Lower Control Arms Fitment Issue

[punkin]

Hello all,

I'm installing a set of SpeedTech upper and lower control arms in my 68 Firebird. The passenger side is complete but I really struggled getting the lower control arm up into the pockets. I was prepared to fight with this again on the driver's side but this time it's even worse.

The instruction suggest that it might be necessary to fashion a "spreader" tool using a bolt, a pair of nuts and washers to open the pockets up a little bit. I did this on the passenger side and it did help a little bit but this time I'm not getting very far. Each pocket (front and rear) are wide enough to accommodate the respective arm/bushing but the space between the two is where I'm having trouble. This would be the k-member width basically the distance between the trailing edge of the front arm and the leading edge of the rear arm. It's as if the k-member is too wide or the arms are too close to each other.

I've tried putting the arm into the pockets straight in from the top, I've tried pushing them up from underneath and at different angle. I've applied some grease and been wrestling with it for a few hours now. Anyone experienced this?Just not having a lot of fun with it right now.

Thanks

[punkin]

Well, I did FINALLY get the control arm in. I ended up having to use a floor jack and pieces of lumber to get the pushed up into the pockets. What should have taken an hour or two tops literally took the entire day. Lot of unkind/undignified language was used but I did finally get them in. I've had enough of it for today. I'll get the spindle and coil/shock in tomorrow and wrap it up.

[NorCal-SS]

It’s been a while but I recall having similar issues when installing tubular arms on my A body. The homemade spreader tool did the trick for me so I guess I got lucky. Glad it worked out for you!

[Dwdrummr1]

It's nice to see I am not the only one to recently encounter this issue. I also spent entirely too much time with the same issue on my 1968 firebird and ridetech arms. I also bought threaded rod, fender washers and nuts to pull things every which way. I am glad you got it done as I was also relieved once I got mine up.

[Josh@Ridetech]

It's nice to see I am not the only one to recently encounter this issue. I also spent entirely too much time with the same issue on my 1968 firebird and ridetech arms. I also bought threaded rod, fender washers and nuts to pull things every which way. I am glad you got it done as I was also relieved once I got mine up.

This trick works well ^. When the original arms were tightened down with the rubber bushings installed, the pockets can squeeze in and the metal conforms to the new dimension. If you replace them with rubber or poly bushings, you can normally still wiggle the arms in the pocket. When you're putting arms in the pocket with delrin or another hard material, they're not forgiving at all, and the pockets often had to be spread back out. My car was the same way, someone probably impacted them in and called it a day! :cheers: