Front Control Arms? Made of gold or something?!

Holy crap. I just priced out a set of four with ball joints... $432 shipped? That seems ridiculous.


Guess my front suspension is going to be on hold for quite awhile....

Is your new employer able to get better pricing someplace?

Tom

You could buy the BJs and bushings for $139 shipped from Rock Auto, and rent a tool from Autozone. The only problem bushings are the top ones. A can of spray paint and a little elbow grease will net you a set for a lot less.

A shop would probably replace the tops for about $25. You need a split receiver to go over the shaft when removing and installing them. A cheapie tool from Harbor Freight might be able to be modified to work, and you are out about $40 because you can not return it (it about pays for itself, and you have the tool for future use as well). You can remove the bushings with a BFH, and a piece of pipe that fits over the end of the bushing. Some of the upper bushings have the edge deformed, so that they can not work themselves out.

Your alignment should not change noticeably unless you have bent, or excessively worn parts. I would have the toe checked. You could do the toe check yourself with a tape measure. I built a pair of toe gauges and set my own toe. I also bought a camber/caster gauge with a magnetic adapter on ebay for $66 (used in excellent condition).

They are not that hard to do.  My budget constraints require that I do these types of things myself, so I understand your situation.

Not only does that seem reasonable for all new components, but I put in 4 new MOOG CAs on Rockauto and it comes out to 352$ shipped with the 5% discount code (1601136213136015). You can get them for even cheaper if you go with Dorman.

So,.. whats the idea of throwing away perfectly good control arms?

as fred said,. (thats rhymes nicely) a cleaning,.some black paint etc, some elbow grease,. some fancy urethane bushings and new balljoints, shouldn't cost any where near that,..

Is this forum turning into an R+R forum,. where we simply buy a new part and install it?

Nick

I'll probably just piece together a decent set from yard cars and get them powdercoated. I don't mind doing it, was just surprised at how much the whole arms were.

The retail markup on them is insane. $130/arm. Who are they kidding?

No reason to buy new ones unless you want to bench build the replacement to make the swap easier. I plan on rebuilding the whole front end in the driveway one weekend. All u need is a press to get the ones in like Fred mentioned.

The upper bushings are a problem for replacement at home. The shaft does not allow the press to remove them or put them in. A repair shop should be able to press them out and in, in about 10 minutes.

Sprocket wrote:

No reason to buy new ones unless you want to bench build the replacement to make the swap easier.  I plan on rebuilding the whole front end in the driveway one weekend.  All u need is a press to get the ones in like Fred mentioned.

I'm going to find another set and bench build them. I got a hookup with a guy who does powder coating through work.

Now the only question is... silver or red?

*ponder*

Fluorescent Green.


Oh, never mind, already been done.....

Orange,....

Pink with rainbows.

phantom 309 wrote:

Orange,....

I would, but there's no other link to orange on the car.

The pink would match the flamingo.

Stingroo wrote:

phantom 309 wrote:

Orange,....

I would, but there's no other link to orange on the car.

The journey of a thousand miles,
begins with the first step

Another issue with the complete control arms is the quality of the components they use. If they are from someplace like Dorman, who knows who made the ball joints and or the bushings. Even the completes from Moog may not have their best bits.

As suggested above, use the old arms and replace with the best stuff you can afford. You can cheap out on other things but not suspension or brakes. Always ask the question, "if it breaks or fails, what happens?"

Bill

I personally wouldn't use the Dorman brand for that reason either. Who knows the quality of their bushings or balljoints. When I bought replacement control arms, they were from the Moog parent company, Federal Mogul, physically made in the USA, though the Moog bushings used were made in Mexico. One of the arms ended up having a collapsed channel, and the company replaced it at no cost, w/o having to return the damaged one to them. 319$ shipped for 4 arms. After doing it the shitty way a few times, I can say it's not worth my time to dick around trying to find the bushings, finding someone to press the upper bushings out, degrease, sand and paint the control arm, etc to save a few bucks. BTDT.


If you have a Northern car, and the concept of R&Ring doesn't disgust you:
1. The OE PN for the shock mount "U" nut is 15658213, bolt is 11515756 M8 x 20mm

2. For Moog bushings:
- front upper use K6409 (1 kit per car)
- front lower use K6109 (2 kits per car) - the improved bushing is K6419, which was discontinued several years ago, but you may still find some if you look at Amazon or e-Bay auto parts listings, or luck out at a local parts store. With K6419, you only need one kit per car, if you can find it.
- rear lower use K6116 (2 kits per car)

I recommend you spend a bit of time refurbishing your stock shafts and cup washers, new lock nuts, etc. This hardware is included with the K6210 kit, but AFAIK is not available separately. If you are purchasing new upper arms, they are complete--you do not need K6210. The new arms do NOT have offset shafts, nor will they have the "better" K6409 bushings. Unless you WANT offset shafts, for some specific reason, they aren't necessary- they were created primarily to help with correction of alignment problems with a tweaked or sagging frame situation, where achieving correct alignment was difficult.

jasonlachapelle wrote:

If you have a Northern car, and the concept of R&Ring doesn't disgust you:

what are you saying,. to whom,. exactly?

I have a semi-northern car... and R&R doesn't seem too bad to me because I plan on doing front springs and everything else at the same time. I figure, go under there once. Never again.

Remember to tighten the bushings with the wheels at ride height. There are 2 ways to accomplish that. You can do it on a lift, or you can put each corner on a jackstand (separately) and jack the suspension up until the frame just lifts off of the jackstand, and tighten them. Use the control arm or the tube of the rear to jack the suspension.

Quote :

what are you saying,. to whom,. exactly?

To Ray, because I can't remember the exact story of his car.  If his control arms are like the ones on a Texas car, then it makes sense to do the bushings, and his control arm hardware is probably in nice enough shape to reuse.