oldzy

I went to install my stock front lower control arms (with ES poly bushings) earlier and ran into a problem. The hole (circled in red) on the rearmost drivers side frame mount/ear is wallowed out a bit. On the inside of this mount, the metal protrudes about 2-3mm or so on the top of the hole as a result. This will need to be smoothed out obviously. The bolt jiggles up and down a bit on the wallowed end, but not all the way up. The 'true center' seems to be the bottom where it sits in the pics. I can stick about half inch of my index finger through the hole. What would be the best way to tackle this?











Inside pic of mount/ear...

Dave Siltman

My suggestion would be to weld a good quality washer of the correct size to the mount at the proper hole location. I had the same problem many years ago on a '69 Chevelle drag car on the rear upper mounts. We found some washers that were the exact size of the original hole and welded them on. No one will know it's there but you!

MDchanic

I've got the same situation in the right upper rear-end mount on the frame of my Chevelle.
It was raced pretty hard before I got it in 1980, and I drove it every day for 10 years.
Now it's wallowed by about 1/4", and has a very interesting "throttle steer" quality to it.
I've pretty much decided on an alignment jig of my own design for whenever I get "a round tuit," because I've got no idea exactly where the original hole was to begin with, and I don't want to permanently align it wrong.
Also, it would seem that the replacement metal can't just lay over the original, but has to sit within the hole, because the rubber bushing has a toothed central tube which is supposed to be squeezed tight between the metal mounts, and if I leave the hole big, it won't be squeezed at all.

I'd love to hear from other who have fixed similar problems, though, before I do mine (which ain't gonna be soon...).

- Eric

Boldsmobile

Step bit hole out to 1 ".

Cut a 15/16 replacement disc from proper thickness material with a hole saw.

Weld the replacement disc - centered - into the 1" hole. Grind front and back smooth.

Use the drill hole from the hole saw as your guide to drill to the proper size for the bolt.

Paint it and you will never know it was ever worked on.

69442C

If it was me, it seems the original hole is fairly easy to define. I would smooth everything to eliminate the metal bulging on the inside, clean away the paint inside and around the hole and just fill the area that is worn away with a good weld. There's not that much missing and this will be an easy fix. Just make sure the welding is done correctly to get correct penetration into the existing metal. Grind everything smooth, clean up the hole and you'll be ready to go with no evidence of a repair; that is as long as you touch up the nice paint you have on your frame.

joe_padavano

I agree. That was exactly my first reaction when I saw the photos.

Chesrown 67 OAI

You could always go to one of those adjustable upper control arms to solve your alinement problem after repairing your mounting hole.

MDchanic

Yeah, that thought had occurred to me, but then I would be at risk of being accused of "pro-touring," whatever that is .

- Eric

joe_padavano

You do realize the upper arms are already adjustable in stock form, right?

MDchanic

I hadn't realized it. Seems to me you'd need a pretty big sledgehammer to "adjust" one of those...

We are talking about the REAR uppers, right?

- Eric

joe_padavano

Psst. Eric.

You might want to check the title of this thread.

We'll wait.

MDchanic

Joe, I was just making conversation when I said, in post #3,
.
I know the comment may be about 9 feet off from the topic of the thread, but it seemed apropos of the general topic of wallowed suspension frame mounts.

I suppose you're going to boot me to the "Other Makes" section now, too, since the question was about one a those durn Chebbies...

- Eric

joe_padavano

Sorry, I completely missed that.

MDchanic

'Salright.

oldzy

Thanks for the tips.

Here are a few close-up pics...

MDchanic

Did someone do some welding around there already?

- Eric

oldzy

It does appear that way... the inside area around the hole is really ratty looking.

I got this frame long ago, so no idea.

oldzy

Not sure if this is a hint or not...

MDchanic

Looks like a piece of wire from a wire-fed welder.
Not what they used at the factory, as far as I know.

- Eric

joe_padavano

Many of my cars have had stubs of weld filler wire like that from the factory. No big deal.

MDchanic

I thought they did them all with stick-welders.

Huh. You learn something every day.

- Eric

oldsconv

They did have wire feed welders back then - big industrial ones, even though the hobbyist only got them in the last 20 years. If you think about the little scrap rod from stick welding you throw out at the end multiplied by hundreds of thousands of car frames, GM probably saved a bunch of money in weld wastage alone.

My car frame had a bunch of weld wire pieces like that.

oldzy

Another issue on this front lower mount... there is a 1/4" or so gap in between the bushing and mount. See below pic.

NOTE: the bolt is just snug... not torqued at all yet.

oldzy

ok... I torqued to ~82ft lbs and the gap did NOT disappear. It decreased, but did not disappear completely.

jensenracing77

i bet that is why the hole is messed up. it is pivoting on the bolt and not flexing the rubber bushing. take the a arm out and squeeze it together a little or smack it with a rubber BFH.

oldzy

What bout torquing it to 120 or so, backing off to 80, then see if the gap decreases more?

oldzy

Also, these are poly bushings, and IIRC, the inner bolt sleeve slightly protrudes a touch from the ends of the bushing. Could be wrong, but I though they did a bit.

oldzy

Another thought... I have not torqued the other bolt/nut beside it at all. Wonder if that might help a wee bit?

Dapapadon

Could you weld a washer to the inside to fill the gap. Then weld the worn part of the hole up to the washer. File the hole to clean it up. Shouldn't be any worse than trying to deform (or reform) the bracket. Just a suggestion.

jensenracing77

if it were me i would take out the A arm. i think it would be best if it were closer together to begin with. that way there won't be spring tension on it. if you torqued it to 120 (other than bolt issues) i would be worried that when you re torqued it to 80 it may not actually be tight enough for the bushing to be tight. the gap may be gone but still not tight enough to the bushing. i am far from a professional so i am sure you will have better or more advice coming soon.

69442C

When you tighten those control arm bolts, you are only going to close the gap as far as the metal sleeve in the center of the bushing will allow. You don't want to have it close against the rubber or poly portion of the bushing or that would create a terrible noise every time the coltrol arm moved up and down. You may be fine where it is as long as the tabs are pulled tight against the metal sleeve in the center of the bushing. If they are in contact with each other, any attempt to close the gap more will be unnecessary.

jensenracing77

after looking closer, that may be right. it looks like the sleeve may be in contact with the frame. that is all you need. i can't tell if that is the bolt or the sleeve.

oldzy

That is a good point. It is near impossible to tell if the inner sleeve is touching the arm or not. I will try to find out. However... the poly sides do touch the arms on all other contact points of the front LCA's.

thx.

Schne442

Did you ever measure the frame bracket on the other side to see if it is the same as this one. may be the cause of all your problems if it has been bent or somthing. You can take a large ajustable wrench and use it to bend the bracket back into proper shape.

oldzy

UPDATE: I don't know why I did not check this properly earlier... but the EXACT same gap (although a touch wider on the one in my older post above b/c the one ear is still a bit 'bent' on the inside.. as well as wallowed out hole that needs to be correkted.) exists on ALL other (three) lower front control arm bushings.

And the reason for this... the inner sleeves on the poly Energy Suspension bushings protrude. See pic below. I dug some spare bushings up, and this is the case on ALL the 'round' bushings. However, the inner sleeves on the OVAL bushings (I opted for the all round control arms, although my car came with round and ovals originally) do NOT protrude like the round ones. There must be a reason for this. Will have to contact ES and find out why.






On a related note, after torquing my rear upper Hotchkis control arms, I noticed a gap there as well. Pic below. It is their supplied poly bushing, so I assume this is normal (although it looks weird).