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Gary Martin JH 15371 Member
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My left front upper control arm is loose. I had thought the bushings were worn out. I just removed the long mounting bolt and removed the control arm. The bushings are intact. The problem is that the long bolt is worn and is loose in the tube that goes through the cross member. I have another bolt that is less worn, but it is still loose in the cross member tube. It looks to me like the tube in the cross member is worn. Has anyone run into this problem, and how can it be fixed? Gary |
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Brett Gibson JH5 20497 Member
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New bushings come with those tubes, not sure if you can get them by them selves, might try a bearing warehouse in your neck of the woods. Good luck |
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subwoofer Member
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I thought the crush tubes actually carried the load, not so much the bolt? When you torque down the mounting bolt, the crush tube is put under compression, and is held in place by that. If it is worn by the bolt rattling about, that would mean that the bolt wasn't properly tightened in the first place, right? -- Joachim |
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Gary Martin JH 15371 Member
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Joachim, Good point. Previous owner may not have tightened the upper control arm bolt enough, or it came loose over the years. I will tighten some more and see if this helps. But it seems to me that the bolt should fit fairly snug in the crush tube through the sub frame. Without the control arm mounted, if I just place the bolt in the tube it is loose by about .010 in. This translates into about 0.25 in movement out by the upper ball joint with control arm mounted. The Jensen manual does not mention anything about bushings in the tube through the sub frame. The tube does not look thick enough to ream out and re-bush it. So short of repalcing the whole sub frame, I'm trying to figure out my options. A brand new bolt may help, but not sure if I can find a high grade one that size. I think I need to devise some way to take some thin wall steel tubing and try to shim the slack between the bolt and the tube. Gary |
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Brett Gibson JH5 20497 Member
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Gary, the bolts can be had along with lock nuts in high tensil, Delta did have them but I ended up getting them from a Bolt place on line, much cheaper, they were not fine thread but that didnt make any differance, had them on all last seasons along with replacement bolts on the rest of the suspension with no issues, without running out to the garage to check the spares I think they were 9 or 9.5" long, grade 8. Plus the tubes that are welded to the frame assembly go along way in helping keep out play, personnally I would stay away from shimming never had to good a luck with that, worse case I think I would prefer boring out and going the next size bolt dia. up. Brett |
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