I recently had a good look at my upper control arm bushings and without a doubt, these upper bushings are toast. The rubber is squishing out and the rubber hole is elongated and there is a lot of play in the bushing itself. So, I knew this day was coming that I would have to address the front end bushings (and the back side as well) so I have been accumulating other parts such as C3 disc brake system, 12.7 ratio steering box and hope to hit it all at one time.
I really like the tubular arms such as the Global West and the GW knock offs available from POL (Performance Online) but my wallet is not agreeing with my desires. If I go tubular, then from what I deduce from other's that have went this way, is that I should likely be adding a coilover as it seems that getting a correct ride height seems to be difficult to achieve with tubular control arms and a regular suspension spring. So, with a coilover, it only adds to the cost which I simply don't have the extra cash to spend at the moment. Unless of course my backup retirement plan of a Daily Grand or 6/49 win comes through, but so far, its a big goose egg.
At this point, its looking like a stock control arm bushing replacement is the likely scenario. Having said all this, I sure like the "grease-able" Global West Del-a-lum bearing at the top of their control arm. No squeaking, can be greased, etc. As I scour the GW website, GW has a Del-a-lum upper bearing that will fit a "Stock" control arm. Part #1030 for $153.25 US.
I wasn't sure if these would fit the "stock" upper control arms so I called GW tech line and spoke to them about this part. The part does indeed fit the "stock" arm however it requires some mods. The shaft that you see in the pic goes into your stock control arm shaft and needs to be welded to stay put. Then, you drill a hole in the stock control arm where the grease fitting will eventually go, tap the hole, press in the GW bushing into the control arm, assemble the bearing and Voila, you have a del-alum bearing in your stock control arm. If you do not want to do the welding, you can order just the del-a-lum bearing part # 1012 and use GW control arm shafts ($77 US each, Ouch!)
When I called GW, I am on hold for tech and if you ever watch a GW video, it is "Doug" that does their videos. Anyways, long story short, the tech person that I spoke with was Doug at GW. He seems quite knowledgeable. I was a bit surprised that he is the guy answering the tech line, but obviously knows what he is talking about.
I am quite interested in this setup and once spring rolls around and the GP is liberated from storage, I think I will go this direction for the upper control arm, get some good stock bushings for the bottom and do disc conversion, new steering box and bushings at the same time. I will likely go for a new spring as well while I am at it so the front end will get brought into the 21st century.
You can order the whole Energy front end bushing kit from Rock Auto for about $60 Cdn or so. I kind of thought the GW del a lum bushing was interesting so I reseached it a bit.
The Energy bushing or any other bushing for that matter will offer a degree of "torsion" resistance on the control arm travel where as the del a lum bushing will not offer that torsion resistance. It will just allow for a up and down travel like they do in a tubular arm.
I haven't decided which direction I will go as I have the next 5 months to think about it (car is in storage) but definatly the Grande is getting new bushings next year. Its current ride is just too spongy, squeaky and similar to a water bed experience for my liking.
I redid the steering, suspension & brakes in my 70 2+2 rag last fall, and it drove like a new car this summer. This all came to being as I needed to do a chassis swap in my 70 Parisienne a few years ago, and redid the entire chassis with new steering, suspension & brakes. It drove like a new car, so figured I better to the ragtop as well.
its the price point, and the simplicity, plus twenty years on a set of bushings that are like new after a rough 100 thousand mile of travel. I did all the research into fancy setups that were in there infancy in the early eighties, but in the end, I don't own a race car but wanna nice solid car that handles like a new at the time 80s Camaro. When I bought my first complete kit it was well over 150 bucks and I was still running bias plies.
Energy front end bushings 33150G from Rock Auto. $55.97 Cdn plus your shipping ($12.94), less your Cdn Poncho discount is not a bad price. Cheaper than Summit which is 48.98 US.
you still need the strut rod bushings, the worst offenders in bad handling and rear suspension. I had a mix and match because when I first started doing my car it only had 36 thousand on it but it still made a huge difference.
For the cost and ease of replacement, you can't beat that poly set.
Do the lower arm bushing and the strut in poly as well at the same time. It's a good and cost effective way of getting a decent level 1 front end.
Consider a bigger bar, with Energy bushings and end-links as well. The time to install the bar is when the front end is apart, as it can be tough to thread in a new bigger bar when it's all together.
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
true, I already had a wagon bar, and a rear, but still factory shocks and bias plies. you could see the performance change at each level, im just now doing upper arms, ball joints, brake and steering redue.
