My 20 year old Park Ave has me worried. Being a front wheel drive, it has no rear axle like rear drive cars. There is a large suspension cross member, which has my air shocks, brake cables and I'm not sure about the K frames, fastened to it. The darn thing has 20 years of road salt winters rusting it through. At this point, both sides are wide open as its made as a 2 piece formed weldment. The ass end has dropped considerably to the road. I have a few weeks back, pulled the relay for its Dynaride leveling as I believe its lower position on the cross member was what was eating my battery. It no longer does. I'm not sure the cross member is easily changed because there is so much attached to it. I'm giving thought to pulling one, after jacking up the car for closer inspection, from a bone yard or, buying on line. I cant imagine the bushings and other hardware I'll need. What kind of can of worms have I ? Is this a doable job without a garage ? Is my old car screwed ? I' ve been living in the damn thing for 27 months now and winter is coming. I'm open to some good advice folks. Thank you.

If you have 20 yr old air springs in the car and the ass end is dragging, they are probably leaking.

Also, pointing to this is the ride leveling system killing your battery. Likely trying to pump up the springs and couldn't. Hopefully you didn't burn the pump out.

You can probably replace them with coil springs and delete the whole system. This is pretty common and considering it's a W body (IIRC), it should have plenty of options.

Do a little googling and I'm sure you'll find some answers on the swap.

I used to listen to Click and Clack, The Tappet Brothers, on the radio. One Saturday, a lady called in to describe a problem with her car.

“So you’re having a problem with your rear end,” Ray said.

“The car’s rear end,” the lady corrected him.

Yup. Causing the module for the compressor to signal fill the shocks. I pulled the relay from the rear seat fuse box. No more Dynaride. But the cross member has opened like a soup can on both ends. This leaves rusted steel hanging about 4 inches off the ground. I dont know what comes next when the open ends break off. Car body on the ground ?

What is the condition of the rest of the vehicle? Miles? One can get to the point of diminishing returns with car repairs.

Seems like a big job to change out a main cross-member, rusted up & all.

My grandparents had a similar issue with their park ave. They were told by a reputable (to them, I have no knowledge of this shop) garage that it would be cost prohibitive to replace.
The sold the car to a family friend who then bought a standard (non air ride) rear axle assembly from a salvage yard, and the car was back on the road for not a whole lot of money.
Granted he was a shade tree, not sure how much labor was involved.

I don't think this car has air springs. I think it has coil springs and the load leveling is actually an air shock (or strut). It may just need new coil springs and non-air shocks/struts. But with the crossmember in as bad condition as you state, even this may not be feasible. If you can find a crossmember, it can be replaced … if the bolts come loose. With that much rust, they may not loosen at all, they may break, or the captured nuts inside the body may break loose and spin.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

I thank you for the replies. I probably can locate the cross member but am not so confident about changing it out. And yes the rust would likely be a huge issue. On 2 steep uneven surfaces, it will hit bottom. The old girl has givin good service but I may well be out of vehicle soon. I wonder what else can go wrong. Thanks again guys. Take care.

If you're really stuck on that model, find an estate sale with a low mileage southern car.