I thought I did....
What am I trying to do with lower control arms?
I'm almost ready to take apart the front end on my 63.
I thought that the LCA and bushing generally come off the pivot pin when you pound the torsion bar back and then the bushing is pressed out of the LCA.

Is that right, or does the pivot pin come off with the bushing with the inner shell stuck to the pin?

If the bushing's inner shell is not stuck to the pivot pin, does that mean I have to get a new pivot pin? The driver's side LCA wants to come off the pin with bushing intact.

When the LCAs with new bushings are installed, is the inner shell of the bushing supposed to jam onto the pin?
If that's true, do you have to take care to push the LCA on at the right angle so that the rubber part of the bushing isn't twisted when the car is sitting still?

The inner shell on both my bushings stuck to the pin. If the inner shell doesn't come off, though, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just be sure your final setup has one, and only one, inner shell.

_________________
"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

So you take the pins out and take them and the control arms to the machine shop and trust they know what to do?

I'm worried about machine shops too.
So far, none of the machine shops I've called/visited in Vancouver, WA have a 1 59/64" mopar ball joint socket - a couple places said "Oh, we just put it in a vise and use a hammer on the control arm."

That doesn't seem right.

Maybe I just don't know how to talk to mechanics/machinists.
A lot of my questions at this site go unanswered. I assume the questions are too dumb or my vocabulary's lacking.

Anybody know of a machine shop in Vancouver/Portland that can be trusted with vintage A-body parts?

What is a fair price to
1) remove and install bushings in the control arms
2) remove the inner shell from one pivot pin
3) unscrew and install new upper ball joints?

How'd you get all the ice in here through this little tiny hole?

AFAIK, the inner shells should remain on the pivots when you remove them (I had to burn out the rubber on mine to get the pivots out). The inner shell is pretty easy to remove if you have a bench grinder, vise and a good, sharp cold chisel. Just grind a few flats on the inner shell with the grinder (Taking great care not to go through), clamp the shell in a vise with one flat facing up and cut <i>most</i> of the way through the shell with the cold chisel (Again, taking care not to go all the way through). If it doesn't slide off after the first cold chisel treatment, move to another flat and repeat. Cutting with the cold chisel stretches the metal and shoud allow it to just slide off. Grinding it first is not absolutely necessary, but I found it reduced the chisel work quite a bit.

Nat

_________________
1970 four-door Dart, 225/A-904/2.45 gears. 0-60 in twenty three minutes!

Vise, chisel, hammer is a level of technology I am comfortable at.

I got the inner shells off with just a vise, chisel, and hammer, no grinding.

_________________
"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO

I was just thinking.
A big crescent wrench could be used on the upper ball joint, except that there's not much material for the wrench to grab.

What if I sit a 2" long piece of 2.5" square tube w/.25" wall - A36 hot rolled steel over the ball joint and put the wrench on the tube?
It should be about 2.0 square inside, which is about 1/16" bigger than a 1 59/64" ball joint (which is the size for a 63 Valiant, right?)

It has rounded corners, unlike the pic

A=2.5"
B=0.25"

Good idea on making your own socket.

I did the ubj's on my d350 with pipe wrenches (broke 4 china ones) and
about an 8 foot pipe, I left the arm on the truck.
I used the "correct"socket from just suspension, (about $40.00) and an impact wrench on the wifes coronet, after soaking with pb blaster, and it was done in under a minute, without even breaking a sweat.

tophat

agreed, order the correct American Muscle ball joint socket and save yourself the hassle. If you do it on the car with air you're golden. If not, you can do it this way...but let me tell ya, a non-socket option is going to be a bear.

http://tinyurl.com/lagch

MJ

Air tools.

Someday I'd like to do a job with air tools.

If anyone wants to experiment, I found this matl at www.onlinemetals.com.

You could weld a big nut / big socket to the top of a 1" piece ($1.33) and then use a breaker bar or air tool.

If you had a 2" socket, you could slide a 2" nut partially into this tube and tack weld it.



http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cf ... its=inches

well I have air tools, but didn't use them on this setup because I was afraid to wrench the upper control arm into a pretzel. However, once I put the pipe between the bushing holes, the arm didn't flex at all and I'm sure it would have been fine. So its possibe to do either way.

looks like you have a nice little idea there. Either way, I'd suggest you atleast loosen the UBJ while the upper control arms are still on the car. Makes for a lot easier work.

MJ

It sounds like 3 feet is not a long enough breaker bar.

I was thinking about buying a UBJ socket, but then I realized the length of the handle would be about half what it should be.

My narrow work area is perfect for an air ratchet and not too good if you need a long lever.