School me on front crossmember swaps

[theastronaut]

Unpopular opinion- The 63-72 cross shafts are a much better design, they don't really wear out as long as they have grease in them. The threaded design has a lot of wear surface. They don't allow any movement of the arms other than hinging up and down so they keep the wheels pointed where they're supposed to go. The rubber squarebody bushing degrade and always need replacing, and since they're soft rubber they allow some deflection- the arms can move around a bit and throw the alignment off under heavier loads like cornering or braking hard or hitting potholes.

I see no point in swapping in worn out squarebody parts when the original control arms have a superior design. Unless you're trying to save as much as possible and are ok with using 35+ year old rubber bushings, its best to buy a disc brake kit for the 63-70 a-arms, new ball joints, and a power steering kit made for the 63-70 arms. You'll have all new brake and steering parts instead of worn out brakes and steering from a squarebody. Once you pay to rebuild all of the squarebody parts you're not really saving any money.


These are 149k mile cross shafts from my '66. They were still snug with no play, perfectly usable as is. Note that the tips of the threads are still very square- they would be pointy if there was wear. Throw fresh grease in and they'll easily last another 150k.







These are 43k mile bushings from our Squarebody, they definitely need replacing.