Oval bushings on lower A arms
 

Saw a tool from ridetech for pressing out and in bushings for a 70 A body. The oval bushings,,,,anyone have a tool to press those in? Or…. I’ve seen like rest oparts makes upper and lower A Arms with bushings and ball joints for like 140.00 a piece. My original A arms do have a little pitting from over the years but obviously cosmetic. I just don’t know the quality of these aftermarket A arms as far as steel quality and are they engineered exactly like gum did? Don’t need the angles all off.

Not oval bushings but I did that job in my Firebird, and it sucked. $140 to bolt new ones in would start to look pretty darned attractive.

When I did mine the guy at the alignment shop had said he would do it with the alignment for $300. When I was done I thought to myself I probably would have happily paid him $500. We all have jobs we hate I guess, and that’s one I would absolutely let someone else do for money.

Even getting the, back in the car can be a pain because the mounting ears squeeze together from being bolted in for decades

Even getting the, back in the car can be a pain because the mounting ears squeeze together from being bolted in for decades

For my IA Camaro I used some all thread and washers and nuts to gently spread them for the same reason.

Not a fan of the OEM style repro A arms, the set I ordered were a mess. So much of a mess that I sent them back and restored the originals. Thinner metal, wrong angle for the ball joint, missing various aspects of the OEM arms that add strength.

Seems like I heard of someone doing a service of restoring your OEM arms.

Lever Family Racing used to restore control arms but have since retired from my understanding.

I did the same exact thing. I made a thread about on here it and showed some pictures and got harangued about possibly cracking the mounting ears.

I stand by my statement that this is a job I would happily pay a shop to do if the price was right. Just because it sucked, and coil springs activate my anxiety anyway. I looked at that Ridetech tool, its very nice but you would be well on your way to having a shop do it at the price they want for it.

If I were to give more advice about doing it yourself, I would say getting the mounting ears dead clean helps a lot. Its such a tight fit, and if you use urethane like I did it doesn't compress at all. You need every fraction of space you can get, so there cant be any built up road grime left in the way. using rubber might make it a little easier because it will compress a little.

I did them on my 72 GTO, used a press, and a large impact socket to keep the control arm from squeezing together. Still not fun.

On install, if it doesn't get pressed square/straight, you may have an issue on the inside of the joint shell lining up with the 2nd opening. C-clamp helps if it's too wide. If too close together you can keep pressing the bushing in until it gets closer to lining up, then whack it with a hammer to start it. Then C-clamp on the outside to press rest of way.

You can burn the rubber out of them and collapse the shell, but the heat can cause integrity issues.

The OE control arms after years of service, or even sitting, are questionable from an integrity standpoint to begin with, I personally don't trust them. If it's an OE type resto and you don't beat on it you should be better off, but still don't trust them.

It sux when the ball joint is loose in the arm too, pretty common. The 'saver' type ball joints are a little larger to help with that, but if it's cracked, it will just crack more.

Then you have to check for cracks in other areas, and even then, back in service for a period of time and they can still crack.

The repops are 'good', I've held them in my hand, and 'appear' like the originals. The ones I saw were round bushings, but that might not be a bad thing. I would still trust them more than a used set.

I suggest replacing the repops' ball joints though, unless they specifically say Moog on them. (I don't think they do).

Honestly, if it's not going to be judged just use tubulars. They are better in all aspects except for OE look.



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This is true, and you can smear a little assembly lube on them to help.

They go in easier at a specific angle, which is outside it's normal operating range. Like, jack the thing way up, slide the ends in the tabs with the control arm pointing as far down as possible, and you can use a dead-blow to whack at the ball joint area. (And wherever else needed). It's usually tight towards the outside of the tabs, so sliding it in more from the bottom get around that. Some.


