ridetech strongarms

[instro84]

I'm having trouble installing my lower strongarms on the front of my buick, it kinda seems like tke spacing of the bushings is to thick. any suggestions?
dale

[Project77]

I had to grease up and man handle the lower arms on my Hotchkis kit. You may have to do the same with the Strong Arms.

[instro84]

thanks for the tip i'll give it a shot.

[marolf101x]

You'll need to "massage" the frame mounts to get them wider. GM didn't exactly use the greatest material in the late 70's, early 80's. . .nor did they make things "perfect".

If you were to use control arms with rubber bushings you'd not notice if the frame mounts were slightly off as the bushing would deflect and be pushed into place. Great for getting the arms in. . .however that same deflection is horrible for holding the control arm in place and keeping your alignment settings when you drive the car like we do!

It's typical to have to make the mounts wider as they've been tightened over the years and pulled the mounts too close together.

[instro84]

thanks Britt, got one muscled on wasnt easy been recouperating from elbow surgery, feels like i just went a few rounds with mike tyson.

[Rod]

thanks Britt, got one muscled on wasnt easy been recouperating from elbow surgery, feels like i just went a few rounds with mike tyson.

its not easy but the benefit of the tight bushings and fit will up the ride quality a good bit

[Damn True]

Have a look at my build thread. There is a "tool" in there for accomplishing this. Sorry I can't give you a link to the exact post. On vacation and just checking in in my phone

[SSLance]

My rear frame mounts were a tad too far back when I installed my arms. I used a jack screw tool that I borrowed from a friend that is a machinist.



Basically it is a really small jack that I put in between the two mount ears and when you turned the bolt inside the tool with a wrench, it spread out and pressed the mounts apart. It helped because it moved the front mount forward up near the frame whereas if one was to use a crescent wrench to bend the ear, it would move the ear more down at the end of the ear than up by the frame. I wanted to try to keep the ear as square as I could to the bushing.

Once the front one was moved forward enough that the arm slid in with no resistance, I put the arm in place and used the mounting bolt to draw rear frame mount forward.

Be sure to not over tighten the control arm bolts and that the lower control arm moves up and down easily.

[instro84]

thanks for the tips guys i went to the harware store and bought a bolt and inside treaded stock and made a mini jack to open up the deminsion a bit.