i am about to rebuild my daughters 76 front end. i have seen the off set bushings for the upper control arms. are they really needed? if so how are they installed in the A arms? off set to the inside , out side , towards the front, or back.
thanks
jd

Use offset bushings if you need or want more negative camber or positive caster than you can get with standard bushings. Most people can get what they want (a little negative camber and a couple degrees positive caster) with one offset bushing in the rear of the upper control arm with the offset hole towards the ball joint. This effectively shortens the rear leg of the upper control arm. If you look at the picture you can see how this works. By the same token adjustable strut rods allow you to adjust caster with very little change to the camber.


If you want a lot of negative camber then use two offset bushings per control arm, again with the hole towards the ball joint to shorten the effective length of the control arm.

Our cars do not need much positive camber to have excellent stability. The steering axis inclination built into the spindles handles that. In fact the manual steering cars were aligned with negative caster to make steering easier.

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Joshua

You only need offset bushings if your car is bent or you wish to run alignment specs far from stock.

I have tried a number of setups on my car. They were all achievable with stock bushings.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

You'll want at least 1 offset bushing in each stock UCA (depending on the car) so you can run 2-3 degrees of positive caster for highway/expressway/freeway speed stability. I found in ALL A and E body Mopars i've driven or been in, any less than 2 degress positive caster, with today's tires, and 'reasonable' manual or power steering boxes, even with all new front-end parts, shocks, sway bars, etc, you WILL get floating on the freeway. The car will shift left or right every-so-often and you will have to compensate by steering the opposite direction, even with a brand new steering box and tires!

thanks for the replies, i bought a set of the std moog bushings. hopefully i can replace them this weekend, even though it is clean the house weekend.
jd

Are you taking them to a machine shop, or pressing them out and in yourself?

slantfin, i am going to do it myself. i have done plenty of old chevys and have a fair amount of front end tools. hopefully i can get it done.
jd