Man, I just got nailed on new front lower control arm bolts and nuts, and rear lower control arm bolts/nuts. 'Fact, I got nailed so bad, I told the guy to forget the rear set. I'll do 'em another weekend.

So I got my receipt here, and I'm going to lay the prices out... prices I paid, and prices from http://www.gmpartsdirect.com !! After this rebuild is done, I'm stocking up on these suckers.

Front LCA, front bolt: # 11500952
Price I paid: $11.78/bolt
Price gmpartsdirect.com: $5.48/bolt

Front LCA, front nut: # 3983037
Price I paid: $2.00/nut
Price gmpartsdirect.com: $0.80 for a bag of 10!!

Front LCA, rear bolt; Rear LCA, both bolts: # 11502603
Price I paid: $8.33/bolt
Price gmpartsdirect.com: $3.33/bolt

Front LCA, rear nut; Rear LCA, both nuts: #11516073
Price I paid: $1.65/nut
Price gmpartsdirect.com: $0.66 for a bag of 10!!

Yep, talk about getting screwed. So hopefully this message and part #s will help some of you guys out if you ever rebuild your suspension...

A bag of 10... dammit.

 

i never buy bolts from GM.

hardware store, grade 8 isle.

 

I was thinking of going with spohns Rear LCA bolt set for 10 bucks. Who was this that ripped you off?

 

The local GM dealer.

The bolts are probably metric grade 10.9, but do regular hardware aisles sell the crimped locking nuts? I haven't ever seen my front LCA bolts before; they might have that same shoulder the panhard rods have- and you won't find those in any hardware aisle!

 

Tom,
What was the proposed total shipping on all those little bolts and nuts from GMPartsDirect ? When I bought replacement hatch strut bolts for my 'bird, it was $5.50 in parts and $6 in shipping. Plus GMPartsDirect, charges shipping per item.

Someone on this board told me to always check out VanDevere Olds for OEM parts orders. Have you ever dealt with them?

 

Never buy anything from the local dealer unless they have it instock and you need it in a hurry!

Prices at GMPartsdirect.com are Prices are Per Unit.
SO if it say pack quanity 10, you have to multiply their price by 10.

Better off buying alot of little stuff from Dal at Vandevere. I buy most of my parts from him. Good service

 

JG, I haven't dealt with Vandevere yet; probably will soon! I didn't add up shipping totals, I just took the prices off their website. Justin, thanks for the tip on the pricing per unit... that makes me feel a little better that it's $0.80 nut instead of $0.08/nut.

I'm definately not going to the dealer for my rear lca bolts, that's fer damn sure.

 

** PART NUMBER UPDATE!

Picked 'em up today; guy told me that the Front LCA, front nuts (# 3983037) was replaced with the same nuts for the Front LCA/rear nuts and the Rear LCA/all nuts.

So if that got confusing:

All nuts for all LCA's: GM Part # 11516073

 

man thats NUTS

 

Yep, I just purchased the lower control arm bolts and nuts--to the tune of twenty-something dollars from GM. By the way, TomP, look for some 'serious' work in replacing them. The bolts themselves sieze in the metal inserts in the original GM bushings, and as a consequence, look forward to a battle (one bolt per side came out without too much difficulty. But the other two took perhaps an hour a piece). I used anti-seize when I stuck the new bolts in.

JamesC

 

Cool, well, heh heh, not cool, but that's what I was expecting; thus the reason for the new bolts & nuts. I'm almost looking forward to attacking them, since at this point, I have the right tools to handle that (air compressor & cut-off tool, air die grinder, and electric angle grinder). Those things are getting OUT!

 

Yep gmpartsdirect does stupid things with quanities and shipping.


Just for the:

------------------------------
Front LCA, front nut: # 3983037
Price I paid: $2.00/nut
Price gmpartsdirect.com: $0.80 for a bag of 10!!
------------------------------

The total is $8.00 for the nuts and $7.95 for shipping=$15.95

 

Man you got screwed. Pun intended.

 

just came across this post just wanted to confirm what LI Tommy said, the bolts are $.80 a piece and you can only buy a bag of ten so thus making the total $8.00, well i will have 8 nuts left over in each bag if any body needs them ill let em go for free if anybody needs em

 

I need 2 of each nut. Shipping should be really cheap since I live in Frederick, MD. Can you help me out? If so - drop me an e-mail at timsiford@adelphia.net.

Tim

 

never walk into the dealership unless you come ready with some astro glide so it doesnt hurt when you get raped. i ordered two fittings that go into an LT1 intake, i figured 13-40 cents a piece - the grand total was $26.

 

I certainly wouldn't argue that GM can be expensive (see my post above); however, I've found that my local dealer is frequently less expensive than many aftermarket companies. My advice would be to check before buying.

