I am in the process of rebuilding the front suspension in my 69 Mach 1 and am having an issue with the upper control arm bushings. I had decided to rebuild the UCA's rather than replace them and bought a rebuild kit in order to accomplish that. I have the left side pulled apart, so I'm working on that first. After using a lot of penetrating lube, heat and an impact wrench, I got the bushings and shaft off of the first UCA. Now, when I try to install the new bushings, they won't thread in to the arm. The threads seem like they are stripped, or non-existent so the caps slide all the way in to the holes in the UCA, but they do thread on to the shaft. I can pivot the shaft within the bushings with a little effort. I'm also doing the Arning drop, welding in the Boss 302 reinforcements,installing new springs and roller perches while I have the access. My dilemma is should I weld the caps in place, or am I fighting a losing battle and just go out and purchase new UCA's?
I agree, the arms are difficult to rebuild. The threads rust and come out with the bushings. We have several variations of high quality upper arms available.
I don't know. I bought it through that auction site as part of a larger kit that had upper ball joints, lower control arms, tie rod ends, spring perches & spring isolators. It was from a major vendor though, so I might be able to.
I just went through this on my 66 and same thing, threads were gone once I removed the old bushings. Those bushings were tough to remove! I wanted to save the arms just for the sake of feeling good about re-using as much as I can, but ended up buying new.
Why would you rebuild the old UCA's that are most likely not centered very well when you can buy brand new Moog UCA's for $57/ea with free shipping and for probably the same cost or less than your rebuild kits? If you're a Summit racing fan, you could also call them up, have them price match with free shipping and get them in two days.
I've done a bunch of them. The threads are fine and shallow. Rust makes them worse. Clean the threads well with a wire wheel. You will need to be careful and adamant, but get them started ( there's only been one time I could not ). Then once both are installed and centered , put three good tack welds on each side.
What he said. I use three welds, too. Easy, and secure. I've seen untouched originals come loose. Rebuild with tack weld. Heck, I tack weld new ones (after recentering).
I've done a bunch of them. The threads are fine and shallow. Rust makes them worse. Clean the threads well with a wire wheel. You will need to be careful and adamant, but get them started ( there's only been one time I could not ). Then once both are installed and centered , put three good tack welds on each side.
Well, I decided to weld them on, no issues. The rod was dead centered on the first one. So I start to drill the first shock tower for the Arning drop with a starter bit and a step drill to 1/2 inch, again no problem. I purchased a 17/32 bit for the final enlargement. There lies the problem. The bit grabbed the hole and spun the drill out of my hand. I now have two broken bones in my hand and need to see an orthopedic surgeon. No work on the car for me for a while.
What's the correct number of drill bit sizes to jump when drilling out holes?
Ouch! Sorry to hear that. I forget my smaller sizes, did not use a step bit. Last two were a 1/2 and then the 17/32. I'm sure during the process of drilling 4 holes the bit grabbed and twisted the drill a bit in my hands a couple of times. Hope your hand heals up nicely and you can resume normal activities.
That's happened to me hundreds (if not thousands) of times. The bit snags in the hole and the drill spins twisting my wrists. I've been drilling with a drill press when the bit snags and the piece I'm drilling into spins like a whirling dervish trying to take my left hand off my arm. Fortunately I've never sprained or broken anything.
Three possibilities, you either never took a Tech Ed class, or you had a lousy Tech Ed teacher, or you choose not to follow what you have learned, because . . . . you never drill into metal on a drill press without the work piece being clamped, secured, safely. It is very dangerous.
Got the big drill with the side handle. I learned that when I burned out my Dad's 3/8 drill the first time I did this 30+ years ago. It actually happened at the start of punching through with the last bit. The stepped drill must have left a ragged edge that the last bit grabbed. Perhaps if I had a reamer and was able to clean up the hole so there wasn't an edge to catch.
I knew it was going too smoothly. The stepped bit was "goin through like butta".
