The idler arm is made out of poor materials. It will wear out prematurely. They all do.
The solution is a $200 rebuild of your part and you have to send it away. Get underneath and grab your drag link and check for loosey-goosey play there. Also shows up as slop in the steering wheel, although that could be a loose steering box, too.
I don't remember when AutoTemp II came in (my 73 has it), but they are all defective and the resin on the in/out bowl at the bottom of the automatic switcher thing that looks like a miniature gaurd tower on your passenger side fender that the heater hoses go into will fail if it has not done so already. If it works now, you may be the only one on the planet with a working, stock unit. Prepare for a failure and leakage. mine is bypassed, and if you're determined, a manual control from a regular chrysler of that year will fit in the same slot in the dash-board, I have been told. The part is also common to similar vintage Mercedes and the MBZ resto folk have created enough of a market that there's a company that makes an aluminum one for several hundred dollars. I bring a jacket and keep my power windows functioning and I seem to do all right here in the temperate Bay Area.
Don't forget, as with all "new" cars to inspect tire age (over 7 years is questionable), replace hoses, belts, and especially power steering pressure and return hoses. Also consider the 3 soft hoses, calipers, master cylinder, and wheel cylinders that make up your brake system. Your car is 35 and the hoses are rarely replaced when a brake job is done. Congratulations on your "score"
-Kenyon
Jkelly808@xxxxxxx wrote:
In the spirit of the previous post re "somehow a stray car followed me home," well, I suddenly find myself the owner of a neglected, sun-bleached but one owner, low-mile '71 LeBaron that had been gathering dust in the back of a used car lot in Fresno, Calif.
Any parts availability issues I should be aware of, a la the brake nightmare that goes along with owning a '68?
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network