97 CV A-frame bushings

[mcninetyone]

another a-arm related question!!!!


On a 94 CV, the nuts on the upper control arms, the ones that go on the ends

at the bushings. How tight do they have to be? If they are super tight the arm

won't move, at least not by hand, so whats tight enough on those?


Thanks,

[sly]

whatever a breakover bar will get it to with just moderate force (aka what I can give it). I'd think in the area of 250 ft-lbs. Those need to be rather tight. The bushings should be greased as well, but that's a mute point after they are installed.

[Merc3517]

I am thinking about changing my control arm bushings soon as well. Will I need an alignment after? Also I already changed all the ball joints and steering components and had an alignment about a year ago. I would hate to pay another $40 for an alignment, but I don't want to wear out my new front tires either.

[1987cp]

+1 about 250 ft-lbs ... I actually seem to recall seeing a spec to approximately that effect. I don't have a wrench that goes that high, so I set my 1/2" torque wrench to half that spec, then got out the breaker bar and twisted till I was pushing about twice as hard.


As for an alignment, that's up to you and how close you can get things to where you want them. I had a shot at setting my own alignment following the bushing swappage, but if I'm honest, I tend to get confused when messing with such things. For a starting point, I marked the position of the UCA shafts with paint before removing anything, and tried to put them in the same position afterward. I might have had less luck than some with that, though, owing to any differences between the worn-out Box police arms I removed (lots of slop in those worn-out solid bushings, too) and the rebuilt civilian arms I installed.