JamesC

 

Oops sorry missed that detail...

 

This post was about FRONT control arms not rears.

 

Does anybody have the part numbers for the front strut bolts and rear shock bolts for a 1991 Camaro RS?
Thanks!!

 

Thanks Tom....you saved my a$$ again....

 

Any chance you guys measured the length/diameter of the bolts so I can go get some Grade 8 (or 10.9) from the hardware store?

I might do that anyway, but it'd be nice to be in the ballpark.

 

They're metric, so it's 10.9.

Both bolts are M12-1.75, one 95mm and one 110mm long. My references show the shorter bolt in the front of the LCA, contrary to TomP's original post.

Spohn sells a kit if you can wait to mail-order it,
Front A-Arm Mounting Hardware Kit .

 

Thanks for the dimensions, Jade Grey. That's a huge help.

Spohn is almost $20 for the bolts to me after shipping, so I'm going to see if a small local hardware store or Grainger has them.

I'd rather support that little hardware store because he's always pulling my nuts out of a fire on this car.

 

The puns in this thread crack me up

 

Ummm

Has anyone here actually tried talking to the parts people at the counter and explaining to them what you are doing?

I buy a lot of parts and am known at the local dealers and get a break on everything I buy from 2 local dealers. All I ever did was talk to the same people when I went in.

Has worked good for me for years

Only way I beat my own prices is if I go thru a friend that gets cost cause he has an account.

Same thing at the local parts places. I go thru Carquest and can get stuff cheaper than I can at Autozone :-)

It sometimes is worth it to talk to people and see what they can do. Also mention a few items for some other jobs you are doing *hint hint* wink wink* lol

later
Jeremy

 

agreed there.
you gotta be thrifty.
most GM parts are MUCH cheaper than aftermarket, especially if you have a hook up.

gm parts direct shipping sucks! $$$$$$

 

I have a trade account at the local GM [Vauxhall Dealer] but he cant get me any trans am bits.
I rang Bauer Millett in Manchester [Pontiac main agents : yes really] and they said my 83 trans am was "too old".
Of course its f*****g old, thats why i want parts for it, i told the parts guy, pfffff some people.
But i find the genuine GM parts are much cheper in a lot of cases than spurious parts, but what you usually think will be cheap is often the price of a gold bar.

 

R1UK - try American and Speciality Auto Spares (Fred & Gladys Whittle) at Farnworth - 01204 572728. Bollocks to bauer millet (sound like German budgie seed producers!)

Mark.

 

But Farnworth is almost 20 miles away????


I might just do that, thanks.

 

Only a couple of gallon to get there then!

Mark.

 

I just had to buy panhard rod bolts, since mine were pretty rusty... I didn't destroy them, but I still didn't like the way they looked after using a bench grinder wire wheel to clean them up... paid $9 each for them, find out they're not zinc plated or anything! They look just as crappy new as the ones I got off! They also wanted $12 per nut.... I wanted the bolts, and hardware stores didn't have them, since they're that goofy stepped design, but $12 per for a metric nut??? dream on!

What i'm getting at is, are those normal nuts, or something weird, that I just never noticed? Someone mentioned "crimped locking nuts", is that for the panhard as well? Can I just use a nylock, or a lock washer or....?

 

no.
please use an all metal crimp style locknut.
you dont have to buy GM, you just have to get what you need at a quality fastener shop. most hardware stores dont carry them.

good luck.

 

huh... the old ones I took off weren't that tough to get off, and didn't seem like it was a locking nut....
oh well, I can't really picture a metal crimp locking nut, have to look it up... Wouldn't two jam nuts work? Well, I can probably obtain a locking nut for a lot cheaper then $12 per either way...
Thanks
-J

 

most expensive one ive ever bought was under a buck.
look at is closely, the hole will NOT be round.
more egg shapped.
there are also markings on the top of the nut, much like a grade 5 or grade 8 bolt.

good luck.

 

I do that at the local autozone and quite often the cashier there "Accidentally" forgets to ring stuff up because he also has a Trans Am. Like 20 lugs for the price of 8, a couple of times i grabbed the fittings i was looking for and forgot to write down the PN. They were busy so they said just go so they didnt have to go look it up lazy.... but cheap

 

On the next car I do, I'm just going to drill the hole on the small side out to the same size hole as the larger side. Then go buy some standard Grade 8 bolts with deformed thread nuts and be done with it. Having to buy GM bolts is a pain in the dick and time consuming.

Just did that today for my strut-to-spindle bolts and it cost me $20 for four (4) 5/8" x 3 1/2" bolts with deformed thread nuts. Should've went with 3" though, had to trim the lower bolt down so it didn't hit the rotor.