RE: [Chrysler300] HELP!

["Jennifer Allyn" <gearhead.girl@xxxx>]

Had junkyard parts installed to convert the car to disc brakes some
years ago with 1970's parts. Lost the turning radius and have never
been happy.

Now that the motor is out, I decided to not only rebuild the front end,
but return it to stock spindles (steering knuckles), tie rods, etc. and
add a disc brake kit from AAJ Brakes (like I added to our '62 wagon).

Ordered all of the new ball joints from Andy Bernbaum. Took out the
upper & lower control arms (which have always been original to the car)
and had my front end shop unscrew the old ones & screw in the new ones.
Upon my reinstalling them onto the car, then following tightening
specifications from the factory shop manual, I see that all four ball
joint castle nuts end up way below the cotter key area. They all have
their flat washers that came with the ball joints. I tried 1 lock washer
on top of one flat washer, though that still did not take up the
difference. Nut is still too low.

Called Andy Bernbaum's company and Steve (their front end guy) checked
the part numbers stamped on each upper & lower ball joint. They are
correct for the Newport/300 Sport application he said. He asked me to
check the shape of the inner tie rods, saying that if they were bent
(rather than more straight) then the car would have received a NY/300H
frame from the factory and I would need the larger ball joints. I just
looked at the NY wagon inners compares the new inners I ordered for the
300 Sport. They do differ from each other. The NY's are "twisted" in
design where the Sport's are "straight" in relation to its factory bend.
Just checked the inners that were on the car for the last decade (if not
longer) and they are also "straight".

So now...the question. If the Sport has the Short Wheel Base frame that
its supposed to have (and most likely does) why would the car have upper
& lower control arms that need the larger ball joints? Are the steering
knuckles (spindles) interchangeable as to which side they go on to?
Could I have put them on upside down? (the steering arms, I mean).
Obviously the ball joints screwed into the control arms a-ok, though the
ball joint studs are going to far into the steering arm tapered holes,
thus making the nuts go too far down on the stud.

Need to have the car back on its wheels by the last weekend of the
month, so I roll it out of the way fro my 1 year olds birthday party.
Work 5 days a week, 12 hours a day. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

I will call anyone to discuss! Please help!
Thanks!!!
Matt Allyn

-----Original Message-----
From: MJMLandDev@xxxx [mailto:MJMLandDev@xxxx] 
Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2002 5:09 AM
To: gearhead.girl@xxxx
Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] HELP!

I'll try to help. email me your problems and I'll see if I can find a 
solution.

Mike Meyer