ball joints starting to wear so I bought upper control arms and lower ball joints to change out next weekend. Upper arms look like they have two vertical studs that pilot into two bolt holes.. Anyone done this and how was the alignment done afterward ? Is there any adjustment on the top, or everything done on the bottom ?

 

Well, I changed out the upper control arms this week. The arm has a 3/4 inch bar between the two pivot bushings and this arm bolts to the truck frame with two vertical studs on the arm. The holes in the frame are enlarged. There is an alignment washer on each stud with two teeth that lock onto the frame. You can get various washers with the stud hole in / out / left/ right so you can position the top control arm to set caster and camber. I measured my camber FIRST and decided I wanted to pull the upper control arm OUTWARD 1/8 inch to reduce the negative camber. ( noted in tire wear, but at 50K miles).... Instead of new washers, I welded up the center hole and ground out to move it 1/8 inch. Went back together very good.


The ORIGINAL control arms were a pain to get off. I could loosen the two stud nuts on each side, but studs were heavily corroded and took a lot of wrenching to bet the nuts off. Plenty of penetrant, but didn't help. On the passenger side I had interfierence with the AC lines when raising the arm up with the studs off the frame. I acutally cut the front stud on each side to assist in removal. Reinstall is a bit easier if you leave the rod between the bushings slightly loose so you can rotate the studs horizontal to slide over the spring strut.... also the ABS wire goes THRU the arm so the wire has to be removed under dash and pulled out.


I bought MOOG arms made in china on the top and MOOG ball joints (USA) for the lower joint. Wire brushed and painted the frame and lower arm when I was there. Took about 4 hours per side.. 40 degrees outside and I don't move like I did 40 years ago.