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If 1967 is same as 1970:

Did my 1967 GTO A Arms a long time ago so a bit fuzzy on installation. I made a homemade oval press tool by smashing a round steel pipe with a 20 ton press. Then dipped the press side into liquid plasticote rubber just to protect the A arm from being steel on steel. The receiver side has to be supported which is not easy. Not for the faint of heart but I can loan you the oval steel pipe if you have a large press and want to experiment. It is a bit heavy but USPS flat rate box has an 80 pound limit...fairly cheap to ship back and forth to you in Maine. Not certain but I might have also used the help of a rental/loaner press kit from the local auto parts store. Maybe they even have the oval pipe in different sizes nowadays?

I too bought a set of repro A arms once but elected to do the originals. I still have the repros and you can have them for free if you ever visit the Los Angeles area!

After thinking about the different ways to go here I took a look at my original A arms again. My theme has been to keep the car stock looking so tubular an arms are not what I want for a look. My originals are quite rough looking from pitting. So I elected to buy new a arms from restoparts opg. They have the oval/ round rubber bushings in them already with ball joints. Not sure the quality on these arms exactly but I’ve bought some restoparts stuff before and compared them to other aftermarket companies and their stuff looked better. I did consider buying a harbor freight press but just figured I’d get a better looking A arm and the bushings are already installed. Hopefully the quality will be good. Spent more money than I had intended which is the way it usually goes. The arms will be here next week. If everything looks ok I will put them in myself in the spring when it warms back up. I replaced front coil springs on my old drag car back in the day so I feel ok about doing it myself.

I do now have a set of energy suspensions poly bushings I got off eBay that will probably sit around until I sell them or whatever.

I received the restopart a arms. The part # sticker on the a arm itself comes back as a dynacorn part. Also on the restopart website it shows the pic of the lower a arm with oval bushings and says it has oval bushings. The ones I got were all round bushings. I thought restopart was their own thing?

So maybe the ones I saw then are because they only make round bushing ones. Interesting.

It was years ago so I honestly can't remember.


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I talked to opg… told them if I wanted dynacorn stuff I could buy the uppers and lowers for 395.00 elsewhere . They might refund me or they might want them back.. whatever they want to do. I payed like 538.00. I’m sure there’s only a few or maybe one place stamping these out. From what I read there’s really no difference between the ones with oval or ones that are all round.

I don't believe there is a difference between round or oval bushing arms, completely interchangeable, and no functional difference.

I think AMD makes the arms as well, but could be mistaken.

I'm not a fan of OPG, lots of stuff I have found are chevy-specific that's list for GTO/LeMans. And I have also received incorrect shipments.

I would imagine you could send them back for a refund, I don't believe they will issue the difference in cost unless they have a price guarantee.


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I found some online dynacorn.. exact same thing I have now for 390.00. They said if I want to keep them they would reimburse me 148.00. . I said yes so I’m keeping them I guess. I’d bet if I sent them back and went with a different vendor I’d end up with something that isn’t any better than these. Not saying these dynacorn are junk,, I have no idea. Metal thickness looks the same as oem and visually they look ok. The bushings and ball joints I have no idea of quality. You never know… I still might look for oem arms that are pit free and refurbish them. What I don’t like about used ones is that they might be tweaked from an accident and wouldn’t know until they’re in the car and I’m trying to get a front end alignment.
Either they’re out of restopart Aarms and selling dynacorn instead or there never was a restopart specific A arm… I have no idea.

Glad they are refunding some money, would say that's pretty good customer service there.

Dynacorn is pretty good stuff in general, but have to check everything regardless. I would think they are safe to use, but would still look had at the ball joints.

Probably re-branded, OPG does that a lot, as does many vendors.


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Yeah they weren’t trying to hide it really… the sticker on the a arm is a dynacorn number. I guess if I had never googled that number I would of never known. The top a arms didn’t have a sticker at all . If you google the part # on the bag it comes back as a no name brand. Whatever I guess.

Here is why I didn't use the repop control arms.

Ball joint angle is WAY off, depth of stamping on the ball joint mounting area is way more shallow. Thickness of the metal was on average thinner.

Ended up patching and restoring the originals.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...3&d=1734675458

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...4&d=1734675464

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...5&d=1734675488

How long ago were those pics/comparison done?


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I did a search and came up with an old thread that you posted in. It’s in the street section now. I’m now questioning if these are going to fit.