Looking at last but one photo there apears to be a dimple on the inner side of the frint pivot rear flange,the front lower edge face the one with the nick in it seems to be a bit wavy.Looking to the back near the shock pocket there could be 4 ripples or it could be reflection.
The reason i noticed is my old arm was exactly opposite as the rear eyelet area was very -very slightly damaged and i had ripples but only sligtly near the shock pocket to the front (near where that nick is on yours). Dans new arm had none of this when i compared hopefully his input will help you furtur along as its real hard to spot this sort of problem when it could be so slight from eye sight or photos.Your frame seems to look ok from pictures.All i can say is swapping out my old arm cured my problem but it may not or may be your answer too.We would like to see photos of the top A-arm just incase theres something there but i gather its rare its normally the bottom one that gets it.
Regards SAM.
P.S. The bottom shock bolts/slots are not cenralised as Dan mentioned.

 

The a-arm will be out tonight. Based upon what we see (I will include images), I might get another one. Its going to be hard without another one I know is true sitting next to it.

One step closer.

 

I removed the a-arm tonight. The shaft and arm look straight to me. The mount on the frame looks un-damaged.

I think my next step is to try to find a known good one to compare it to to see if it is damaged. Is there some type of diagram or set of measurements I can perform to see if it is straight?

 

I would take a real close look at your lower control arm shaft mounting bracket. Looks like the frame just above the mounting point of the bracket has been ground. The pitting is smoothed out the length of the bracket which might indicate prepping to weld in a new mounting bracket. I have made this repair on my frame, or I should say, repaired Bubba's repair. These tear in front/side collisions and we all know Bubba!
As mentioned before, a small bit off inside gets big fast as you move out to tires. Really hope it is just your control arm. Good Luck!

 

I definately think that the mount was either re-mounted or repaired. Is there anything out there to indicate a proper angle on the crossmember other than measuring another car?

 

From looking at the pics again, it looks like someone did do some work to the frame mounting bracket. Someone ran a bead down the whole side.

 

Yep, I agree. So I am at a crossroads. I think I am going to try to find another lower a-arm which is known good and try to do a comparison to rule it out. If the a-arm shows straight, I guess my other choice is to deal with the frame bracket.

While the frame bracket does appear to have been worked on, it sure does look straight. The original factory weld positions seem to be present and it does not appear to be bent. Any guestimates on how much it would need to be changed to shift the wheel back around 1/2 an inch? I have to believe it would be very minor.

 

Im pleased your getting to a solution.I agree not very much if its out of position cant guess at this stage hopefully someone will chime in on how to take acurate acurate measurements if not only answer is to find a known to be right frame on another car and take the measurements,phew! lets hope not! Brings me back to why a seam weld---came lose? got damaged? been fully replaced?
Then a new pivot shaft?? maybee.Them shafts take some bending,if that happened what happened to the A-arm itself?
Why not if that was the case replace the A-arm too? It might have been by a used one.
HOPING YOU RESOLVE THIS ISSUE HAPPILY REGARDS SAM.

 

Hey Gearhead,
Do not get to discouraged yet. You are doing it the right way, and eliminating the easier possibilities first. When those brackets tear off, they leave enough of an original footprint behind, so that anyone even close to competent should have gotten it back into the correct position for welding. If you rule out your control arm, and want to check the bracket positioning, check it at the control arm bolt holes front and rear. Where it is welded under the crossmember doesn't much matter, it is the front and rear attachment points that need to be correct, and they are fairly easy to compare on the front of the crossmember by checking the measurement of the bolting block and comparing it to the same points on the "good" side of car. The back portion of of the bracket welds to a tab that extends up onto the crossmember, and this portion is not usually affected to severely in an impact, so a reconnect should have been fairly simple there. Let me know if I can be of any help, Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I spent a couple of hours on this tonight. I was concerned about Dan's comment regarding the spring seating so I re-assembled everything tonight with the spring seated properly this time. The wheel base is currently between 98 3/8 and 98 1/2 on the driver's side with no shims in the upper a-arm.

I then started measuring distances from center of the a-arm mount and compared them to the passenger side. There are differences, however I need to know if this is an "apples to apples" measurement. The reason I ask is that there is clearly two gussets on the front portion of the main crossmember that the bracket is bolted right in between. I have a chassis restoration guide, but there is no reference to the angles of these mounts.

At this point, I have pretty much accepted that this mounting bracket is probably angled wrong. Occam's razor is starting to come into play. This bracket appears to have been re-welded, the angle is different than the passenger side, and the a-arm appears to be un-damaged.

