Upper control arms

[maddog]

So I'm getting ready to start putting my front end back together and I forgot which upper control arm came off of which side. So I was wondering if they are side-specific or not because I didn't think to mark them before I took them off.

[Ludworks]

One of the bushings on each side has a lock ring on it, that goes towards the rear. Pretty sure the arms themselves are identical stampings.

[maddog]

Okay I'll have to look at the bushings when I get off work today and see which side has the lock ring on it. Thank you for the info Ludworks.

[Ludworks]

No worries. You made want to just do a real quick measure and make sure the spring perch isn't slightly offset or something. I'm like 95% sure they're identical but I could be mistaken.

[maddog]

So I ran into an interesting snag when trying to install my control arms back on the car. It appears that the new Moog bushings that I have are about a millimeter and a half longer then the old bushings were, which means that since there are two of them in the upper control arm that's a total of around 3 millimeters more material then what came out. This unfortunately means they're now bigger than the opening they're supposed to go into. So now my dilemma is do I want to take and file down the ends of the sleeves to make them fit (and then of course have to add the dimples back) or do I just lube them up and hammer them home so to speak.

[EagleSX4_5Speed]

I also had the same issue when I replaced my upper control arm bushings about 1 month ago. I just took my grinder with a flap disc and took the bushing down to size. The new bushings are working great.

[maddog]

Okay then that's what I'll probably do although I might just use a hand file instead of a flap disc because I have a habit of getting myself with spinning things.

[Ludworks]

Consider spreading the mount points. With some threaded rod and two nuts you can open up the sheet metal a small amount. When you tighten the control arm bolts it'll squeeze in again.

[maddog]

I already ground them down to make them fit, before all of this I tried using a dead blow to knock them in and it was digging into the metal and gouging it severely on the part that is between the two bushings.

[Ludworks]

Well as long as you got them to fit that's all that matters.