Start a pilot hole with an 1/8" bit. Then go to 1/4". Then you don't want to go larger than 3/8" at the next step, then finally drill to your desired finish size . . if 1/2" or under.
....If I may add a question here and trying to stay on topic - How does one adjust the Pivot shaft so that it is EXACTLY "centered" as per the manual. I've been twisting - untwisting, half-twisting for over an hour and can not get the arm centered any closer than 0.030" from side to side deviation. I am rebuilding my original '68 UCA's with MOOG replacement shafts, MOOG ball joints and new (Drake) spring perches. - after being "unconvinced" of aftermarket complete arm replacements - and my budget (and driving habits) do not warrant tubular replacements or coil-over conversions - AND since I blew the wad on a Randall's Rack .... more on that later... - So, how 'exactly centered' IS centered and HOW is it achieved? Thanks! Please forgive me if this should be a new thread....
I've never had to adjust mine, I just bought aftermarket Moog UCA's that were properly centered and didn't have to deal with this issue. If I were you I'd skip the Scott drake perches and spend the extra money to get the opentracker roller spring perches, you'll be glad you did.
I looked at the roller perche$...I may have to wait to win a few hands of poker. Seems to me a nice Sunday afternoon job and easy upgrade. Now would be the time as my car is apart but 30+% on the dollar makes that a gotta-wait-for-it purchase for me at least. Will I REALLY notice a difference driving around town to different cruise nights with the roller perches? As for the Moog UCA"s I did notice the 3-rivet ball joint. I decided to stay with my original arms just the same. Thanks for the info
The way I see it is that the Scott drake spring perches are $30 a piece x2, totaling $60. Why not spend the extra $140 now and not have to do something twice? I went the cheap route the first time and ended up buying the roller spring perches and yes the difference is very noticeable. Doing a search on here or any other forum I found that other than the price, there wasn't a single negative review about these spring perches and john is a great guy to deal with as well as a member on this and other forums. Do a search and you'll see all of the reviews and how much better these perches are than the cheap Scott drake ones. Also, what happens when you spend $60 on the cheap-o ones and then buy the roller ones later on? You're into the two sets a total of $260 and unless you can return the original set, it's doubtful that you'd get your initial $60 investment back. I'd rather put the money in up front and not waste your time doing it twice and $60 of your money for perches that will likely sit in your garage taking up space or that get thrown away.
Well, I ended up with five pins being put in my hand to keep the bones in line. Now that my hand is fully healed I have just a minor reduction in function. I can't quite make a complete fist which makes holding change a bit difficult. Fortunately, that doesn't affect my ability to work in the car. I did get the side I was working on completed. I got the parts installed that I had mentioned at the top of the thread plus one in drop progressive rate springs from Eibach. I don't think the correct springs were in the front initially because the front end was excessively high. I was told by the previous owner that he purchased the project from someone who may have put big block springs in it because they had two projects going at the same time and sold one of them. I ended up with about a three inch drop total. So the right side is currently 31" from the ground to the top of the wheel arch and the left is 27". This is on wheel dollies, so I imagine it will be another 1/2 to 1 inch lower when it's on the ground.
LOL! I was going to ask you to clear up the 'bias' comment but was worried I'd not look smart enough! Checking the manual, and in lay-mans speak - put the larger distance toward the front of the car in order to increase positive caster. BUT all this is moot now. I gave up on adjusting the one arm and took a look at the second arm and low and behold, the dimension with my digital caliper was within 0.005" - pretty much exact. I torqued the bushings to 80 ft*lbs and removed the 'spacer tool' and all is good. Referring to the manual it states in bold "turn the bushings to center the arm" so then I decided to remove the pivot shaft from the first arm, flip it around, switch the bushings around an managed to get the dimensions within 0.010" - GO FIGURE! I torqued them up and now they are on the car for good. By the way - the Ford manual states the pipe-spacer should be ? 6 15/16" - not for my'68 that's for sure. My tool and die guy at my shop made an exact fit pipe spacer for my arms and the pipe spacer measures 8.095". This dimension worked for me.
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