[RocktimusPryme]

I just got all 4 of my control arms back in last night. Wanted to do a write up for anyone else considering it, because it was a bear of a job.

Im not going to call this a tips and tricks article, because I want to warn on some of the ways Ive failed. So hopefully others can do this smoother than I did.

I will also council that this job is going to be infinitely harder if you dont have much for tools. A sturdy vice for instance. Or even a large assortment of sockets if you have to improvise with the bushing press. An air chisel for the upper ball joint. If you have the type of tool kit that is mostly comprised of a single 200 piece socket and wrench set, I would farm this job out.

To start, here is my buy list so you can see what I used. The big goal here was to replace the shot bushings, and install new ball joints with the uppers being taller. Also toss in the idler arm since I already replaced all the other rod ends and such.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-776000
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pof-101-10016
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pof-101-10013
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/art-90003003


My first big point I want to make in this article, is that in my opinion, the lowers arent worth it. I would very much consider doing tubular lowers if I had to do it over. I would probably buy some of the cheap ebay lowers and install the above pro forged ball joints. Ill detail why later, but suffice to say that the lower stamped arms are very hard to keep straight while pressing in and out new bushings. That is also assuming they are good virgin originals. Once I got mine out I could see that my passenger side was decidedly not virgin. She had been used and abused sometimes before I got it. Very unlikely it was straight and true.

They are also hard to clean and paint. Abnormal shapes and decades of road grime are not your friend. A nice powdercoat job would be so much better to deal with. So again here I would give real thought to aftermarket lowers.

Now that the big warning is out of the way, lets assume you are as hard headed as I am and get to how this is done.

LCA Removal

Ill skip past the spindle being out because you can find all sorts of how too one removing the springs and all. For me removal of both spindles took about 45 minutes. Its not hard as long as nothing is rust seized.

As to removing the lower arms themselves they are held on by two 1/2-13 bolts. with lock nuts. Having a buddy helps if they are stuck on hard but you can do it yourself with two ratchets. Once the bolts are out, just kinda get them out by any means necessary. Pry bars and rubber mallets are approved.


UCA Removal

Upper arms are easier unless you have headers like I did. On mine the driver came out, but the passenger side had no chance. You options are drop the header, cut the stud shorter, or do like I did and remove the stud with an impact. New studs were easy to put in later.

Important note here. Take photos of where your alignment shims are to put them back. You are going to want a new alignment after this anyway, but better to have it at least decent for the drive to the alignment shop.

LCA bushing replacement.

This is the portion that made me regret not just buying new arms. Or at the very least, taking my arms and new bushings to a shop and letting them charge me a couple hours labor to do the job.

Using a large ball joint tool kit from Advance I was able to get it done, but there are some major pitfalls. Notably, you have to devise some sort of way to keep the stamped arms from collapsing during both removal and install of the bushings. Some people cute a length of angle iron to shape. You need both some spare angle iron for that and something to cut it. I just found a socket that more or less matched the height and used that. Its all a pain, trying to balance the clamp with two or three attachments in the middle. I must have dropped it all at least 20 times.

The pieces in the kit are unlikely to be the exact size you need, so take your time and improvise with a big socket if necessary. Make sure its going in straight before you decide to take your impact and ram it home.

UCA bushing replacement

This is actually easier, however it was hard to find information on how to do it. Its also harder to find the loaner tool. Only advance auto had it in my area. You specifically need and "Upper Control Arm Service" kit.

I watched a bunch of videos of rednecks burning them out, then attacking with chisels and all other manner of hackery. I finally found this dudes video who shows the tool you need and how to do it. Like I said, easier than the lower because there are no ears to compress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0nVsbCPTd0&t=2s

Lastly, you probably will have to chisel off the upper ball joint rivets. A $12 air chisel from harbor freight really helps here if you have air. I assume you can do it with a hammer and chisel, just pack your lunch I guess.

LCA reinstall

On the passenger side I really struggled with this. I just basically shoved it back in. Its very tight, but with a rubber mallet and a lot of cursing I got it in. Probably took me an hour and a half.

On the driver side I got smarter. I went to the hardware store and got some all thread, two lock nuts some washers and another normal nut. I used this as a spreader on both the LCA mounting points on the frame. basically attach one side with the two lock nuts against each other and then use the other normal nut against the other side to create an opening pressure. You wont get a lot, but I got about an 1/8th of an inch of movement which was enough to turn that hour and a half install into about 15 minutes.

