new control arm?

[celeryman22]

Well, i messed up my upper and lower control arms pressing bushings in even after bracing the hell out if them. They are still in useable and salvageable condition but i'm sick of messing with them. So I going to get some new ones. If I'm buying new upper control arms should I get the heavy duty pair for 300.00 mig welded and made from tubing? Go they ahve something similar for the bottom?

Thanks
Mike

 

[Jack]

OE type rubber CA bushings are bonded to both inner & outer shells ... Poly bushings have No bonding between bushing-shells. If Polyurethane CA bushings are acceptable for you ... use them in your old CA's ... that is, IF your OLD outer CA bushing shells and shafts are still serviceable. If so, you can hog out the old rubber with a holesaw & penknife ... slide in the new poly bushing & inner shell into your OLD outer shell with silicone grease. Clean out the shafts' threads real well with carb cleaner ... do same to bushing retainer bolts ... loctite it back together ... you'll be good to go. I did same with mine and NO problems. G'Luck
Jack:gap

 

[celeryman22]

OE type rubber CA bushings are bonded to both inner & outer shells ... Poly bushings have No bonding between bushing-shells. If Polyurethane CA bushings are acceptable for you ... use them in your old CA's ... that is, IF your OLD outer CA bushing shells and shafts are still serviceable. If so, you can hog out the old rubber with a holesaw & penknife ... slide in the new poly bushing & inner shell into your OLD outer shell with silicone grease. Clean out the shafts' threads real well with carb cleaner ... do same to bushing retainer bolts ... loctite it back together ... you'll be good to go. I did same with mine and NO problems. G'Luck
Jack:gap

\Do the poly bushing just slide in? The rubber type are killer getting in. If the poly bushing slide in I will just use them instead. Im sure my control arms are salvageable but I dont want to get new rubber bushings if they are just going to do the same thing again.

 

[Jack]

\Do the poly bushing just slide in? The rubber type are killer getting in. If the poly bushing slide in I will just use them instead. Im sure my control arms are salvageable but I dont want to get new rubber bushings if they are just going to do the same thing again.

Yes. Once the old rubber and old inner sleeve are removed ... the new poly bushing and the new inner sleeve will slide in with silicone grease ... then clean out the shafts' threads & retainer bolts' threads real well (spritz carb cleaner) ... then install bolts with loctite.
JACK:gap

 

[norvalwilhelm]

You have a metal sleeve that needs to slide into the control arm. Use a flapper wheel on a drill to polish the inside of the control arm until just a small amount of force, like a soft rubber hammer slides them into place. There is also a metal tube that slides over the cross shaft, grease the poly pushings well and slide them in.
I don't believe in pressing in bushing in the old control arms.

 

[TWINRAY]

OE type rubber CA bushings are bonded to both inner & outer shells ... Poly bushings have No bonding between bushing-shells. If Polyurethane CA bushings are acceptable for you ... use them in your old CA's ... that is, IF your OLD outer CA bushing shells and shafts are still serviceable. If so, you can hog out the old rubber with a holesaw & penknife ... slide in the new poly bushing & inner shell into your OLD outer shell with silicone grease. Clean out the shafts' threads real well with carb cleaner ... do same to bushing retainer bolts ... loctite it back together ... you'll be good to go. I did same with mine and NO problems. G'Luck
Jack:gap

HiYa Jack (when are you gunna get those teeth fixed?)
Jokin aside, do you silicone grease the inside of the washer before you put the retaining bolt on (the side that butts up against the poly bushing)? I hope the answer is no cause after I did mine, I didn't. I did the loctite though.
Thanks Fred

 

[norvalwilhelm]

HiYa Jack (when are you gunna get those teeth fixed?)
Jokin aside, do you silicone grease the inside of the washer before you put the retaining bolt on (the side that butts up against the poly bushing)? I hope the answer is no cause after I did mine, I didn't. I did the loctite though.
Thanks Fred

I grease everything but the bolt and that is coated with loctite.
I also hold the cross shaft in the vise and tighten the end bolts and cycle the A arm through up and down motions to make sure it is free to move.
I use shocks to control/dampen the suspension not overtight bushings.
If the bushings are so tight that the end bolts need to be tightened/torqued with the car on the ground then to me the bushings are too tight and taking a beating everytime the suspension cycles.
I tight the bolt and make sure they move without binding.

