question about control arms
 

Hello everyone! I just got back from the alignment shop, and I got quite a surprise....they told me they couldn't change the caster because I have "K" upper and lower control arms, they said they won't center the wheel in the wheel well, and if they were to try and change the caster, they would have needed a two inch thick stack of shims and longer studs, they ended up leaving the caster at 10 degrees. the passenger side looks worse than the drivers side.
A little info on the parts I used with the build....the chassis is a '67 and the upper A arms are off of a '69 C10, the lower control arms are off of a '71 C10, I used 2 1/2" drop spindles with 2" drop springs. the upper control arms are
Identical in appearance, right and left and appear to be straight, no hit parts, same for the lowers, only they are '71 lowers with the spindle stops and different bump stops. they tell me that I probably have control arms off of a suburban, but I somehow doubt this. here are a few pictures of my truck as it sets on the ground.....

as you can see, the passenger side tire/wheel is canted towards the rear of the fender/wheel opening, where as, the drivers side is centered in the wheel well. seems to me, if I had the wrong control arms, both sides would be the same issue.
I used all new ball joints, upper and lower for a '71, spindles for a '71 and new cross shaft bushing seals everything put back together as in the factory assembly manual.
Now, I doubt it could happen, but if I had the r/h upper control arm on the L/H side and -vs. Versa, would that do something similar to what I have here? I can't believe the left side isn't off as much as the right side, doesn't make and sense. here are the pictures;

If anyone has had a similar issue, please tell me what you did to correct it, might save me a lot of head scratching......:dohh::dohh::dohh:

If there is a difference between 67' and 71'-72' lower control arms (besides the ball joints) please show me the difference, I know the '71-'72 lowers are different, that much I do know, not sure about the uppers.....
Thanks everyone!
Ben Smith
:metal:

Re: question about control arms
 

Upper control arms look like they're on backwards

Re: question about control arms
 

Are the rubber snubbers supposed to be towards the rear ? I wondered if that was a possibility.....I'll have to double check that.
Ben

Re: question about control arms
 

Your upper control arms (at least) are on BACKWARDS unless there's something I don't know about. It's easy to mix them up, I put my first one on backwards and caught it, but I could see easily missing it! Rubber snubber "nipple" should be to the rear.

Here's an original tear-down pic of mine (steering box is towards the front, obviously, if you want to orient yourself).

A tad embarrassing perhaps but easily solved and your entire problem will be fixed and the truck will be alignable (to make up a new word).

Re: question about control arms
 

thank you kind Sir!!!! I'm having a "Homer Simpson" Moment....:dohh::dohh::dohh::dohh::dohh:
Thanks again!
Ben
:metal:

Re: question about control arms
 

just a thought could one of the bottoms be backwards too being it is different from side to side like two of the same side lowers

Re: question about control arms
 

wouldn't that be easy to identify by the shock mounts?

Re: question about control arms
 

You're right on that,also the sway bar mount holes are up front as well
Ben
:metal:

Re: question about control arms
 

This is a 1971 frame it does look like your upper arms are on the wrong side.

Re: question about control arms
 

This is why this forum is great! I've got my front suspension off and redoing right now, and if I hadn't seen this post, I had a 50-50 chance of putting them on backwards as well. Now I know what to look for when I do reassembly. Should have marked them when I took them off would have been better, but Thanks Again for the information. Great to learn from others!

Re: question about control arms
 

yeah, guess I should have been paying closer attention to the small things, but, I enjoyed every minute I've worked on this project! at least it will be much easier to do the alignment now!:smoke:
Have a great 4th everyone!:flag::flag::flag:
Ben
:metal:

Re: question about control arms
 

If one side is back farther than that other, maybe the positioning pin where the U-bolt is and the hole in the shaft aren't lined up.

Re: question about control arms
 

I'm pretty confident that I made sure those pins were in place before I tightened those U bolts, but then again, I thought the same about the upper control arms being oriented the correct way too.....I have some Cadium plated
U bolts I need to install there any way's so I'll check that wile I am swapping the upper control arms out.
Thanks for the replies everyone! Have a Safe, and Happy 4th!!!!!
Ben
:metal:

Re: question about control arms
 

If one side is right and one isn't, is it possible you got two upper control arms of the same side?

Re: question about control arms
 

no, they are different look at the rubber snubber positions in the picture where the chassis is on the dolly.....both rubber snubbers are at the front, versus the rear..... I can't believe the one side has the wheel so far to the rear, yet the other side is almost normal.....this could drive you crazy!:crazy::crazy:
Have a good one!
Ben
:metal:

p.s. pay no attention to the rear coil springs in this picture, they were scrapped after this picture!!! but you can clearly see the upper A arms are r/h l/h