A-arm replacement question

[Brian Good]

I'm replacing one of the lower front a-arms and have a couple questions. First, installing the bearing that attaches to the bottom of the upright. I've tried drifting it in, but it doesn't look like that's going to work. Is this a heat-and-beat situation? A job for a hydraulic press? I'd appreciate any experience/suggestions.

Second, the reason I'm replacing the a-arm is that the hole where the outboard end of the pushrod attaches is fairly badly elongated, in a direction parallel to the pushrod. The bolt wasn't undersized or loose, so I'm wondering what else might have caused this. The other three corners are fine.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[provamo]

can't you just " make a new hole" or is that a spec-rules parts issue???

[Brian Good]

It's not a silly question; I'm not going to have access to the equipment I need to fix the old one for a couple weeks, and I need to get it put together like yesterday.

[jcorsico]

I'm replacing one of the lower front a-arms and have a couple questions. First, installing the bearing that attaches to the bottom of the upright. I've tried drifting it in, but it doesn't look like that's going to work. Is this a heat-and-beat situation? A job for a hydraulic press? I'd appreciate any experience/suggestions.

Second, the reason I'm replacing the a-arm is that the hole where the outboard end of the pushrod attaches is fairly badly elongated, in a direction parallel to the pushrod. The bolt wasn't undersized or loose, so I'm wondering what else might have caused this. The other three corners are fine.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I had a pushrod bolt hole elongate on one of my rear a-arms. I narrowed it down to driving over a large curb and bottoming out the shock. No other damage was present (shock was fine, bolts fine, pushrod fine, etc.).

Jon

[John Robinson II]

The easiest fix is to drill the a-arm for a bolt that would not require the reducers. You still need the spacers. Once you have the equipment you could weld washers to the sides of the mounts and use the original size bolt and reducers.