After you open the ears slightly, do what you can to clean the metal. Its not wide enough to get a wire wheel in, but do what you can. Then I applied some lithium grease. I wouldnt say the lower slid right in, but after those steps it was far less of a fight. Lastly I reused the grade 8 GM mounting bolts, but I did go buy new lock nuts.

I snugged them down with the intention of properly TQing them once I have weight on the front suspension.

UCA install

Much less dramatic. Use locktite on the side bolts that go into the torsion bar.

On the passenger side with less clearance I put the arm in with the studs loose and used the arm to pull the studs into place. Made sure to put your shims back in their proper place.


Happy wrenching everyone.

[JLMounce]

Now add a proper alignment to it and you'll have a pretty decent street performer there!

[mzbk2l]

Nice "lessons learned" writeup - thanks!

First time I did uppers & lowers to install a PST poly-graphite kit, I bought a Harbor Freight 12-ton press. Using your same method of sockets inside the arm to keep from collapsing the structure, they pressed out without too much trouble. In subsequent jobs, I've found that putting a pointed punch-type bit in an air hammer and dimpling holes around the shell of the old bushing decreases the diameter and lets it practically fall out of the arm.

I haven't tried this on a GM stamped control arm, but when I was doing Toyota Tacoma UCA bushings for a relative, somebody pointed out to me that the bottle jack included with the truck exactly fits in between the ears of the upper control arm, and the head is just the right size to drive the bushing out. I had all four out in about 10 minutes!

[dataway]

Be wary of repop lower control arms, the set I purchased I had to return, the cups for the lower ball joints were no where close to right, at least 15 degrees off the angle they should have been.

If I had my job to do over again, I wouldn't have been so concerned with originality and I would have beefed up the OEM lower arms with some gusseting around the bushing holes, kind of like boxing a frame.

Compare the angle of the ball joint flange on this repop to the OEM. And notice the lack of metal folded around the mount compared to OEM.

Yep, restore the originals or go with tubular.

[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by JLMounce

Now add a proper alignment to it and you'll have a pretty decent street performer there!

For sure, I still gotta put the springs in. Probably this weekend. I took some measurements before hand so I can compare how it sits now.

Right now its on the 15" Rally II street tires, so Ill take measurements there and then put on the big MT drag radials in the back to see how much I can lower the back with those in place.

Curious how that big fat QA1 bar affects everything.


Couple things I wanted to mention that I forgot.

I was that I was pretty impressed with those summit brand bushings. Everything fit like it was supposed to and it came with a pretty generous tub of the poly bushing grease instead of a stingy little tube some other stuff comes with. Allows you to really slather everything up.

Also the brackets that come with the QA1 sway bar dont fit. They run into the flanged opening of the coil spring pocket. So I either have cut the corner off said bracket, or I have the flatten a small section of that coil pocket flange with a flap wheel. Havent decided which yet.

[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by dataway

Be wary of repop lower control arms, the set I purchased I had to return, the cups for the lower ball joints were no where close to right, at least 15 degrees off the angle they should have been.

If I had my job to do over again, I wouldn't have been so concerned with originality and I would have beefed up the OEM lower arms with some gusseting around the bushing holes, kind of like boxing a frame.

Compare the angle of the ball joint flange on this repop to the OEM. And notice the lack of metal folded around the mount compared to OEM.

Yep, restore the originals or go with tubular.

Those replacement stock style lowers do not seem cost efficient to me anyway. Unless there were some I didnt see, they were notably more than the tubular items.

The tubular ones generally have good reviews except for cheap ball joints. Of course you can always go with name brand ones for more money. Which I would still say go for it when I consider how much time and effort I expended with the stock lowers. I easily had enough labor using my own hourly rate into those to buy tubular arms. And thats not even factoring in over time pay for aggravation every time I dropped one of the press spacers lol.

My only complaint about the tubular arms is it seems ALL of them come with 2" drop pockets. So if you have a stiff modern lowering spring like I do, now you are lowering like 3-4 inches which is probably too much. So you then have to buy a spacer for each side.

