I went to the yard and jerked an A arm off a like vehicle. Might have been a '73 or '72. Not sure. Mine is a '74 Scamp. Brought it home and low and behold the ball joint is smaller. What's the deal? What year A bodies have compatable A arms? The A arm looks identicle but the threaded hole is smaller on the JY vehicle. Can I get a smaller ball joint for the new arm and be ok? Or is there other geometry differences that would be overriding.?


One other problem I should mention. Per my other posts this is related to the welded upper ball joint issue. The other UCA was not welded and I removed the old Ball Joint just fine. When I tried to put the new ball joint in it just spins without seating. I can't get a decent torque on it. WTF. It seems like I need both UCA's. Now I can see why the other one was welded. Aaargh!!!!!!!!!!! Is this a common issue??

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Sweet Emotion

that is the difference between a 9" drum car and a 10" drum/disk brake car

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No, this is not a common issue. It sounds like some ham fisted mechanic was having way to much fun. You can use the UCA from any of the following vehicles: '66-'72 B-body, '70-'74 E-body and '73-76 A-body. The A-body must have had disk brakes.

All 73+ a-bodies came with the larger b-body balljoint, even my 73 Scamp with drum brakes and drum brake spindle up front uses the larger balljoint.

It sounds like the control arm you grabbed was from a '72 after all - '73 was the year they redesigned it for the larger ball joint.

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