most owners of our cars do not use them enough to wear these parts out, then after some time sell them and never run into this issue. I get as much as I can from Napa, or Rock Auto first then PST, so far so good, but the cars I have done none have over 5k since done. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | A "clunk" upon turning, can definitely result from a worn strut bar's (front) bushing, which allows that strut bar
to move with the lower control arm, and to 'clunk' against the frame's front cross member.
The so-called "OEM" strut bar bushing is a thin-wimpy piece, that looks kinda like an elongated barrel, with a crimp line
across its waist. It gets to be crushed together and flattened out, and wears out relatively quickly.
An infinitely better bushing is the stout small hockey-puck-looking heavy-duty guy, that Just Suspension sells.
Edited by d500neil 2010-11-11 7:29 PM
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Ebay and Kanter front susp. experiences + U-joint