 

[Jack]

I grease everything but the bolt and that is coated with loctite.
I also hold the cross shaft in the vise and tighten the end bolts and cycle the A arm through up and down motions to make sure it is free to move.
I use shocks to control/dampen the suspension not overtight bushings.
If the bushings are so tight that the end bolts need to be tightened/torqued with the car on the ground then to me the bushings are too tight and taking a beating everytime the suspension cycles.
I tight the bolt and make sure they move without binding.

Couldn't have said it better.
JACK:gap

 

[norvalwilhelm]

While on the subject of freedom of movement the front sway bar stud is all wrong. It runs into severe bind under full suspension travel. Look at the little rubber donuts and you will find some of them so badly deformed they are almost pushed out of the cut washer. This is because of severe binding.
If you want a smooth traveling suspension where the shocks and springs control movement these links also need to go.

 

[TWINRAY]

I grease everything but the bolt and that is coated with loctite.
I also hold the cross shaft in the vise and tighten the end bolts and cycle the A arm through up and down motions to make sure it is free to move.
I use shocks to control/dampen the suspension not overtight bushings.
If the bushings are so tight that the end bolts need to be tightened/torqued with the car on the ground then to me the bushings are too tight and taking a beating everytime the suspension cycles.
I tight the bolt and make sure they move without binding.

You don't torque the end bolts down? How tight do you make them? I torqued mine to 40 ft lbs - should that have been done just for rubber bushings? Do you just "snug up" the end bolts when you use poly bushings? I'd be afraid they would unravel even with litetight!

 

[norvalwilhelm]

QUOTE=TWINRAY]You don't torque the end bolts down? How tight do you make them? I torqued mine to 40 ft lbs - should that have been done just for rubber bushings? Do you just "snug up" the end bolts when you use poly bushings? I'd be afraid they would unravel even with litetight![/QUOTE]



I didn't make myself clear. I torque the end bolts too but they should not put the bushings into bind. If tightening the end bolts causes the A arm to become stiff then the bushings are too tight and will take a real beating.

I want the bushings to be snug in the bore but not tight. I don't want to press them in and I want the end bolts to hold them in place, not compress them causing binding.

I know they say to set the car on the ground then tighten the bolts because the bushings are then at rest but I hold the cross shaft in the vise, tighten the bolt and then check that it is free to move up and down.

I do remove my bushings yearly for grease and inspection and the inner fender is slight modified to allow the arm to slip in and out without disturbing anything else.

You do not need to remove the spring to change upper A arms, Just apply tension with a jack to hold the spring.

A bushing set consists of an out shell, the part that is pressed into the A arm, here again I do not want a press fit but a snug fit that I can do with a rubber hammer. I use a flapper wheel on a drill / die grinder and polish the A arm until the metal sleeve can be pressed/pushed in with light force.
The cross shaft has a metal tube that rides over it and it is a slide fit. The bushing comes next and when the end washer and bolt are torqued down the metal sleeve bits into the washer keeping the bushing from getting totally squashed.
Again I want my bushings to act as bushings, give free movement of the A arm and at the same time not get bent out of shape.
Pressing in bushings distorts the A arms, destroys the bushings and makes servicing a tough job.

 

[Jack]

I did not remove the OLD outer shell/sleeve from the CA ... my old outer shell/sleeve remains pressed into the CA just as it was installed from GM. However, I cleaned out the old rubber from the old outer shell/sleeve with a hole saw and penknife ... I also removed the old inner shell/sleeve/tube ... then I installed a new inner shell/sleeve/tube and new poly bushing. I did not install the new outer shell/sleeve that comes with a new 3-piece poly bushing set/assembly. Mine are made by Energy Suspension and came with a deluxe front end kit I got from the good folks at Van Steel.
JACK:gap

 

[chuckhinva]

On the matter of control arms. I am rebuilding the front end of my '81 and like an idiot did not mark the upper left and right control arms. How can you tell which is which? There is an offset and I don't know if it goes toward the front or the back. Can anyone help?

Thanks.

 

[JohnZ]

On the matter of control arms. I am rebuilding the front end of my '81 and like an idiot did not mark the upper left and right control arms. How can you tell which is which? There is an offset and I don't know if it goes toward the front or the back. Can anyone help?

Thanks.

See your other post for a photo.