(pics) '66 lower control arm u-bolt broke today, luckily in my driveway

[Chevy nutcase]

Originally Posted by JasontheBeaver

Just pulled my truck out of the garage and parked it to the side when I came to a stop I heard/felt a loud pop. Jumped out to discover this...

Funny thing is... it's scheduled to go into the shop in a couple months for a complete disc brake and 5-lug conversion and 2" lowering. Not sure if there were signs that this u-bolt was about to fail or not. Just sure happy it happened at walking speeds instead of highway speeds!

I found replacements at Classic Industries:https://www.classicindustries.com/pr...lcuk63725.html
I'm surprised they offer them in 7/16" or 1/2", not sure why someone would choose the smaller diameter, any ideas?
Any advice before I go outside and start getting my hands dirty on this repair?

That's a relatively easy fix. If you can't get the two pieces of u bolt out because of the bend don't waste time trying to get the nut off, just zip it off with a cutoff wheel but do 1 at a time with a jack supporting the arm. If you remove both the coil spring will make things difficult. As for the choice of 7/16" or 1/2" I can only guess stock is 7/16 and if you want to drill a bit you can upgrade to 1/2. I'd say most people would do the pivot bushings now but that can wait till everything is off getting upgraded