driver side upper A-arm removal.
 

Do I need to remove the steering shaft to remove the upper a-arm on my 64 tempest.?

You can get it out without removing the steering shaft IF you can get the bolts out of the frame. These bolts are pressed in and are knurled to keep them in place and to keep them from spinning and if 50 years or so has gone by they will either be corroded further into place or perhaps even welded in to keep them from spinning. Coupled with that, there is no good way to get at the threaded end of the bolts to tap them out unless the engine is out. SO, typically, your best/only choice is to get the steering shaft out of the way.

If you don't care about the bolts themselves, you could torch the heads off and then tap out the bolt shafts and out it comes.

Yeah I can't seem to get the bolt out. They are good and tight and nothing to pry against except the steering shaft.

I undid the rag joint. and some little clamp on the shaft closer to the firewall. not sure what else it needed to remove it.

Do I need to pull the whole column out of the inside of the car?

I *think* if you took it loose at the rag joint and then dropped the steering column inside (don'f forget to disconnect the wiring harness) you can tilt the whole column up and out of the way enough to get the control arm out. You would be tetter-tottering at the firewall with the rag joint end going up and the steering wheel going down. Depends on if the steering shaft flange hits the engine or other components.

If you took the clamp off at the base of the column collar, you can then push the steering shaft up into the column which will lift the steering wheel out of the steering column shroud as well. Working it up, to the side and then up the collar may give you the room you need. What would remain is how much room you have between the control arm cross shaft and the exhaust manifold. Kind of like a big puzzle! Point being, I don't think you'd have to remove the steering column altogether, just get it loose enough to be able to move it out of the way.

I should add, if you want to push the shaft up the collar, it would probably be best to remove the steering wheel and cancelling cam just so they don't get jacked up with all the moving around and so with the wheel off you'd have more room for the entire column to move around.

Also, this is all assuming you are not working with a column shift transmission. That would add a whole lot more complexity to getting the steering column out of the way. You'd have to probably disconnect the transmission controls so the column can move around without bending or breaking something.

Well I got the A arm out.

Here are few things I learned.

1. I get a lot more responses on FB and way easier to post up pics there.

2. I ended up using a slid hammer to get the splined A-arm bolts out. I pushed the A-arm all the way up. I had some screw on bracket for jaws that put on the end and popped the bolts out.

3. Headers just suck. I would really like to swap them out for RA manifolds but its what I had. I had to drop the passenger side header to get my lower arm out. I also had to cut the lower ball joint. The ball joint was loose and a huge PITA. Now I need to figure out what to do about that.

Thanks for sharing that Ryan

There are reamers out there to ream the ball joint stud hole in the steering knuckle so it again fits tight like it should. Once it is loose, it will wobble in the hole and ruin the taper. Personally, I'd have a machine shot do it or just get a new knuckle. Not a reproduction, but a good used GM one.

The studs are not knurled......they are splined. The proper way to remove them is to 'buzz' them out with an air hammer. They will draw back in with the nuts on re-assembly. If you spin the bolts in the frame, you will strip out the frame splines and always have to hold the bolt head with a wrench when doing alignments. (a real hassle). I've done a bajillion A-arms in these cars over the past 4+ decades and never had to pull a steering column.