Had my car on alignment rack and found that the area where the bushings are pressed in is sort of smashed inward. Whoever installed the bushings apparently beat them to death squishing the area where the bushings mount.

I’m hoping to hoping to massage them back to the original width and install new bushings but I can’t find any reference to what that width should be.

can someone measure the inside distance where the bushing goes for the control rod? If I’m not making sense I can upload a sketch of the area. It’s hard to find control arms. I could buy used ones off of eBay but I’d still have to confirm the width. Apparently this is a common mistake.

 

Upper - or - lower control arm? . . . or, both?

 

lower. I don’t have the car here so I don’t know about the uppers. I think they are different. I’ve attached an image that shows the area.

 

The uppers look like they don’t have a channel.



man, I am not looking forward to this job. I’ve done it before. But I’m 25 years older.

 

That one in the picture should be replaced, as you have one piece of metal with a hole, and if that hole is not true, then the bushing might not hold normally and this is consideration of it getting bent, the appearance of rust, etc.

Ya sure press the bushing back out that looks partially rusted in, and then beat on the metal and hope the structural integrity is sound. The uppers don't have the spring pressure directly on them like the lowers that seat the spring. If it was a lower you were discussing, I absolutely would not risk it.

But then on reconditioned ones, you don't know the history as to whether someone hammered the **** out of them, badly welded and then painted the evidence. So rather hammer and weld myself, then to buy someones claimed reconditioned ones.

 

sorry, those are just photos from the internet to show the area where I’m trying to get the proper dimensions. They are not mine.

I hope to remove mine and expand the bushing channel to the correct width because I know the condition of the arms is good. Just the channel (see first pic) is squished. That is my concern about eBay arms. They might have the same problem.

I did find some that are still raw (not reconditions) but I’d still have to check the width to make sure they aren’t hammered too.

if anyone has a car on a lift or can see under their car, the lower control arm is clearly visible and I would very much appreciate if you could take a tape measure to the inside dimension of where the bushing goes through.

 

Bumpity

hopefully picking up the car today and can get some photos of the actual control arms.

 

I had my car on the lift today so thought I'd try to get that dimension for you. That is kind of a difficult area to get really accurate dimensions because the control arms are just formed steel stampings and most of the surfaces have some kind of radius. I was able to get pretty consistent readings between two specific points. In the photo you supplied, if you move your upper red line down slightly to the point where the bushing goes into the A-arm, this is where I took the measurement from on that side of the channel to the flat surface of the other side of the channel, which is where I believe you have your lower red line drawn. That measurement at all four of the lower control arm bushings is pretty consistent at .798 +/- .003.
Hope that helps.
Ted

 

thanks Ted!

I got mine apart today. This is the drivers side



i agree it’s hard to measure.

I think I’ll order new bushings and take a micrometer to them before installing.

I can see my arms are smushed but not too bad. The real might be that the bushings weren’t seated fully.

I need to take a break. I’ll upload a bit more info for posterity. This is a common issue so hopefully my pain will help someone else!

 

Here is the measurement from the old bushing and my drivers arm.

pretty far apart!

Ted, your measurements look just about dead on!

 

Just wanted to update this thread. The new bushings measure .90” so I’ll set the width to that.

I decided to rebuild the entire front end. (I just replaced the entire rear end so WTF.) I picked up some billet tie rods - wow, they are super nice and stout. New ball joints, tie rod ends, bushings, repack bearings, etc.

I thought I could rent a tool to install the bushings but nope. They want $300 for it. I had to call numerous shops and i think I found one to press them in. I could do it myself in 15 min if I had a press. Lots of places said “we don’t do that” which made little sense to me since it’s a simple job.

here’s the deal. As soon as you say “1964” they automatically say they can’t do it. If I say “1982” suddenly they can. One shop refused to do it because I bought the bushings. They said “if we mess it up there isn’t enough profit to replace it”. I get it but that tells you they mark up the parts a lot. Also, it’s pretty hard to mess this up.

GM used these arms on everything from Belairs and Biscaynes to Impalas and Corvettes all the way up to 1982. The 63-64 CA’s are interchangeable but not as stout. The spindles from the late 70’s to early 80’s bolt on and are also more stout. My front end will be a brick shithouse when I’m done.

I also put the biggest Mickey Thompsons that would fit on new Torque Thrusts. Sold my vintage ones and made $100 after buying the new ones. I needed a different offset.

I also think the shops these days just toss the control arms and buy new ones with the bushings installed. They are about $300 each. I would assume the shop would bill $500-$600 each just for the part. Easily a $2k job.

I’ll be in about $500. It took about six hours to disassemble everything and clean the parts. I estimate four hours to reinstall. It was a hell of a lot easier when the body was off!

 

Just a suggestion. I think it's a good idea to put a spacer in the channel where the bushings go into the CA. When I did mine, I just cut a piece of black iron pipe the proper length to fit tightly in the channel and cut it in half lengthwise so you end up with a "C" shaped spacer that will hold the sides of the channel from collapsing and still allow the bushing to be pressed in. Hope that makes sense.

Ted

 

You do not need a press to install the bushings. I actually destroyed a control arm using a press.
I've attached some tools others have made. Some sophisticated, some simple. I made some very simple ones. Think I copied these from the C3 forum.
I also used Lars paper.
Hope this helps.

 

I’m dropping them off at a shop Monday. I was able to straighten the channels to spec. They know about the spacers. I considered making my own but I don’t have the capability to cut metal the way that pipe needs cut. I can cut the simple ones but cutting a slot out of a tube or cutting it lengthwise is too much of a PITA. If I had a bandsaw, I’d be done already.