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If you can't get new bolts, wizz-wheel the old CA & bushings off of the existing ones. Slather em brutally with the thickest grease you can find, inside the bushings, when reassembling.
If you can't get new bolts, wizz-wheel the old CA & bushings off of the existing ones. Slather em brutally with the thickest grease you can find, inside the bushings, when reassembling.
I bought brand new bolts along with the control arms…I expected problems, but not this bad.
Had this problem yesterday with the front A-arm bolt. What I did was I took a 3/8 impact gun and a brass hammer. Spin and whack at the same time. Sometimes spinning it alone won't work, sometimes whacking alone won't work. But sometimes doing both at the same time does the trick.
Were you able to get them out? It's a job I'll be facing sometime in the next couple of years, so I'm taking notes.
Angle grinder for the win!
I didn’t want to chance damaging the mounting surfaces, so I ran the angle grinder through the center of the sleeve inside. Got enough of the bolt cut to allow the bolt to break when I put a breaker bar on it…half a bolt was much easier to remove from each side.
Also, BUY NEW BOLTS. The old ones were in sad shape, no way would I want to reuse them. I bought bolts when I ordered the control arms.
Also, I’m replacing the stabilizer end links while I’ve got the control arm off…much easier, especially when I discovered the washers were completely rusted to the bolt, and had to use the angle grinder to cut the bolts in half to get the end link removed.
When putting the new control arms on, I used anti seize on the bolt shaft so the bolt doesn’t rust to the sleeve. Makes it much easier to remove later on.
I bought the UMI bolts when I bought the control arms…they’re NOT the exact same size as the originals. The originals were an 18mm head…the replacements are 3/4”.
The original bolts were pointed on the end, the new ones are squared.they’re a very tight fit…AND, they simply won’t go through the hole on the far side if they’re the least bit misaligned. Additionally, they’re longer, which means the rear bolt HAS to go in from the inboard side…the brakes are in the way of going through from the outside. The Nylocks are a nice touch… Best strategy is get the front bolt all the way first, then start fighting the rear bolt. I’m supporting my differential with a floor jack, but I simply couldn’t find a position that allowed me working alone to get the bolt all the way through. Finally, I took a large standard wrench, put the closed end in between the control arm and the mount, and used it as a lever to GENTLY push the control arm forward the 1/8” I needed to get the bolt all the way through.
Most aftermarket manufacturers supply SAE bolts, the originals were metric. You'll find that most aftermarket bushings also have bushing sleeves sized for SAE bolts, they have a little bit of slop on the stock metric bolts.
Well, everything is back in place…BTW, UMI does NOT stock the Panhard rod bolts..the instructions say to reuse the old bolts.
Good news/bad news on the installation of the UMI non-adjustable control arms, and Panhard rod.
Good news, I really can’t feel any definite difference in ride quality. The car does seem to track a bit better, which isn’t terribly surprising, since the rear isn’t shifting around.
Bad news, it eliminated the severe axle hop issue I’ve had for quite some time, but hasn’t completely eliminated it. Over the past several years, I’ve replaced the rear springs with Moog 5665 springs, replaced both motor mounts with OEM mounts (the right side was sitting WAY down, and had failed), replaced the torque arm mount with an Energy Suspension polyurethane replacement. Still, when I get on it, the rear isn’t violently bouncing any longer, but you can hear the tire as it spins changing the sound slightly as it spins against the pavement.
About the only thing I haven’t replaced is the universal joints..but they seem to be fine.
Any suggestions? ‘88 L98 IROC, nearly completely stock, other than a manual transmission swap.
Well, everything is back in place…BTW, UMI does NOT stock the Panhard rod bolts..the instructions say to reuse the old bolts.
Good news/bad news on the installation of the UMI non-adjustable control arms, and Panhard rod.
Good news, I really can’t feel any definite difference in ride quality. The car does seem to track a bit better, which isn’t terribly surprising, since the rear isn’t shifting around.
Bad news, it eliminated the severe axle hop issue I’ve had for quite some time, but hasn’t completely eliminated it. Over the past several years, I’ve replaced the rear springs with Moog 5665 springs, replaced both motor mounts with OEM mounts (the right side was sitting WAY down, and had failed), replaced the torque arm mount with an Energy Suspension polyurethane replacement. Still, when I get on it, the rear isn’t violently bouncing any longer, but you can hear the tire as it spins changing the sound slightly as it spins against the pavement.
About the only thing I haven’t replaced is the universal joints..but they seem to be fine.
Any suggestions? ‘88 L98 IROC, nearly completely stock, other than a manual transmission swap.
I went down largely the same road 20 yrs ago. Springs (CC635 in my case) reduced the squat somewhat; LCAs helped the wheel hop and straightened out the launch; a Spohn torque arm felt like I had taken a giant bowl of oatmeal out of somewhere in the chassis; but I still had wheel hop.
LCARBs fixed the hop COMPLETELY, once and for all.
There is nothing "adjustable" about a torque arm that can materially affect wheel hop. About all you can "adjust" with one, is pinion angle, which is not a factor in wheel hop.
I went down largely the same road 20 yrs ago. Springs (CC635 in my case) reduced the squat somewhat; LCAs helped the wheel hop and straightened out the launch; a Spohn torque arm felt like I had taken a giant bowl of oatmeal out of somewhere in the chassis; but I still had wheel hop.
LCARBs fixed the hop COMPLETELY, once and for all.
There is nothing "adjustable" about a torque arm that can materially affect wheel hop. About all you can "adjust" with one, is pinion angle, which is not a factor in wheel hop.
Sofa:
Do I understand correctly that while lower control arm relocation brackets will put an end to wheel hop, there’s a handling penalty?
A good bit of my driving for fun is on challenging curvy roads like The Dragon, which is less than an hour away.
I also just bought new UMI control arms for my 90 (the bushings in the factory control arms are pretty worn out). My passenger side bolts are STUCK. Driver side came out pretty easily, but the passenger rear bolt took me about 45 minutes to hammer out after spending 10 minutes getting the nut off. The front bolt is much harder to reach... I'll be angle grinding the head off tonight (and maybe the nut also) and beating it into submission... not looking forward to it.
Last edited by rearview; 09-15-2021 at 08:34 AM.
Reason: typo
Sawzall'd between the bracket and the control arm and cut the bolt in half and was able to pound it loose. There really is no good way to get a hammer up in there, much less an impact.
08-18-2021, 01:29 PM
