Do I have the wrong lower control arm

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killnine

killnine

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I got lower control arms from qa1 for my 70 a-body, but the new arm seems longer by about an inch maybe, and the pivot shaft is stepped instead of straight and smooth. It also doesn't fit into the hole for the pivot shaft. It seems to me like the shaft is the one for a b-body, but the b-body arms are supposed to be shorter not longer. Maybe their arms are a little longer all the time, and they gave me the right arm with the wrong shaft pressed into it? I'm a little confused and worried about the arm being a little longer than it should be, but I know people have had good experience with these arms when they are the correct one.

 
What kind of LCA do you have on the right, in your picture, anyway?
That looks like a heavily modified control arm, for a custom modification.
What are you up to, doing?
Look for letters on the front of the control arms.
If you see letters VL they are A body arms.
If you see letters PD, and even RW, they are B and E body LCA's, which are all the same thing.
Yes, the "shafts" or "pivit pins" (whatever you personally call them) are different between the A bodys, and the B and E bodys.
A bodys are shorter, and a smaller diameter.
 
hemi71x said:
What kind of LCA do you have on the right, in your picture, anyway?
That looks like a heavily modified control arm, for a custom modification.
What are you up to, doing?
Look for letters on the front of the control arms.
If you see letters VL they are A body arms.
If you see letters PD, and even RW, they are B and E body LCA's, which are all the same thing.
Yes, the "shafts" or "pivit pins" (whatever you personally call them) are different between the A bodys, and the B and E bodys.
A bodys are shorter, and a smaller diameter.
Click to expand...

Yeah the arm on the right is the qa1 lower control arm.
 
I haven't a clue to what a qa1 LCA is, and what your doing, so i can't go any further in figuring your problem out for you.
My reply stands, in how to tell LCA's apart from one another.
Stock parts, not modified ones.
 
I just got a set of qa1 lca for our 71 dart...and your pivots look different from the pivots I got on my qa1 lca....
 
Those pins do look a little different, how well do they fit the Kframe? By the way, no VL on the LCA visible.
 

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Sway bar tab looks to be in the wrong place for a 72-older A-body. It would be better if you posted a pic of the whole arm. If the pin is longer and larger diameter it is for a B/E body.
 
The pin only goes in until it starts to step wider and then it stops fitting. I'll take a better pic of the arms later. I'll be calling Naake tomorrow to get things replaced, but in the meantime I took everything off the other side, and found this where the stock LCA pin was mounted.



The sleeve was loose, and fell out when I removed the arm, so that weld had broke. Looks like it had taken a huge hit into a pothole or something. It must have been loose in the hole for long enough to wallow out the whole thing. It also put a rip into the upper area of the hole. It's much wider than it should be. My wife, who is a boilermaker and an excellent welder seems to think she can fix it at least well enough to drive safely for the short term. What a nightmare this car has become lately! Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Would it make sense to maybe use a plate to reinforce the area, or would that throw the control arm out of its expected geometry?
 
The problem is how do you center the sleeve in the Kframe so that it's located correctly? That's one screwed up Kframe. It would be better to get a good used one and replace that one. I bet there is a lot more wrong with it.
 
Yes you could do a band-aid,but why even bother?It would be easier and more cost/time effective to just get a new(used) K frame.Hope you get the proper LCA also.
 
Yeah we got to talking and thinking and even though the welding isn't an issue at all getting both sides square and lined up properly sounded like a real issue. There's aplace that has the qa1 k-member in stock in nearby Tulsa, so I'll just have to go to harbor freight, get a cherry picker, stop and pick up the k-frame, and hold the engine up and drop the k-member and replace. More work but it's the best way. $600 bucks + $150 or so for the cherry picker isn't so bad I guess, since I gain some benefits with the qa1 k-member I can take advantage of later. More unplanned work though. It's like I'll never get this car ready to take home to Gulfport! The positive part of the whole situation is that we didn't put any of the suspension parts in yet, so dropping the k-member should be pretty easy. The only thing I'm unsure about is whether I have to drop the steering column or not, but if I do no biggie. I did it 6 or 8 times when I did my instrument cluster a couple weeks ago.
 
Got a k-member ordered from a local place in tulsa, and should have it in a few days. Naake was very decent about helping me out with the wrong control arms. They said some pivot shafts might have ended up in the wrong bin. Anyhow, they had me talk with QA1 directly, and QA1 is shipping new ones for their retail price and refunding the money when they get the old ones. They should be here by Friday, which isn't bad.
 
Crap, I just realized that I might be being a little too hopeful about the QA1 k-member. It says it's for the 70 a-body, but it says small block, so I wasn't really thinking it might not support the slant six. Uh oh. It's ready to be picked up tomorrow. Now I'm wondering what to do if the mounts don't fit!
 
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