[Sirrotica]

Collapsing the shells of the bushings with an air chisel makes them fall right out of the a arms. You can also use a blunt bit on the air chisel to install them if you don't have a press. I've used a socket on the bushing with the blunt ended chisel to install them. without a bench vise, you will have a tough time though.

Two things that will help to install them in absence of a press, will be an air chisel, and a bench vise that is bolted to something substantial. I've changed many sets of them without a press.


As far as strength of the factory A arms, I've run them for years in dirt track cars before there were aftermarket tubular parts available. The lowers are strong enough to take the beatings of weekly dirt track rigors. The uppers we used to take a piece of rebar and start at one end tacking it to the A arm, them with heat, form it to fit the contours of the outer edge to give it some strength over just the stamping. We just tack welded the rebar every inch or so as we formed it. Yes it adds weight, but it makes the stamping a lot more resistant to bending when you bang wheels with a competitor.

If you had a friend that worked in a machine shop, and had access to a lathe, we used to make solid steel upped bushings adding a grease fitting to keep them working freely. Lowers we just put new bushing in them, as many were oval shaped. The uppers are the ones that take a beating, and hammer out the rubber bushings.

Many of the lower classes in dirt track racing don't allow the substitution of tubular arms, so you have to do what you can with stock parts.

I have cut rivets off without an air chisel, but it's no picnic doing it with a hammer and chisel. I used to burn off the heads with a cutting torch, then drive the rest out with a punch.

Lowers GM press fit I just support the lower A frame and drive the ball joints out with a BFH. You can use a bottle jack to press them in as far you can, and then drive down outside edge of the A frame with a punch and hammer. make sure you don't position the bottle jack directly where the grease fitting screws in, you'll mess up the threads. Again heating the A frame up before you start helps too.

If you don't have a press, you have to improvise.
When it comes to exhaust, and suspension, if you don't have access to air tools, and a cutting torch, it's going to take you at least 3 times as long.

[gtospieg]

I used a 3" cut off wheel to split the rivets on the upper ball joints and then a sharp chisel to remove what's left and then a blunt chisel to remove the rivet from the control arm/balljoint, only takes a couple minutes per rivet. Usually after the top of the rivet is gone you can just hit the balljoint with a hammer and it pops the other rivets out with the balljoint.

[JLMounce]

Originally Posted by RocktimusPryme

Those replacement stock style lowers do not seem cost efficient to me anyway. Unless there were some I didnt see, they were notably more than the tubular items.

The tubular ones generally have good reviews except for cheap ball joints. Of course you can always go with name brand ones for more money. Which I would still say go for it when I consider how much time and effort I expended with the stock lowers. I easily had enough labor using my own hourly rate into those to buy tubular arms. And thats not even factoring in over time pay for aggravation every time I dropped one of the press spacers lol.

My only complaint about the tubular arms is it seems ALL of them come with 2" drop pockets. So if you have a stiff modern lowering spring like I do, now you are lowering like 3-4 inches which is probably too much. So you then have to buy a spacer for each side.

I would say this. After putting a set of copy cat tubular control arms (Summit Brand) on my wife's former Chevelle. I wouldn't touch those things with a 40 foot pole. While the arms themselves were okay, the ball joints were crap and the delrin bushings and sleeves were even worse. They rattled and clanked going down the road.

By the time you buy the copy arms, replace the bushings, the ball joint and that tiny little piece of poly they give you as a bump stop, you could have had a nice set to begin with.

For most cars, stock arms with a bushing upgrade and tall ball joints will do what you want and need it to do. If you want control arms, don't buy the knock-off stuff. It's all Global West copy, so get a set of Global West arms.

[gtospieg]

X2 on the Global West stuff...have them on my 67 GTO, love 'em

[Verdoro 68]

I just did this job (again) on my car replacing 20 year old Energy Suspension bushings and reused the stock arms. In years past I used the BFH method, now I'm more careful.

I collapsed the inner shells by carefully slotting them with a sawzall.

I also picked up a rental ball joint press kit to help with the install. I actually pressed in the lower new shells using my vise. I used a spacer from the bj press kit and cut a piece of angle iron to keep the arm from collapsing when pressing in the new shell. It took some muscle, but they went in with minimal issue. Used the ball joint press kit to put the lower bj's in place with no issue.

