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RaiderZJ
06-28-2005, 07:04 PM
I'm in the process of replacing my control arms with oem type replacements. On the old ones, the metal sleeve that is inside the bushing is about 2 7/8" wide and the axle side is about 2 5/8" wide. But on the new ones, both sleeves are the same (about 2 5/8"). How can I go about making them work? All of the bushings are the same, its just the metal sleeve on the old ones that is wider in the rear. I had 3 ideas on this.

1. swap the sleeve from the old one to the new one
2. put washers between the sleeve and the mount
3. send the f-ers back

I did post this on JU, and no one really helped me :butthead:

UNIMOG69
06-28-2005, 07:15 PM
I'd go with either 1 or 2.

PassRunnerZJ
06-28-2005, 07:23 PM
#2'em - if you put washers in for shims I would move them closer towards the center of the rig for more tire clearance if you change the width of your tires without changing wheel backspacing.
or
#3 them and get some WJ LCAs and have someone mill down the inserts and bushings so they fit the ZJ - assuming that you have a ZJ. The WJ LCAs have better bushing material and are stronger and less likely to bend if/when you drop the LCA on a rock. Or get adjustable LCAs... money ahead in the long run when you go to lift it.

JeepinHank
06-29-2005, 09:33 AM
Or, just install them, and properly torque down the nuts. I assure you that the CA mounts will flex that much @ 100 ft lbs of torque.

Less than 1/8" doesn't really sound like much of a problem to me...

Kraqa
06-29-2005, 09:00 PM
Or, just install them, and properly torque down the nuts. I assure you that the CA mounts will flex that much @ 100 ft lbs of torque.

Less than 1/8" doesn't really sound like much of a problem to me...

x2

RaiderZJ
06-30-2005, 12:39 AM
I got this from Kevin on JU:


Reason: Mopar decided that the frame mount in the front was getting more forces on it (from bumps in the road) than the other bushings, so they made it slightly wider to isolate the vibes better. Just use 9/16" ID flat washers and crank the hell out of them so that they don't slip when you're coming out of reverse and going into drive (and clunk).

HTH,
-=Kevin=-


So I did what kevin suggested. I tried to put the arm on without washers, and there is now way the mount would have flexed that much. I had the bolt torqued down bubba tight and I could still move the arm side to side about 1/8". The washers solved the problem. Thanks for all the help.

paulkeith
07-07-2005, 02:13 PM
haha, i just added to my control arm post about this same issue. guess i should've looked around first....


in any case, i think napa sells the wider bushings for around 14 bucks each. on mine, the gap on the body was pretty big. ie...1/4"...so i really didn't feel comfortable just cranking on it and pulling the brackets in to fit. i think i'm going to buy the napa bushings (if they are actually wider...website lists different p/ns for front and back of lower front arm) and put them into the arms i bought.

hth
Paul

RaiderZJ
07-07-2005, 07:08 PM
haha, i just added to my control arm post about this same issue. guess i should've looked around first....


in any case, i think napa sells the wider bushings for around 14 bucks each. on mine, the gap on the body was pretty big. ie...1/4"...so i really didn't feel comfortable just cranking on it and pulling the brackets in to fit. i think i'm going to buy the napa bushings (if they are actually wider...website lists different p/ns for front and back of lower front arm) and put them into the arms i bought.

hth
Paul
Paul, the ones I ordered were the same way, the guy tracked down the right ones and sent them to me. Here's what he said:

You need the following parts for your vehicle #52087786 front lower arm and #52087711 front upper arm.
The lower arms are the same as oem, has the wider bushing in the frame end and the hole in the bushing at the axle end. This is for a 96 ZJ