I am still going to rule out the a-arm, but if I were a betting man, I would put my money on the mount being off.

The question next week will probably be: Can this be done without pulling the engine?

 

I am wondering if one of you C3 owners can crawl underneath your car and take some measurements. If you reference the image below, I am looking for measurements from the edge of the mounting bracket to roughly the center of each of the three holes shown towards the center of the frame. I think this will give me a good idea on weather my bracket could be off.



Thanks a bunch for any help.

 

Hey Gearhead,
Went out and got under the car with a machinist ruler. I did not measure the distance in inches, I checked to see if distance from brackets to holes were the same on both sides, figuring the chances of both sides being messed up were small. Measurements are the same distance on both sides of my frame. I want to point out that I did a bracket repair on my frame, so I am not absolutely certain that this is accurate, as I may have used this method to place bracket before welding in place, but my feeling is they should be the same on both sides. Maybe someone else could back this up by checking theirs.

 

I took measurements and it appears that the bracket is lined up the same as the opposite side or...at least very, very close.

I did take some measurements on some of the geometry of the actual a-arm when compared to the passenger side and there are differences.

I ordered a rebuilt unit from Van Steel today and will compare it before I install it. I have my fingers crossed. If the current one is bent, I guess I am out the $100 core which is fine with me based on the time and labor I have sacrificed.

Thanks for all of the help.

 

Let us know how you make out. Good Luck!

 

Got any furthur yet?
Any more news/thoughts?
500 people looking in wishing you the best.

 

Got the a-arm today. The current one measures in-line with the new one. Its not the a-arm.

Back to the beginning.

Kinda bummed right now.

Thanks.

 

If you havent done this already it might find something.
When i got my NEW a-arm i laid it face up on a turned over flat piece of wall paper which was pinned down.
I very carefully mapped the profile in BLACK pencil making sure to keep it as upright as possible.
Then i verry carefully mapped all the holes the same way.
Next i substituted the brand new a-arm to shadow the original position of the old one as close as i could,then using RED pencil over the top of the black impression did the same.
This showed the old holes to be overlaping the new holes by quite a bit maybe 1/4" on one hole.
The outline image also deviated slightly in one area by about 3/16".
It put my mind to rest.
Is everything right on the upper a-arm? can you post detailed pics.
Could the wheel spindle arm be slightly bent?

Boy i too wish you could resolve this issue.... what we need is a load of input from chassis experts.
GOOD LUCK SAM.

 

I did something similair and they were within a 16th of an inch. There are some differences between the old and new one, but they both equate to the same measurement concerning the location of the ball joint.

I am onto the spindle and back examining the actual a-arm mount.

I am going to try to get another set of eyes on it this weekend.

I will get to the bottom of this.

 

REAL HELP IS REQIRED NOW! COME IN ALL YOU TECH EXPERTS!
LETS GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS ITS NOT NATIONWIDE BUT GOING GLOBAL!!!

Sorry G.H.D. but im exhausted on ideas on this still concerned about top a-arm though cause we aint looked into this on forum.
Will folow postings and hope answer is just around the corner as i belive it is so perseve and dont give up!
Best regards SAM.

 

It sounds like you have pretty much checked everything out. If it will make you feel any better, I just measured my wheelbase on my 80 which has a perfectly square frame and all new VBP a-arms, and mine is off right to left about 3/4". I checked my frame when it was off the body sitting on sawhorses so I know it is square. It measured perfect from front to rear and then diagonally from front to rear. I also measured a friends 73 which has a perfect frame and all new componets and it also measured about 3/4" difference right to left on wheelbase. I also had a 73 years ago that I had bought that had been somewhat restored, and I drove it for about 10 years event free until I decided to do a frame off restoration. Keep in mind that I put about 100,000 miles on the car before the body came off. At body removal time, I discovered the frame was bent, the right front off the frame was pushed back about 1 1/4", which changed the wheelbase that much also, but the car drove and handled fine. I know that when you move shims front to rear to adjust caster that the wheelbase will change slightly. Maybe when you align the front end the wheelbase will be closer right to left. I hope this will ease your mind, and if you haven't found any other problems I would put the car together and drive it. This is coming from me, a real picky guy when it comes to assembly. Stuff like this bothers me also on my cars, but maybe a little difference in the wheelbase is not a problem as long as it is within 1" or so. How bout you other c-3 owners, measure the wheelbase on your car and see how close it is right to left. I bet not many are dead on perfect.