For the uppers, pressed in one side with the vise. I cut another angle iron spacer to support the arm and used the control arm shaft and old nut and washer to pull the second shell into place.

I debated going back to OEM rubber and looked other options like Global West, but went ahead putting new Energy Suspension bushings in and used Moog for the ball joints. Nothing fancy. Used tons of the supplied grease on the bushings - that stuff does not come off!

[george kujanski]

Many years ago I had the need to release the joint from the spindle and didn't want to tear up the rubber seal so I made this tool.

It's a piece of pipe, a bolt, and some nuts.....and a welder.

It fits between the ends of the upper and lower ball joint studs. Loosen one of the joint studs a few threads, Insert the tool and crank it up to put pressure on the joint stud.

Usually a tap on the spindle casting will release the joint.

Keep the nut on the loose stud, tighten up the tool again, and pop the other joint.

Used it several times and it works very well.

George

[RocktimusPryme]

Im having a hard time getting my new Ridetech springs in. They are just barely too tall to install without a compressor. Ive get them in a few times but the to of the spring wont seat properly.

So to add to the good information others have posted.

The spring compressor available at harbor freight sucks. Ive used it, but its so much harder to use than the better design that has offset length hooks and the sorta shoehorn looking device for the bottom. I ordered one but its not here yet.

[vertigto]

Originally Posted by RocktimusPryme

Im having a hard time getting my new Ridetech springs in. They are just barely too tall to install without a compressor. Ive get them in a few times but the to of the spring wont seat properly.

So to add to the good information others have posted.

The spring compressor available at harbor freight sucks. Ive used it, but its so much harder to use than the better design that has offset length hooks and the sorta shoehorn looking device for the bottom. I ordered one but its not here yet.

Doesn't Autozone (et al) have that free loaner tool program (unless of course you'd rather have your own tools on hand)?

[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by vertigto

Doesn't Autozone (et al) have that free loaner tool program (unless of course you'd rather have your own tools on hand)?

Near as I can see from their websites advance has the crap HF style one I mentioned. Autozone has it but my store locally doesnt. Says no available. Oreileys might have the better one, but I do just want this for myself. Its only $50 on Summit. I have done enough spring swaps to justify that price.

OEM tools makes the good one. Im actually kinda surprised the parts stores dont flat out sell that one, but if they do I cant find it. So ill wait for shipping.

[gtospieg]

I have that same "internal" spring compressor. I have always hated it . It's a struggle to get in there and compress the spring enough(no engine in car) to get the threads to catch on one of the ball joints, upper or lower your choice. Last time around I took the tool apart. I used the bottom arms and ran the threaded part up through the shock mount, put a few washers on and then the nut. Threaded the nut down to pull the spring up as much as needed. Easiest front springs I've ever done, and no problem trying to get the tool out.

[Verdoro 68]

Originally Posted by gtospieg

I have that same "internal" spring compressor. I have always hated it . It's a struggle to get in there and compress the spring enough(no engine in car) to get the threads to catch on one of the ball joints, upper or lower your choice. Last time around I took the tool apart. I used the bottom arms and ran the threaded part up through the shock mount, put a few washers on and then the nut. Threaded the nut down to pull the spring up as much as needed. Easiest front springs I've ever done, and no problem trying to get the tool out.

I used to have such anxiety about taking the front end apart with the stock springs because of how hard it was to use those compressors. Last time I took them out, I did the way outlined above which made it much easier.

One of the benefits of the UMI 1" drop springs I'm running now is they're much shorter than the stockers and are super easy to pop in and out.

[AG]

I use a bushing install/removal tool from HR Parts n Stuff with a spacer and a press. You need the correct tools for this job or you are going to be frustrated. Replacing the uppers with aftermarket for more caster is a good idea, but I wouldn't bother replacing the lowers unless you are into autocross. Also, sand blast the controls arms to bare metal.

[Geoff]

I use the same type of home made tool as shown in post #12. Simple & effective.

[mrennie]

When I changed my lower bushings, I made temporary spacers out of 1 1/2" ABS pipe to prevent the arms from collapsing when pressing in the new bushings.

I measured the inside width of the arm near the bushing, then cut a piece of pipe the same dimension, then cut the pipe in half from top to bottom so I ended up with 2 half pieces that allowed me to move them around and take them out after the bushing was installed.

Backyard for sure, but worked!