Yes the aussie cars have an issue here and with the actual upper control arm as well
mainly to do with the beating they got in earlier years when the roads were not the mirror smooth concrete they are now
the parts are identical or better than US versions but were of course welded together with chrylsers excellent quality control in the foreforont of the line workers mind
there is a chrysler service bulletin that outlines gusseting and triangle bits of metal you can weld in. its hidden away on the hemi6pack sites archive.
the fix was primarily for country dealers who found the locals had the ability to snap anything
an aussie car suffering with this issue will have cracks near the mount welds, if you check the gusseted section that runs from the mount to the top of the inner wing (where a press fit threaded pin comes through from the engine bay) it will show movement when you turn the wheel lock to lock
i drilled out the pins on mine and replaced with a bloody big bolt.
tightend up the steering no end
one side was rock solid, the other side had no cracks but showed mucho flex which is magnified by the length of this 8 inch gusseting running up to the inner wing top. oldly this gusset is not welded to the car at any point other thean the contrl arm mount
see pic below
the upper control arms for CL onwards have every corner join reenforced
because the arms used to fall to bits as well. they fixed this in the late 70s so i guess it was a symptom of heavier car (VH--> with more power being sold to a demographic who thrashed their cars harder than the previous VIP v8 owners of the 60s) i.e nackerd after 5-6 years
US UK cars don't seem to suffer unless its rust...mind thats based on never heard of this on any other message board.
The aussies have found that the urethane or nolathane (as they call it) front end kits that replace each and every rubber part in the front end cause bits of vital metal to snap off at an alarming rate...most places do a locally produced rather than imported mixed kit now where certain parts are kept as rubber others are harder urethan and some are soft self lube type stuff. my guess is the guy in question has seen all the stuff written about this issue and is just making sure he's ok with nolathane in this position. i'd say he probably is provide his car hasn't been jumped over every pothole for the last 40 years.
Dave
