upper control arm repair

I don't know what's typical, but here's how mine is going:

Removing the upper arms from the chassis was relatively easy. Just "juiced up" the nuts with WD-40 first. My big mistake as an ignorant rookie was not knowing that the spring perch bolts have "ribs" to hold them in place - just loosen the nut from below, not above! Consequently I need to buy new bolts from AMK because I busted them off. Like I said, I was a rookie.

The tough part was getting the large end nuts off of the shaft as they thread into the upper arm and were solidly seized. While they were sitting, I kept them soaked in WD-40. Then I hit the nuts with a hammer at various angles to try to shock them loose. What it finally came down to was getting them super hot with a torch, then standing with both feet on the arm while using a 4-foot pipe extension on a box wrench to get them moving. Once I got about half a turn on them, they came off fairly easy. I bought Scott Drake upper arm shaft kits for replacements.

You can buy new spring perch assemblies, but I'm going to replace my bushings and re-use the original metal parts. I just heated up the shaft that goes through the bushing, then pulled them out of the old rubber. If you have a 64.5 or 65 kar, the correct spring perch doesn't have the rubber pads for the spring to sit on.

The original arms were dipped in black paint, leaving the ball joint areas as bare metal. I'll be painting mine to have a similar look. Will have to let you know how re-assembly goes, as I haven't done that yet. My ball joints were good, so I only need to replace the rubber boots I damaged when using a "pickle fork" to separate them from the spindle. I think there is a tool that they can be pressed out with, I just chose the old fashioned way since I had a tool available to me.

Maybe we should have a topic: Don't do it this way, rookie!

Take a look at my website for some pics of my restoration in 2000.

http://www.geocities.com/raley65/misc.html

A couple of notes:

When you remove the shock tower nuts, don't chase the threads or you will ruin the locking mechanism and have to buy new bolts from AMK like I did.

When you remove the A-arms, keep the shims that you remove in order and replace them in exactly the same locations when you re-install.

Be aware that if you replace the shafts, when you re-install the big nuts they will strip out the fine threads of the A-arms. Don't be alarmed, this was a design flaw as the shafts are threaded with a much larger thread count and the factory stripped them out when assembled. Take your time centering the shaft, it's easy to get it off a half thread or so. The shop manual describes inserting a steel plate between the sides of the arms, next to the shaft when you torque the nuts (I used a piece of wood - cut to fit). I couldn't find a torque spec for the nuts, but after much reseach I settled on 35-40 ft/lbs. Some people spot weld the nuts to ensure they don't back out. Install a set of 90 degree grease zerks so you can grease them in the futre without having to burn holes in your shock towers with an acetylene torch.

If your arms still have the original ball joints, you will have to chisel off the factory rivets. Bolt the new ball joints in place with grade 8 bolts and locknuts - torque to spec.

I just replaced my spring perches. Just make sure you install them correctly.

I painted mine semi-gloss black and used Eastwood's Detail Grey on the ends to duplicate the factory dipping process.

Good Luck and have fun.

Gerald

OK, Gerald, you are really freakin' me out now. What did I get myself into? More to the point, why the heck did they make the nuts thread onto both the shaft and the arm? That would explain why the nuts are such a pain to get off, though.

It would be nice to have the wood/sheetmetal template have slots for the shaft bolts to rest in, to help keep it centered during torquing.

Ford says to torque the bushings to specs, then seems to forget to mention what that is. The Fairlane/Meteor uses the same bushing and Mercury gave the spec this way:

"Bushing—Front Suspension Upper Arm to Front Suspension Upper Arm Shaft......160-190 (or as required to seat the bushings)"

Now you know why they are so hard to get off. Soaking with WD-40 for 4-days and using an impact wrench should work, or if you are like me, I braced it under the lip around the foundation of my house and used a breakway bar with a long section of pipe. Either it was coming loose or my house was going to be lifted off its foundation! It came loose.

I have attached a PDF that will help. Just ignore the Fairlane-specific stuff. Also, I use a proper spring compressor tool now. The J-hook tools scared me to death!

http://www.fordsmallblock.com/PDF/Upper-Control-Arm-Bushings.pdf

I have found that when you take the spring pearch off of the upper control arm the metal around the bolt holes had cracks and had to replace the upper control arm.

Mike

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Ford says to torque the bushings to specs, then seems to forget to mention what that is. The Fairlane/Meteor uses the same bushing and Mercury gave the spec this way:

"Bushing—Front Suspension Upper Arm to Front Suspension Upper Arm Shaft......160-190 (or as required to seat the bushings)"

Now you know why they are so hard to get off. Soaking with WD-40 for 4-days and using an impact wrench should work, or if you are like me, I braced it under the lip around the foundation of my house and used a breakway bar with a long section of pipe. Either it was coming loose or my house was going to be lifted off its foundation! It came loose.

I have attached a PDF that will help. Just ignore the Fairlane-specific stuff. Also, I use a proper spring compressor tool now. The J-hook tools scared me to death!

http://www.fordsmallblock.com/PDF/Upper-Control-Arm-Bushings.pdf

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WoW! I had no idea the torque spec was so incredibly high. I've kept an eye on the 90 degree grease zerks to see if they have rotated, but now I'm thinking I may need to pull them off again and retorque them. Thanks Bob for sharing your knowledge.

Gerald