After properly torquing the shaft end nuts down, is it still loose?

RwP

 

Your only other choices I can see are to find a lowering or lifting set of control arms; have some custom made; or buy some junkyard arms and swap your bushings and put new ball joints in.

That's all I can see ... There's probably other choices.

Now, that shaft? I THINK that shaft, or something similar, was used from the late 50's in the cars etc. up to now.

Maybe an A-body shop will have a replacement?

That's just off the top of my head, though.

It would be interesting to see how the D150 UCA compares in size. Again, I think I'd pull some from the boneyard.

If there aren't any close to you in the boneyards, maybe hitting up car-part.com and seeing what turns out there?

RwP

 

Dunno, found ANOTHER problem, the bushing I order from Rock Auto have to go back, theres a metal sleeve on the outside that will not go into the control arm , they are the wrong ones, not Rock Autos fault, they sent exactly what I ordered, mine are rubber with the metal inside only and 4 little holes for grease to get in there......you know, for those of us that have the common sense to grease out trucks ( yes I'm still mad about that)

Ok Raising would mean I buy a set for a 3 inch lift because there are extensions bolted onto the upper ball joint now fr a 3" suspension lift, lowering is not an option at all with me I don't believe in lowering a vehicle, I feel it makes them look like crap, I have contacted Michigan Metal works and Blackwater Fabrication for help, Blackwater I can drive to and take a complete control arm to if they can do it, but unless I could use one off of a full size pickup or a durango theres no other recourse because there are no 4x4 Dakotas in any junk yards around me, withing 500 miles, for some odd reason 4x4's seem to not be in junk yards..........gee imagine that, a 4x4 not in a junk yard, I will never go muddling with mine, I will go through some deep mud and the occasional ditch or woods with really soft ground, but I will NEVER purposely hi at a high speed and crash into a man made mud pit like they do at Birdneck Boogers in Va beach, I watch a guy ruin a Cherokee doing that, I just want my baby running, I named it Christine, too bad its not lie the 57 Fury in the movie

 

For what I can do to help - checking car-part.com and using the zip code for your stated area, I find at least four right upper control arms within 100 miles; Andrew's Salvage in Hillsborough ( http://recycler.car-part.com/Andrews...iveandSalvage/ ) has them for $35.

You would STILL need to rebush and re-balljoint that control arm to be safe; it might be good enough to get you running the day you get it, though.

I'd call them Monday and see if they'll ship; that'll add to the cost, but you might not have much choice.

I'd check car-part.com and see who else had one; that wasn't the closest one, but they were the cheapest within 100 miles.

I feel for you having your main wheels down; I've FINALLY gotten the monies together to get the transmission in my truck rebuilt, and it's been costing me some auto rental also so I could keep on working and making the money. (Had to pay other bills also. I DO wish I had enough money to go "Fukit Fixit" when something broke ... )

RwP

 

Dear God, THANK YOU RalphP
I have carpart . com up in another window right now,I'm going to order the parts THANK YOU AGAIN, I will be keeping this thread updated when I can

 

Just do plan to rebush and reball joint the "new" control arm; I would not trust ANY parts like that from the boneyard.

I want you safe on the road, not "I saved 15% and ended up in the morgue!"

EDIT: May want to check into what's been done to use 2WD poly bushing sets on a 4WD setup; those are a bit easier to install IME due to just burning out the old rubber and cleaning the shell - no need to press out or press in the outer shell. Which is one reason why I run poly on my 1988 2WD ... I'd also spring for good ball joints (cheap **** is cheap ****, after all!) but do shop for a good price on them. I'm currently running ProForged joints on my 1988; but with only about 6,000 miles I have no idea how long lived they'll be. They have good reports in the Camaro/Corvette forums from the 2000's onward, though, so here's hoping.

RwP

 

I contacted a machine shop in Chesapeake today to make the bolts I sent them pics and measurements tomorrow morning their estimator will give me a estimate on fabricating two of them for me
I tried contacting Blackwater Fabrication in Deep Creek, but apparently they went out of buisness


What are the chances of a 2wd upper control arm working on my 4wd? I assume its none but it never hurts to ask, because I can get those all day, also would a Durango upper fit, I know where three of them are, plus I can get thse all day too new

 

The control arm no; the shaft, possibly. I'd try that shaft.

