73-87 Control arms

[Houston Ben]

Hi all,
I am in the market for control arms on my 86 c10. Right now they are stock with a 2" lowering spring and the bushings are shot. I could rebuild them but don't really want to go through all the work and pain.

LMC has stock lower but cant vouch for brand of ball joints or bushings. CPP has good looking lower control arms but I would also need to buy their sway bar. CCP lower, sway bar, and moog uppers comes to around $800.

I know dorman sales lowers but they are around $250 each on RA so I thought I could buy aftermarket for same price.

Can anyone recommend others for the same price point or a good place to buy stock like lowers?

Thanks for any help.

[Shady Rascal]

You should step away from the computer and take your arms to a local suspension shop and talk to them. Bent metal is no big deal, they heat it and bend it back. Worn bushings are no big deal, they replace them. Spending 800 dollars for full replacement when a shop could rebuild yours for <half the price is just not good sense.

The kind of men and shops who do work like this don't typically have much of an internet presence. You got to go see them face to face. Look for a heavy truck shop or a spring shop. They make their living doing this stuff.

I speak from experience here. My local truck spring shop changes bushings for 10 bucks each. But you couldn't find them on the internet if your life depended on it. You gotta go see them face to face.

Quick google turned these guy up local to you. Look at the services they provide.

http://www.thepruittcompany.com/index.html

[Houston Ben]

Ok, I will check a place out Monday by my work to see if they or anyone they know can do this. I didn't think it was a good idea to head the metal to fix it, thought it would weaken it?

[calvin78612]

Originally Posted by Shady Rascal

You should step away from the computer and take your arms to a local suspension shop and talk to them. Bent metal is no big deal, they heat it and bend it back. Worn bushings are no big deal, they replace them. Spending 800 dollars for full replacement when a shop could rebuild yours for <half the price is just not good sense.

The kind of men and shops who do work like this don't typically have much of an internet presence. You got to go see them face to face. Look for a heavy truck shop or a spring shop. They make their living doing this stuff.

I speak from experience here. My local truck spring shop changes bushings for 10 bucks each. But you couldn't find them on the internet if your life depended on it. You gotta go see them face to face.

Quick google turned these guy up local to you. Look at the services they provide.

http://www.thepruittcompany.com/index.html

Who in Weatherford do you use ?

[Shady Rascal]

Originally Posted by calvin78612

Who in Weatherford do you use ?

Fort Worth.

Fort Worth Champion Spring. Downtown on Henderson Street.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Houston Ben]

I found a place that can do them, but for $80 per?? dang! Will cost me about $300 all together. The CPP would have cost me about 7. Hopefully the place does a good job.

[Houston Ben]

Well, after looking at everything I decided to buy factory looking moog upper control arm and CPP lower and new CPP500 box. Looks really nice but one big problem, the truck is hard to drive now. I got it aligned and still a problem. It is to the point where it is scary on the highway. The steering is way to tight, it feels like trying to turn the tires on a vehicle without power steering while it is not moving....while actually driving down the road at 70mph!!

Anyone know what is wrong? This only started after the install. HELP ME PLEASE!!

[Shady Rascal]

Bleed your power steering.

If that doesn't help, disconnect steering linkage and see if the spindles swing freely.

It most likely your steering box is full of air or your steering box is defective.

[Shady Rascal]

Did you per chance remove the large 1" fitting from the back of your power steering pump at any time while doing all this work ? If so, I can point you towards the likely cause. If not, the above stands.

[Houston Ben]

Hi Shady,
Thanks for the response. I didn't touch the fitting so I don't think that will be it. I don't think the steering box is bad either as I had the original one on there when I first put the new arms on and it was the same. I already had a leak on my old steering box and the tightness of the arms made it worse so I bought a good new one thinking that would take care of it.

I am at my wits end with this truck, everything is new but cant get right. Are ball joint supposed to be this tight?

If I take the linkage off to check the ball joints, will this mess up my alignment?

Thanks!

[Shady Rascal]

Taking the steering linkage off to swing the spindles and check for binding won't affect your alignment. The alignment adjustments are as follows.

-Camber and caster are adjusted with the shims behind the upper arm mounts.
-Toe in is adjusted by the screw sleeves that connect your inner and outer tie rod ends.

As long as you don't disturb either of the two above mentioned items, you're free to disassemble as required and it will still be in proper alignment when you reassemble.

When you do take it apart to check the spindles for ease of swinging, make sure that you have weight on your suspension and it's not hanging down unloaded. Since you're having the issue when the truck is on the ground and the suspension is loaded under weight, you want to do your diagnosis work under the same conditions.

Don't get frustrated. We will get through this.

With your steering disconnected, the spindles should swing from left to right without undue effort. Being new ball joints, they won't flop, but a normal man won't have any trouble swinging them left to right.

report back... and don't lose your patience. It will be worth it in the end.

[Houston Ben]

Alright, I disconnected the links and the drivers side was nice and easy. The passenger side was not the same. Very hard to move, and when I moved it fast it would start to squeak and then seize up till I stopped and it cooled down. I couldn't get it to seized up in the video but it does squeak.
Passenger side
https://plus.google.com/111427573848...ts/YPZEenXstMt


https://plus.google.com/111427573848...ts/jApPvU5yywA

Driver side
https://plus.google.com/111427573848...ts/86QC15Fjai3

What do you think?

[chevy_mike]

I am assuming you greased all of your ball joints?

[Houston Ben]

Yes, multiple times, and the alignment shop did as well. Maybe I will pick up another tube after work and pump the whole thing in it.

[Shady Rascal]

How are the bolts holding the upper ball joint oriented ? About 80% of the "techs" out there get this wrong. The bolt heads should be under the control arm and the nuts and washers on top. This is absolutely opposite of conventional standard when installing stuff. If they are installed with the heads up, the bolt tail can rub the ball joint boot and/or the spindle underneath the ball joint.

[Houston Ben]

Hi Shady,
The upper is a new moog control arm assembly and riveted in.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mo...olet/model/c10

I still have the moog lower ball joints from when I was going to just redo my stock arms and plan on replacing the CPP ball joints with them. Just mad I have to do anything after spending that much.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Houston Ben

Hi all,
I am in the market for control arms on my 86 c10. Right now they are stock with a 2" lowering spring and the bushings are shot. I could rebuild them but don't really want to go through all the work and pain.

LMC has stock lower but cant vouch for brand of ball joints or bushings. CPP has good looking lower control arms but I would also need to buy their sway bar. CCP lower, sway bar, and moog uppers comes to around $800.

I know dorman sales lowers but they are around $250 each on RA so I thought I could buy aftermarket for same price.

Can anyone recommend others for the same price point or a good place to buy stock like lowers?

Thanks for any help.

Originally Posted by Shady Rascal

You should step away from the computer and take your arms to a local suspension shop and talk to them. Bent metal is no big deal, they heat it and bend it back.

Originally Posted by Houston Ben

I didn't think it was a good idea to head the metal to fix it, thought it would weaken it?

I'm at a loss here, where does it say your control arms were bent to begin with?

[Houston Ben]

Ha, good question...I don't see it. I did post it though, don't know where it went??

[Houston Ben]

UPDATE:

I replaced both crappy CPP installed ball joints with moog and now all is very good!! Just replace and be done with it if you have the same problem. I am ticked that I had to do this though.

[Shady Rascal]

That sucks. CPP strikes again.