Front Upper Control Arms

[dsa87gn]

My pass side front upper control arm bushing is at the end of its rope and I need to replace it in the spring. The others look to be pretty hard/dried up.

Rather than messing around with replacing the bushings, I was thinking of just replacing the front upper arms, maybe with tubulars. I think the oems are discontinued.

The car is primarily street driven with occasional track visits, anyone have any input/removal tricks ?

It looks like the drivers side could be a hassle to get at the nuts.

 

[charlief1]

One thing that will help is to remove the steering shaft. When you do it, do the jeep upgrade for the shaft. If you have a ratcheting wrench it speeds the process quit a bit. That's pretty much it.

I believe UMI has the lowest price on a stock replacement tubular for the uppers and they hold up pretty well.

 

[jdpolzin]

Get double adjustable SPC's for the uppers and be done with it. There's really no point in spending money on upper tubulars if they arent adjustable. Stockers work just as well.

 

[Hot Air]

Purhase Hotchkis tubular upper arms and install B-car spindle and 12" front disk brakes. Car WILL stop a lot better and handle better for cheap! Plus you can go to 16" wheels by purchasing GTA wheels...put fronts on the rear and rears on the front. Works greeat!
Hot Air

 

[Silver Fox]

Do all the work from inside the wheel well and you won't have to remove anything but the UCA's. I think you will be surprised about how easy of job it is going to turn out to be.

I am a fan of the SPC adjustable control arms.

You probably need to check your bushings on your LCAs too.

Rob

 

[charlief1]

Purhase Hotchkis tubular upper arms and install B-car spindle and 12" front disk brakes. Car WILL stop a lot better and handle better for cheap! Plus you can go to 16" wheels by purchasing GTA wheels...put fronts on the rear and rears on the front. Works greeat!
Hot Air

This is a good upgrade but it does have 1 problem. It increases your bump steer dramatically. If you use a stock style control arm but use the longer Howe upper ball joints you get better handling and lower the bump steer. To up grade the brakes get the 95 up S-10 Blazer (2wd) spindles which have a larger brake rotor and a dual piston caliper.

 

[mattcarlson]

something i found out is the uppers or the same as a s10 upper. and theres a company called thorebecke brothers they have some amazing tubular upper control arms that will fit the g body cars!! there web site is suicidedoors.com there quality is beyond amazing!!! just a idea for ya!

 

[charlief1]

The arms they sell you can get from smiliesracing.com for about 1/2 of what they want and get better arms for the money. Just not painted with funky colors.

 

[The_Six]

I have the speedway motors arms on my car they were less then 150 shiped to my door with ball joints no problems with them so far but not a lot of miles o them yet.

 

[jdpolzin]

Are your speedways adjustable? I was thinking Speedway sold a set of adjustables that were pretty inexpensive. What type of bushings are in those Speedways?

 

[WSLN 6]

I can't find any g-body arms on that website. Link?

 

[charlief1]

Smiley's Racing :: Product Search

Speedway IMCA Modified Front Suspension Kit

 

[DailyDrifter]

GBodyParts.com Online

 

[The_Six]

the speedways I used were not ajustable they look just like the g-body ones but cheaper here is the link I read before getting them.

MalibuRacing.com Message Boards • View topic - speedway motors tubular control arms.

 

[jdpolzin]

If you are going to spend the money get the SPC's. They are top quality. Be aware of the cheap bushings in the Speedway's and GBody arms.

 

[charlief1]

$47.99 each and they're greasable? Sounds good to me and I have one here right now that was given to me. These hold up fairly well from the info of the guys I deal with on the dirt tracks around here. They beat the snot out of them and I have yet do see a problem with them.

 

[turboc87gn]

Trz make awesome g body suspension parts and the sell the upper with a bronze bushing on the passenger rear so the downpipe dosent barbecue it...TRZ Motorsports

 

[jdpolzin]

Thats the main issue, with our downpipes, we really need good bushings in our upper control arms. Poly, rubber, anything meltable wont last. A Del-Alum or similar bushing is the way to go.

 

[dsa87gn]

Bushings

Im thinking of going with the moog problem solvers K6411, any feedback on these

Control Arm Bushings - Upper by Moog - Part 20516570 - Advance Auto Parts

 

[jdpolzin]

My opinion on the Moogs are that they are awesome to use in the lower control arms to keep ride quality and still are stiff enough to keep the car firm. Good balance. I use them in my my lowers and my car has a pretty hard core suspension/brake set up. BUT.....I would use a different bushing for the uppers, like Del-Alums. The Moogs will get week from the heat of the downpipe, polly's will break down too.