I have two 1980 Volares and a 1978 LeBaron station wagon. Used to have a '78 LeBaron 4 dr and a '79 LeBaron Wagon too. In all of those, I've never had a squeaky bushing. That's why I'm fairly confident a salvage yard part will work fine. What you have is not a common problem.
Jack the car up under the cross member or frame rail; anything that lets the wheel and suspension droop.
I can visualize the rings you're talking about. I would assume they are supposed to prevent the bushing from squirming sideways out of the bracket. If they have a half-inch long section that is folded over on itself, that is a crimp that pulls the band tight. A special pliers is used to tighten those bands. It is commonly used for the bands on cv joint boots on front-wheel-drive cars. Two jaws squeeze the crimp, and a little ram comes down in between them to press the crimp flat. That same pliers can be used to open up the crimp to release tension on the band. Just use it without squeezing it tightly. Bend the crimp side to side a few times to stretch it out.
"Spray White Lube" is the name on the can. The Chrysler dealer's parts department has it. They also have "Silicone Spray Lube" but you can get that at auto parts stores too.
Another really good chemical from Chrysler is their "Rust Penetrant". Originally it was designed to free up rusted heat riser valves in the right exhaust manifold of V-8 engines. It works WAY better than WD-40, but once it does its job, you have to wash it off, otherwise water will follow it in and things will rust up tighter than they were before. I used to do a lot of tv antenna work. Once in a while we would run into a really old tripod made of angle iron. Those bolts hadn't been loosened in decades. There were times when I would see those bolts starting to twist. If I sprayed them with WD-40 on Friday, they might come loose on Monday. Once I learned about the Rust Penetrant and started using it, bolts would come loose twenty minutes after spraying them. Later, as an alignment specialist, I started using it on tie rod adjusters thinking it would keep them freed up. When those cars started coming back for maintenance alignments months and years later, I found every one of them rusted so tight, I needed a torch to get them loose. They were much tighter than tie rod threads that were never sprayed with anything. That's when I started using Spray White Lube instead.
I also used Spray White Lube to coat brake line nuts, bleeder screws, parking brake cable adjuster nuts, and power steering line nuts on all the new cars I did the "New Vehicle Prep" on. I live in a state where they throw a ton of salt on an ounce of snow and our cars rust away overnight. When doing repairs on a ten year old car, you could always tell when it was one I had prepped because all the nuts and bolts came loose easily.
I'm told PB Blaster is another good rust remover product but I've never used it myself. Chrysler's Rust Penetrant gets the job done now but it doesn't contain a lubricant or rust preventer. It has a single purpose of getting rusty things apart quickly. It seems two-in-one chemicals that break the bonds of rust AND provide a lubricant in one product never work as well as two separate products each designed for a specific purpose.
Caradiodoc
Friday, December 31st, 2010 AT 12:50 AM
