Valiant chassis rail repair and a new front end setup on the CM GLX Chrysler

So we started out thinking it would be an easy day just replacing the front end balls joints, bushes, etc, but it turned out there was a little more going on behind the scenes here...

Looked like the car had already been repaired a while ago with a smallish patch (about 6 inches long) that covered the area on the chassis rail around where the steering box bolts upto, we decided to remove it and fit a proper chassis rail sleeve, turned out there was nearly a kilo of rust and dirt in the chassis, the crush tube that the bolt from the steering box goes thru was 80% disintegrated! the chassis rail was also somewhat crushed, meaning the steering box never firmly bolted up and probably moved a little bit, definitely the chassis rail would have been twisting also.

Interesting, the steering box was in the way when removing the lower control arm because the steering box had twisted inwards at the bottom because the crush-tube in the rail had rotted thru! wonder what kind of movement was going on there...

Thing discovered..

• Wrong size upper wishbone bushings, (too small) made the brackets bend "inwards" when the previous wheel-alignment place torqued up the bolts, the bushes never "grabbed" onto the brackets and were moving around


• Steering box slopping around, crush tube was rotten, internal rail gussets were rotted out


• Upper balljoints were inferior and not the right size/thread (couldnt be undone with the standard tool)


• And lots more!