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Hey everyone i have a 1967 cutlass i bought upper tubular control arms from umi. Im running into a problem where the UCA is hitting the frame in the rear where the two bolts go through that hold it to the frame. Im wondering if anyone else has had this issue or knows if it will be an issue. I called umi and their suggestion was grind the frame or heat it and smack it in with a hammer....really dont want to do that and it looks like id have to lose alot to make it touch the bump stop. Thanks in advance. 1967 cutlass sedan. Engine is not in the car right now.
Last edited by Vito 1993; March 28th, 2024 at 04:49 PM.
Your first problem is that you don't have the arm at ride height. When the suspension is assembled and loaded with the car sitting on the tires, that is a non-issue. Second, I would run, not walk, away from anyone telling me to fix a problem with a BFH and a torch, especially when that bracket is how you set front end alignment. As usual, I'm underwhelmed by the non-help line response.
Just to be paranoid, is the arm on the correct side? Later cars have the bent tube on the forward side of the arm, but I'm not familiar with the 67 chassis.
Probably going to have to wait to see the clearance with all of the weight on the suspension. Don't bend, heat or smash the frame or control arm...IMO, that is non-sense or worse.
Hey guys thanks for the response . It is on the correct side . I installed the passenger side and it fits fine. I know that its hard to tell anything without the weight on it; however, any position i put the drivers side control arm in it contacts the back side of that dogbone on the frame before it hets even close to the bumpstop. This makes me think when i get it all put together its going to be impossible to adjust the alignment. Im not a fan of someone telling me to grind or heat my frame amd hammer it in either. Seems to me like the control arm should be made wider but im not am engineer either. Im just trying to see if anyone else has experienced this because im at a loss. Everything ive measured from driver side to passenger side seems the same so im mossing something somewhere.
The R side fits, the L doesn't. Any chance they gave you two R"s? Are they supposed to be different arms side-to-side?
Can't say unequivocally if the R side fits, the L doesn't since (IMO) we can't state the R side UCA was installed on the R side of the vehicle and the L side UCA was installed on the L side of the vehicle. It is certainly a possibility the L side UCA may have fit & was able to be installed on the R side of the car leaving the R side UCA in limbo (not able to fit & be installed on the L side of the car. I don't know the exact geometry/configuration of either the R side or the L side of a 1967 but it's certainly w/in reason to suspect either the L UCA or the R UCA could very well fit into the R side of the vehicle. I would strongly suggest you affirm the markings on each UCA and validate with 100% certainty you installed the R side UCA into the R side fender well. That would be my beginning point. If the L UCA fit going into the R side fender well, there still remains the notion the remaining R UCA will not fit the L side fender well. I'm nearly certain the geometry/configuration of the two fender wells are different. Double-check.
What i found after measuring some more is that the holes that the bolts go through on the dog bone on my driver side are 1/4 inch closer to the front of the car. Compared to the passenger. Which is leading to the clearance issues in the rear.
Are you sure they sent the correct parts? I've been noticing a trend lately with various places. Doesn't sound like UMI is going to be much help if they're telling you to just beat the **** out of everything with a hammer.
Its the correct part . It just has very little clearance . And the measurement from center of bolt hole to inside edge of the a arm is the same on both sides of the control arm. Its symetrical.
March 28th, 2024, 03:47 PM
