Upper control arm bushings?

Any recommendations on upper control arm bushings as far as brand or should I use rubber style like oem or polyurethane. Also any recommendations on upper ball joint brand. Thanks

If you’re using the stock upper control arms I would use Moog K7103 offset UCA bushings. If you install them for maximum caster (not what the directions show) you can get some additional positive caster which is very helpful if you’re running radial tires.

Unfortunately Moog is the only one I know of making them, their quality has gone downhill and I avoid them otherwise. But with standard UCA bushings and the stock UCA’s you can’t get much positive caster, which can make the car feel a little squirrelly with radial tires.

For standard ball joints a company called Proforged is making decent stuff, way better than Moog anyway. Not sure if you have large or small upper ball joints though.

72bluNblu said:

If you’re using the stock upper control arms I would use Moog K7103 offset UCA bushings. If you install them for maximum caster (not what the directions show) you can get some additional positive caster which is very helpful if you’re running radial tires.

Unfortunately Moog is the only one I know of making them, their quality has gone downhill and I avoid them otherwise. But with standard UCA bushings and the stock UCA’s you can’t get much positive caster, which can make the car feel a little squirrelly with radial tires.

For standard ball joints a company called Proforged is making decent stuff, way better than Moog anyway. Not sure if you have large or small upper ball joints though.

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Large upper ball joints and stock control arms

I like shopping Ebay for old stock Moog, TRW, etc. Good quality before lowering standards by going global. The price can often be pretty good, too.

Here are a pair of old stock Moog upper ball joints for 1972 and earlier. Also some later drum brake cars. These have the narrower stud. Be sure of your application. Decently priced.
1960-1970 DODGE PLYMOUTH UPPER BALL JOINT KIT, NORS MOOG K-704 | eBay.

Edit - just saw your post. You'll want to look for the K772.
Here you go. Even less expensive.
Moog K772 Suspension Ball Joint Front Upper | eBay

S'cuder said:

I like shopping Ebay for old stock Moog, TRW, etc. Good quality before lowering standards by going global. The price can often be pretty good, too.

Here are a pair of old stock Moog upper ball joints for 1972 and earlier. Also some later drum brake cars. These have the narrower stud. Be sure of your application. Decently priced.
1960-1970 DODGE PLYMOUTH UPPER BALL JOINT KIT, NORS MOOG K-704 | eBay.

Edit - just saw your post. You'll want to look for the K772.
Here you go. Even less expensive.
Moog K772 Suspension Ball Joint Front Upper | eBay

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Those are all large ball joints.....

As far as urethane or rubber, that's strictly a personal choice. Some love urethane everything, some don't. To "ME" on a street car all urethane makes for a little bit of a harsh ride. There's no debating urethane's durability, though, as long as they are installed correctly. It simply boils down to a personal choice between the two.

cudamark said:

Those are all large ball joints.....

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Nope...

Sorry, I was referring to the bottom link. The upper link is a small, but, they should include the '71-2 A-bodies too in the description.

Well I ended up ordering a new set of tubular control arms with everything already on them off ebay..hope they are decent. Got to be better than the factory ones I hope.

72bluNblu said:

If you’re using the stock upper control arms I would use Moog K7103 offset UCA bushings. If you install them for maximum caster (not what the directions show) you can get some additional positive caster which is very helpful if you’re running radial tires.

Unfortunately Moog is the only one I know of making them, their quality has gone downhill and I avoid them otherwise. But with standard UCA bushings and the stock UCA’s you can’t get much positive caster, which can make the car feel a little squirrelly with radial tires.

For standard ball joints a company called Proforged is making decent stuff, way better than Moog anyway. Not sure if you have large or small upper ball joints though.

Click to expand...

Which way to install K7103 if not as per instructions?

Mojoe9955 said:

Which way to install K7103 if not as per instructions?

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The exact reverse of what it says on the sheet, and what is indciated i think on the bushings

What you want is the narrow side of bush pointing directly inwards at the front arm hole, and the narrow side of the bush directly outwards at the back.
The aim is to get the front of the upper A arm as far away from the car centreline as possible, and the back A arm hole as close to the car centre line as possible.
Then you adjust the front cam bolt so that the fat washer side is in towards centre of car
adjust rear cam bolt so that the fat washer side is OUT.
Then adjust only the rear one to stand the wheel upright, or set to your chsoen camber setting (suggest a small negative setting)... depends on how much you like corners...


if you think of the A arms as the wings on a plane you have a more swept back wing.... the balljoint now aligns with a window further back in ecconomy class....

This moves upper ball joint back in relation to lower balljoint.
and thus means if you drew a straight line through the centre of the upper balljoint stud down and through the center of the lower balljoint stud it would now hit the floor further ahead of the tyre contact patch than it did before... hence stronger steering self correction when you let go of the steering wheel.... summed up as more castor.

shopping cart.. wheel axle is on a j bracket wheel sits behind swivel point and so does its contact patch with the ground. we achive the same here by leaning our swivel back from totally vertical. so the wheels contact patch is behind the centre of rotation of the swivel set up by the stub axle between the balljoints


sorry wrote far too much, you asked a simple question and i went off on one....i'm bored at work, and its way too hot to go for a walk....

Dave

Maybe i've been lucky but i've always just installed stock pieces and have never had a problem.I think it's necessary to have components that are in nice original condition rather than beat up rusty parts.

ir3333 said:

Maybe i've been lucky but i've always just installed stock pieces and have never had a problem.I think it's necessary to have components that are in nice original condition rather than beat up rusty parts.

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It’s not really about being lucky, even in perfect condition the stock UCA’s don’t really allow for enough positive caster if you’re running radial tires.

It does depend a bit on the specifics of your car, ride height, factory tolerances etc but with stock UCA’s it can be difficult to get much more than +1.5* caster, which really isn’t much. Maybe for just cruising around it’s ok, but even moderate handling really should have more. Even with the offset bushings it can be difficult to get more than +3.5* of caster, which is fine for narrower BFG’s and things but still isn’t that much if you’re gone 17-18” rims with anything 245 or wider.

The SKOSH chart shows some basic alignment specs for radials, and even it’s pretty conservative regarding positive caster.


Which is understandable, it’s an old chart and really shows about as much as you can reasonably do with stock arms and offset bushings, and was intended for tires like the BFG T/A’s. But on my car with 275’s up front with 200 treadwear tires I run +6.5*, even with manual 16:1 steering. That requires aftermarket adjustable UCA’s.

First make sure you set the ride height first to what you want. Factory manual alignment specs are no good for radial tires, they only work if you use bias-ply tires. For Radial tires, Camber -.50 to 0 degrees, Caster as much positive as you can get up to 3 degrees and toe in 1/16th to 1/8th inch. Car runs down the road straight as an arrow now. You will be limited to what you can do with stock A arm bushings, but if you have the Moog off set A arm bushing you can tweak it a little more.

Keeping the suspension at stock or lower ride height will help with positive caster as well