"make the bolts" - what bolts? My mental image was that you were having problems with the cross shaft; now you say bolts.

Can you get a picture of exactly what you're looking for?

RwP

 

another "I don't get what you mean".....
Ive replaced tons of upper control arm bushings over the years both in the course of my work and as an owner of many vehicles 15-20 years older than current model year at the time, some of my own vehicles as well... have never run into what you are saying..... yeah, the old inner sleeves are probably seized to control arm shaft.... big deal, not the end of day, common as dirt. I use an air chisel at the seam to split the sleeve, or parallel to the shaft to knock the sleeve off.... you can probably do that with a regular hammer and chisel. and yeah the new bushings usually slide on to that shaft pretty easy because they haven't been on there 20 years to have a chance to seize up..... and the only bushings I have bought that DON'T have a metal sleeve inside and outside of the bushing "built onto" the rubber are urethane ones from the likes of Energy Suspension... but they include at least the inner sleeves in the package (the ones that make contact with/ slide over that shaft) the last few sets of Energy suspension control arm bushings I have gotten, have included the outer sleeves as well (the ones that press into the arm themselves) even though Energy packages them as separate pieces.

The ONLY times I have had to replace upper control arm shafts were
1. when the threads that retain the bushings on the shaft peel themselves away, as I spin off the nut.
2. 87-older Chevy 3/4 and 1 ton trucks and vans, when there is slop in the bushings that is only way to do the job; bushings simulotaneously thread into control arm and onto shaft, play gets into the "threads" between shaft and bushing. Ours aren't made like that.
I have seen some pitting once I get the inner sleeves split from shaft sometimes, but usually not bad enough to replace shaft. like I think Ralph said, once new bushings popped into control arm and tightened up, I think you'd be fine. I can't see what youre dealing with from here (the south suburbs of Chicago), but I think you could put them together and be fine.
Are you sure you got the right parts? (I don't care what number is on the box, I've gotten mislabeled parts before)
as far as "getting the same thing you now have" from a yard, the only time I see a problem with the control arms themselves is either accident damage (bent and usually QUITE obvious) or complete rust thru, or the threads that the ball joints screw to being stripped so the ball joint isn't allowed to tighten up.... I would not be afraid of this route.
I should have saved the ones from my 92 2wd, I had JUST replaced ball joints and bushings like 1000 miles earlier when the trans went (major internal damage not a basic simple rebuild) and my wife and son talked me out of a rebuild...… I've gotten control arms from a junkyard lots of times, usually to speed the process of a vehicle repair up some.... Id rebuild the junkyard control arms, clean and paint them, then the time to just swap them out is less than it is to remove then rebuild and reinstall.... I cant remember ever paying more than $15/each though I always pull my own parts.... if the junkyard has to pull parts of course you will pay more.
and as far as not being able to find replacements, Moog and TRW both used to offer upper control arm shaft kits pretty readily, though as most of todays cars don't even HAVE an upper control arm, I can see why maybe they would not any longer.... in fact for some cars they used to offer an "offset" shaft for instances when you couldn't get enough camber or caster adjustment...…or offset bushings for those that just used cam bolts to hold the arms to the chassis.... I have bought such parts for my 80 Volare and my 89 Diplomat, as well as a few Darts and Dusters I worked on for others back in the day....you have an old school parts store left nearby that might still have a real (paper) Moog catalog hanging around? You might have to access an older catalog to get a part number if the parts you need have been obsoleted out..... I'm sure that if they made such parts for our trucks (never had to cross that bridge, personally) at any time you could get a PN that way, then do a little digging...…...

 

Yes Ralph its the cross shaft, I looked it up and actually called Dodge in Franklin Va and the parts guy there said its called a bolt, dunno why, it looks like a shaft to me

volaredon, the cross shaft ( bolt) is so badly rotted away that the inner sleeve of ONE side stayed on the other side wasn't even there and the shaft itself is smaller than the threaded ares