Control arm shaft assemblies

[AJLChase]

I have pretty much narrowed down that I have some bad bushings on either my upper or lower control arm shaft assemblies. I have greased them with no avail. I am wondering, how difficult is it to replace these? Is it a day job or a week job? Also, what tools or guides would you recommend to look into so I know what to expect along the way. Thanks!

[chevy_mike]

How long it will take depends highly on your tools. Even with my fairly extensive tool collection, I didn't have sockets that went this big. To by the impact sockets and adapter to my 1/2" impacts, I was looking at almost $100.

I ended up taking it them to a buddies shop to use their tools. Even with a 3/4" drive impact, we had one of the lower ones take some time to get off.

Some people have had good luck with the correct sockets, a breaker bar and a big piece of pipe to get more leverage.

Anyway you cut is, it's kind of a PITA job. Oh, IIRC the upper nuts are 1 3/16" and the lowers are 1 5/16".

Good luck.

[unclewatts]

Our trucks have big nuts...

[Pont406]

I did this couple weeks ago. I couldn't find sockets that big also. I ened up buying a metric socket set from harbour freight and adaptors. All was under $45 and sockets did fit ok. My 1/2" gun worked ok but it sounded like a gun fire coming from my garage.

[Jayss109]

sockets are available at sears....It can be done in a weekend

[SIXT8LOU]

i just did mine,,,thought the sockets size was 1 3/8 uppers, and 1 5/8 for the lowers, i had no problems took em to friends shop who had the sockets, and with a little elbow grease they came off.....

[chevy_mike]

Originally Posted by SIXT8LOU

i just did mine,,,thought the sockets size was 1 3/8 uppers, and 1 5/8 for the lowers, i had no problems took em to friends shop who had the sockets, and with a little elbow grease they came off.....

Yeah, that was my memory not serving me well. I can't for the life of me remember if they were 1 5/16 & 1 3/16 or 1 5/8 & 1 3/8. It sucks getting old...

[AJLChase]

Do I need to remove the Drum breaks as well as seperate the ball joints to do all of this? Or is it much easier then I think it's going to be? I just want to know if I need to buy new parts that aren't necassarily the shaft assembiles?

[Ben IV]

i took my control arms off and used my vice to clamp down on the cross shafts. I supose you could break the caps loose on the truck then take them off if you dont have a vice but you would have to remove the spindles and springs to take them off.

[Tx Firefighter]

The arms need to come off the truck to do it right. As far as how big of a job, it's pretty time consuming. I'm pretty fast and I'd estimate it to take me 6 hours in my own shop with the tools and parts ready to go. If you have to scrounge tools or learn your way through it the first time, you better set aside a weekend. Those things can be stuck in there pretty tight.

[AJLChase]

Thanks for the help guys...before I decide to tackle this big job I first wanted to start small and see if that fixed my problems creaking/squeaking. So, I bought an assortment of grease fittings figuring I'd swap them in place of the old ones and see if it helped get the grease through in case of a clog in one of the fittings. I narrowed down the creaking to my upper control arms by sound only, so I started to remove one of the fittings and I couldn't even get a wrench or pliers around it, so figuring I may have better luck on the other side that's where I headed next. The other side had a much bigger issue. As I tried to untighten the fitting I noticed that as I turned the fitting the whole large Nut that the fitting screws into untightend with the fitting. I was shocked, so I preceded to tighten the fitting as tight as I could as I don't have a socket big enough yet to tighten the large nut. So, how bad is this? Dangerous if left unchecked? Possible source for the squeaking?

[Wrenchbender Ret]

The upper ones are real easy to get off. It is dangerouse with the cap loose like that. It is possible the arm is wallered out. If so you have to get a new control arm. I have welded many of them.

[shaneo2112RUSH]

for me it was easyer with a impact, adapter, and a lage socket, but i know some of us dont have all the right tools!! What year of truck you working on? i have a set of upper and lowers im selling here on the forum! im not going to use them but they were on the truck for about a year and they are still in good shape

[leddzepp]

You don't need a socket to remove them or install them.

I used a pipe wrench and a breaker bar. They came right off.

[MikeB]

Just FYI, your control arm shafts do not have traditional rubber or poly bushings. They literally pivot on threads, as you can see in the picture posted by Shane.

I've had the same problem mentioned with finding the correct size socket. It's somewhere between 1/16 increments, but is not metric. How weird is that? I ended up filing down the flats on the nuts.

[mbgmike]

We just take the arms to a local frame shop and they charge us $8.00 per arm to replace it with us furnishing the new parts. $16.00 can't beat it.

[grayw0lf]

I replaced the lower control arms the other week. It wasn't that bad. I'd say a 1 day & 6-pack job. I used a pipe wrench on the end nuts. Get it good & snug & it won't round off the new pieces. They are quite large you have plenty of material to work with.

[leddzepp]

This is how I broke mine loose. They were in there really tight!