a-arm shafts

[redbaron69]

picked up some new ball joints and a-arm shafts today for my front end rebuild. i have never replaced a-arm shafts. any advice, tips, tricks would gladly be appericated. BTW just a rolling frame if this makes any differance on how everything should be torqed down. thanks guys

[chevy_mike]

Assuming this is a 1/2 ton, I just did this myself. You will need a 1 3/8" socket for the upper arms and 1 5/8" one for the lower arms.

I had a friend who owns a shop allow me to use their tools (impact and sockets) since I did not have the correct sockets that big. It was going to cost me $100 to get what I needed to use with my impact at home. Free worked out much better.

Others have done it with the correct size sockets and a breaker bar with a long cheater bar slipped over. It takes some work. You'll want to hold the shafts in a vice and have someone hold the arms so they don't try to rotate.

Impact gun is the easiest if you can. Might be worth a few bucks to take them to a shop after you removed them from the truck. Have them zap them off, take the arms home, clean and paint them, then take them back and have the new shafts put on.

Anyway you go, good luck.

[redbaron69]

yes it is a 1/2 ton. thanks chevy mike. anybody else?

[dznucks]

Nope, but i am about to do this too and never have done it before. i'm curious to hear more advice.

[Alex Hayley]

Putting the upper shaft back in the a-arm can be tricky…at least it was for me. I found the best way was to put the seals on the shaft and then slip the shaft into the a-arm. Make sure you have plenty of grease on the threads(both the shaft and a-arm threads). Instead of putting the nuts in with the shaft loose or clamped in a vice, I attached the shaft to the frame as intended. Then I put one nut all the way into the a-arm and onto the shaft. Then I backed it out a bit..a couple of turns to provide a bit of flexibility for the other nut. Then I put the other nut onto and into. I found that if I needed to start torquing on the nut, it was not going in properly. In that case, I took both nuts off and started with the other nut than I started with previously. There are some torque specs out there for using new nuts and using old nuts. I have not torqued them yet. They should be torqued after putting the full weight on them. Does anyone have any advise on how much torque and how the a-arm should move once properly torqued? Mine feel a bit tight.