When to replace the rear axle control arms

["Turbo-T"]

My car is mainly a street car. I would eventually like to run it at the track one day and plan to do so.

I've still got the stock stamped control arms. With Full Throttle's 10% on all parts ending today, it had me wondering if ordering a set of boxed lowers for a street car would be worth the buck or not...what about boxed uppers...?

Thanks for any helpful input.

 

[novaderrik]

if it is a street car and you mostly just cruise around with it, then the arms that GM saw fit to put on it will be plenty good.

 

["Turbo-T"]

Thanks Derrick, just that I've heard the stock arms were crap ass flimsy designed to give a comfortable ride but not do anything for traction.

Yes the car is mostly a street car. I do eventually plan to get her to the track...when I can get some shoes on her.

Last car I did lower arm swaps on was my Chevelle....used to launch crooked on the street with the stockers, but some tubular bling bling UMI's helped it launch straight when taking off from a light.

 

[79TurboCutlass]

Thanks Derrick, just that I've heard the stock arms were crap ass flimsy designed to give a comfortable ride but not do anything for traction.

Yes the car is mostly a street car. I do eventually plan to get her to the track...when I can get some shoes on her.

Last car I did lower arm swaps on was my Chevelle....used to launch crooked on the street with the stockers, but some tubular bling bling UMI's helped it launch straight when taking off from a light.

It sounds like your Chevelle's control arm bushings were wore out, more than the stamped steel arms being a problem.

 

[Turbo Loyd]

New bushings in the stock lower control arms and boxing them in is an alterative to adding aftermarket lower arms. HRpartsNstuff has the blanks that can be welded along the bottom edges to stiffen them up. Just make sure you have short sections of tubing tack welded between each set of the anti sway attachement holes so addition of the sway bar does not collapse the sheet metal.

Have added both alternatives to my car, but really like the aftermarket lower control arms. Add up the costs of sandblasting the lower control arms, purchasing the reinforcement blanks, plus welding them on, adding the powder painting and having new bushings installed, you might as well buy the completed part, depending what you can do yourself and oursource.

Paul Ferry's lower control arm comes with greasable low friction bushings that prevent binding to really help your launch. Have found no down sides to driving with these on the street.

 

[Sweet6]

I'd skip the lower control arms and get the HR sway bar. The car will drive a lot better on the street. It is well worth the cost too.

 

[V8Killer]

New bushings in the stock lower control arms and boxing them in is an alterative to adding aftermarket lower arms. HRpartsNstuff has the blanks that can be welded along the bottom edges to stiffen them up. Just make sure you have short sections of tubing tack welded between each set of the anti sway attachement holes so addition of the sway bar does not collapse the sheet metal.

This is what I did to both my cars, and i'm very happy with it. Got rid of the G-body rear wiggle-wiggle.

 

[Pronto]

HR lower control arms work great for me. The stock arms and bushings are too weak. I hated that wagging the tail feeling.