rear suspension rebuild... Cannot get the lower A-arm to fit onto the hub. Help!

[ZSaint]

I am working on this project by myself. I have new poly bushings on the lower a-arm and I am trying to get it onto the rear hub. It is too tight to get over the hub to start tapping in the double threaded bolt. It is all powder coated so I hate to use the vise. I have started it a couple of times but it needs to be driven into place. Anyone got any ideas? :devious:

[First Gen Z]

Sometimes you have to shave the powder coating off of surfaces that have tight tolerances.

[ZSaint]

OK, that will give me .012. It is a lot tighter then that.

[Ed]

I had the same problem with the regular rubber bushings. I had to push them farther out to get the hub to fit. Not sure about the poly bushes. Are any of them smaller or thinner? I'd grind at the bushing before I removed the powder coat.

[kinfish]

If you are using the Energy suspension kit, the poly bushings installed on the inner side of the control arm create a tight fit with the mating hub (make sure the flange of the bushing is fully seated against the control arm face). I measured mating parts and found .050 tight. My solution was to reduce bushing flange thickness from .128 to .103 so the fit was line-on-line. Use sandpaper to reduce the flange size .... best to do this with the sandpaper on a flat surface and rotate bushing in circular fashion.

[mperdue]

If you are using the Energy suspension kit, the poly bushings installed on the inner side of the control arm create a tight fit with the mating hub (make sure the flange of the bushing is fully seated against the control arm face). I measured mating parts and found .050 tight. My solution was to reduce bushing flange thickness from .128 to .103 so the fit was line-on-line. Use sandpaper to reduce the flange size .... best to do this with the sandpaper on a flat surface and rotate bushing in circular fashion.

Rubber mallet and vice worked great for me. Actually as I recall I also used a long piece of threaded rod and some washers and nuts to spread the control arms just enough to get them to fit. All of that and the finish wasn't damaged. Good luck.

Michael

[ZSaint]

I put the hub in the vise and attempted to beat the arm into place. It was too tight and kept crawling around. I gave up and started to work on the passenger side. I put the other arm on the hub and it had all kinds of clearance. I drove the pin right in... no problem. I decided the hub must be too wide. I put it in the vise and used a grinder to grind off .030 on both sides. I used a polishing wheel to smoothe it up and the arm slid right on. It now has the same clearance on the passengers side and the driver side. It worked for me! Just needed a little clearance for the poly bushings. :knockedou