I'm installing 1973 front suspension on my 69 Dart and have a couple questions regarding torque specs. Since all of the parts I am using are 73 era, I've been going by the specs. from the 73 service manual. The manual calls for 160 ft. lbs. of torque on the lower ball joint to spindle nuts/bolts. But, my 69 service manual lists the torque as 100 ft.lbs. Does anyone know what the reason is for the difference? And second, my torque wrench only goes up to 150 ft. lbs. Will the 10 ft. lbs. less be something to worry about?

Likely won't make a difference but it also depends on how accurate your wrench is at its limit.

Does the 73 have bigger bolts in it?

My '69 book says 120 ft. lbs. on the nut which might need to be turned to align the cotter pin, the '73 has no nut so the torque spec is different. IMO, 150 ft. lbs. is OK.

The parts I have are from a 73 Duster. The LBJ to spindle bolts do have a nut. Just checked my 69 Dodge service manual again and it says 120 lbs. for Coronet but for Dart it says 100 lbs. But, I did just notice it also says 115 lbs. for disk brakes. I also checked again and the 73 manual says 160 lbs.and they do show a bolt with nut in the diagram.

I will get bashed for this but Impact to tighten , done.

You realize the 73 stuff is different than the 69 stuff. You are not installing the exact same parts.

Use the spec from the service manual that matches the year of the parts you are installing.

Not rocket science and as for the rattle them on suggestion.

Grow some biceps.

As I said in my original post, I've been going by the specs. from the 73 service manual. Just wondering why there is a difference between the years. I also noticed that some of the torque specs differ in the same manual depending on where they are printed. In the 73 manual, some specs are mentioned in the installation instructions. some are shown in the parts assembly diagrams and of course on the tightening reference specifications page as well. A couple of examples are the uca cam bolts. The diagram shows 70 lbs. torque while the tightening reference specifications says 65 lbs. Also, the tightening reference specifications page says the strut rod to k-frame nut torque spec is 52 lbs. but the diagram shows 45 lbs. There are a couple of other instances of this. I know the differences are small but why are there differences at all? Oh, and BTW, biceps are not a problem.

The ball joints on the 1967 to 1972 A bodies are not the same size as the 1973 to 1976 is what I'm remembering
I think the later ones are bigger and stronger

Not from me you won't

I don't use a torque wrench on that stuff (ball joints, steering joints). I also don't play "he-man" putting it together since I may want to take it back apart someday without beating it to death. 150# sounds like a lot. Even 100.

correct.

just tighten with your preferred method until it strips or breaks, then back off 1/2 turn....................

AKA, I have stripped the threads out of one the early, pre 1973, A body upper A arm by over tightening it Be careful out their

I have tightened 10's of thousands of fasteners with an impact and have never, ever damaged a single thread. Have you guys ever seen a repair shop? Do you hand tighten everything? I am envisioning sitting out side a repair shop and instead of the symphony of air tools, and impact drivers, all we hear is ratchets clicking and laughing my ass of.....think about it for a sec.

then you are in a small minority of people that have a clue as to what you are doing . I've had to clean up after flat rate impact jockey that run [censored] in sideways and leave it for the next person to deal with. ... no disrespect to the GOOD flat rate techs ... The best one was the rear tranny pan bolts on a 2500 ram with a v10 , the crossover pipe goes under the back of the pan and every rear pan bolt was run in at an angle , had to helicoil every hole.

I get paid by the hour so I tighten just about everything by hand , the impact is only used when taking of the lug nuts on my car/truck and intially putting back on , after that the torque wrench comes out.

i would envision hearing a constant barrage of swear words accompanying the "clicks" of torque wrenches along with the myriad of sounds made by the various impact drivers and air tools..............
along with the boss chewing out the employees for taking too long to get up off their a$$es and getting to work.

There is a reason NO ONE else works on my stuff and this attitude is exactly it.

Flat rate hackery at it's best.

You guys realize that these cars a built without one hand tool from the factory right, or wait I bet they are all idiots too.

And you likely have a number of different tools, big, small, air, electric, etc., that you use for different tasks. You probably know just about what every tool will go to. Tell me you don't use your ballbuster 1/2" wrench to put valve covers on.

I have 3 different 3/8" impacts, I don't know how many 1/2", 1/4" drive stuff, air and electric. And I know just about what every one will do within maybe 5 or 10#. Just from using it.

Most home shop guys don't have that tooling, nor can they tell you what the ones they do have will go to with 3 hits after it stops turning, or a dozen.

I still put a torque wrench on most fasteners on race cars. Some are just by feel when I don't go to factory spec.