Lower control arm.... confused with bushing

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Mopar92

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I need new bushing in the lower. Pulled them off. I’m having a hard time understanding this. The bushings are dry rotted and toast. There seems to be a good bit of slop between the two halves and the torsion bar socket. A new lower bushing isn’t going to fix this right?The sleeve that the bushing presses into seems a bit sloppy. Is this normal ? What is the fix here? What obvious thing am I missing?
 
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It sounds like your basic worn out LCA. Bushing worn out, bushing shell possibly damaged from running around with the bushing totally destroyed, and slop in the LCA itself.

@Jim Lusk has a great video on how to rebuild the LCA

 
Depending on the use, it might be worth investing in a QA1 tubular replacement LCA. I went that way with mine on my daily driver and it's solid.
 
For another option,... I know Firm Feel offers reinforced LCA's . Ifyou don't have a welder and want stronger arms,.... It's an option.

I just looked and the QA1's seem to sell for about $375 (look like nice units!) and Firm Feel reinforced factory LCA's are $200, but you have to provide the parts to rebuild. Note: It does say that straightening is extra. I'd suggest calling them to find out how much extra!! I'm sure there are other options too. I'm just not aware of them. I'm sure PST offers something as well and they give us a discount.
 
For another option,... I know Firm Feel offers reinforced LCA's . Ifyou don't have a welder and want stronger arms,.... It's an option.

I just looked and the QA1's seem to sell for about $375 (look like nice units!) and Firm Feel reinforced factory LCA's are $200, but you have to provide the parts to rebuild. Note: It does say that straightening is extra. I'd suggest calling them to find out how much extra!! I'm sure there are other options too. I'm just not aware of them. I'm sure PST offers something as well and they give us a discount.

Yes, PST should have them and the discount is solid. I totally forgot about them and went through Summit for mine, but I absolutely should have gone with PST.
 
Summit usually has better prices, especially if you consider free shipping on anything over $100. Not knocking PST, they’re great and offer FABO discounts, but I always check Summit first.

I have a set of the QA1 tubular LCA’s on my Duster. They’re very nice pieces, but I don’t think they add much for performance for most applications. They’re a few pounds lighter and they have sway bar tabs, but come with original style rubber bushings. I installed delrin bushings in mine before I installed them.

If you have basic welding skills and have access to a press you can rebuild the stock LCA’s, it’s not that difficult of a process and Jim’s video covers it pretty well. And if you can do that you can buy sway bar tabs from Bergman Autocraft and add those too.
 
once the car is at right height, that torsion bar socket is solidly part of the LCA because of the height adjustment bolt. I wouldn't worry too much about slop there. The strut rod locates your wheel. Actually, I boxed my LCA's and I tried to get around fixing my k member where the strut rod bolts up, also my improved design strut bushing didn't seat properly in the hole in the k member. When I tightened my LCA pivot pin nuts, it actually pulled the pivot pin out of the inner sleeve of the bushing about 3/8". If the torsion bar socket could've moved in the arm, the pivot pin would've pulled out much less than 3/8" because I forgot to clamp the LCA tight in that spot before I tacked my plates on :lol:

I would just box the control arms, put new bushings in and move on...
 
once the car is at right height, that torsion bar socket is solidly part of the LCA because of the height adjustment bolt. I wouldn't worry too much about slop there. The strut rod locates your wheel. Actually, I boxed my LCA's and I tried to get around fixing my k member where the strut rod bolts up, also my improved design strut bushing didn't seat properly in the hole in the k member. When I tightened my LCA pivot pin nuts, it actually pulled the pivot pin out of the inner sleeve of the bushing about 3/8". If the torsion bar socket could've moved in the arm, the pivot pin would've pulled out much less than 3/8" because I forgot to clamp the LCA tight in that spot before I tacked my plates on :lol:

I would just box the control arms, put new bushings in and move on...

Riiiiight. Except, if the arm can flex around on the torsion bar socket, all that movement goes straight to the wheels. The height adjustment bolt keeps the angle between the socket and the body control arm fixed, but it doesn't keep the outside structure of the arms from flexing around on the socket.

And, if you're using OE style rubber bushings and pulled the pivot pin out of the bushing when you tightened the nut on the pin there's a really good chance you damaged those LCA bushings. The strut rod does HELP locate the LCA, but the LCA itself can still flex. Especially if you're still using strut rod bushings.
 
I will take the slop out and replace bushings for less than the above prices. I will also add stiffening plates, but I am about to use my last set, BUT I can always order more.
 
I will take the slop out and replace bushings for less than the above prices. I will also add stiffening plates, but I am about to use my last set, BUT I can always order more.

Jim is a top notch!
 
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