A-Arm Bushings

Re: A-Arm Bushings

marshuff — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:54:15 -0600

WOW. Thank you so much. Nice to get really useful step by step information. I really appreciate you taking the time to put it all down.
THANK YOU< THANK YOU< THANK YOU.
Marshall Huffman

Re: A-Arm Bushings

Gary E — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:03:31 -0600

When rebuilding TDs with the body off and no engine I used to have to jack the car up against 2 2x4 wedged between the frame and ceiling joist. Otherwise the frame would just rise up with the arm.

Re: A-Arm Bushings

bills — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:23:45 -0600

You have to remove the lower trunion bolt anyway, so why not just lower the jack and release the spring so you can get whatever you want off the lower A arm. Not really saving anything except the 2 seconds to lower it, your way.

Consider the V8 bushes - they last for years.

Re: A-Arm Bushings

jeffs555 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:04:19 -0600

I wouldn't worry about the spring not compressing enough to get the bolt back in. As long as the car is at its normal weight(ie engine installed) it would have to compress enough from the weight of the car. If it didn't, you would be driving around with the suspension against the bump stops and that would be a condition you would have to correct anyway.

Re: A-Arm Bushings

Tbird — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:46:08 -0600

Marshall - I see Jeff and Gary's point - having one side of the A-Arm off at a time could cause the spring pan to tilt enough to launch the spring in the direction of yours truly. Guess I decided the spring pan couldn't move enough with the jack under the pan or maybe I dodged a bullet - either way - it did work on my '79 MGB.

It might be necessary to have a coil spring compressor (or something similar) when re-assembling if you remove the lower trunion bolt - depending on how strong the spring is. When you put the spring back in and try to jack up the lower A-Arm to re-install the bolt it might raise the whole car before the bolt lines up - unlikely - but possible. Had that happen when I rebuilt the front end of my Tbird and converted it to disc brakes.

Let us know how it goes - and be safe......

Eric

Re: A-Arm Bushings

Blueosprey90 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:23:33 -0600

I recently did this job and I used Jeff Schultz's method. My car has front disc brakes.

I jacked the car up and put it on jack stands. Then I put the jack (floor jack) under the outer corner (more or less) of the spring pan and jacked the spring pan up to a pretty much horizontal position. Then I removed the through bolt that holds the lower link to the outside of the A Arms. This is the one that's about 4 inches long and goes through the lower link. To the extent that there was some binding, I raised or lowered the jack slightly to get everything to a neutral position. With the bolt pulled (very light tapping at best), I swung up the brake assembly a few inches, lowered the jack and the A- arms either swung down or I pushed them down. I then pulled out the spring and unbolted the A Arms from the pan. I then worked the A Arms off the pivot point (some easier than others). I pulled off and replaced all of the pivot point bolts using 2 flat washers and 1 lockwasher each, together with locktight. My old bushings appeared to be the Nylatron bushings. They were a hard dark grey nylon type material and I destroyed them getting them out of the A Arms. I used the Prothane (red) lower bushings from Moss. I filed / sanded any rough spots on the pivot points (as they were a little rough) before installing.

To reinstall, I esentially did the reverse. Eric is correct. "Leave all the spring pan bolts loose until you get all the bushings replaced." More importantly, tighten up the bolts on the pivot points (i.e., the ones that are on the bushings) only to finger tight. Same for the bolts holding the A Arms to the pan. Lower the car to the ground. Bounce the front end up and down a few times. Then tighten up the nuts on the pivot points so that you can replace the cotter pins. Then tighten the spring pan bolts with the cars weight on the pans (loaded).

I did find it necessary to replace the long bolts, lock washers, nuts and cotter pins that hold the outside of the A-Arms to the lower link (i.e., the first bolt removed) as the threads on one of the old ones were "shot". I found that I was missing 2 out of 4 of the lower link thrust washers, so had to buy a few of those and I added the lower seals that had been missing.

Except for wrestling the old bushings off the pivot points and out of the A Arms (once you get the first one on the side out, use a socket as a driver to bang out the second) the job was not that hard.

Now my problem was that I also tampered with my allignment. I discovered that my sway bar rubs against the tie rod ends and I think that rubbing loosened one of the tie rod lock nuts. As a consequence, my steering wheel was knocked about 5 degrees off of dead center. So I alligned the front end using a complicated self created string and level method. But after I did this I was uncomfortable that the allignment was really screwed up! So I made myself a better system out of scrap materials.

I had a 1" diameter wooden dowell about 4 feet long (every hardware store has these) and some old lag nuts about 2 1/2 inches long. I cut the dowell down to about 2 inches less than the apparent distance between the front wheels. I drilled an appropriate sized hole into each end for the lag nuts and screwed inthe lag nuts. So now I have a dowell about 36" wide with lag nuts in each end that are easily adjusted in or out. So I use this to allign the wheels from the inside of the tires. If the tool was tight in front and loose in back, toe out. If loose in front and tight in back, toe out. And it is easy to adjust the lenth of the tool as necessary for fine tuning. After about 1/2 hour of fussing, I had my allignment spot on.

Re: A-Arm Bushings

Gary E — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:17:56 -0600

I have completed this job at least 20 times and always use Jeff's method. It makes it a lot easier and safer than trying to do one side at a time.

Re: A-Arm Bushings

jeffs555 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:10:37 -0600

I may not completely understand what you plan to do, but it sounds kind of dangerous to me. Personally I would remove the through bolt from the lower trunion and lower the pan and remove the spring. I wouldn't feel comfortable removing one side of the A arm with the spring still compressed.

Re: A-Arm Bushings

marshuff — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:07:13 -0600

Thank you for your insight. I appreciate your reply very much.

Re: A-Arm Bushings

marshuff — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:06:24 -0600

Thanks. I went with the Polly also. I think it should work our alright. I see what you mean about the jack under the spring pan. I'll go at it that way. Thanks again.

Re: A-Arm Bushings

Tbird — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:54:54 -0600

That's the procedure I used on my MGB - it worked fine. We had the "A" completely apart so that was different.

On the "B" I left the jack under the spring pan and supported the car with jack stands. The spring pan wanted to tilt a little on the old bushing (only took the bolt out part way and then started a spare in when moving to the next bushing). By leaving the jack under the pan it allowed me to raise it a bit to have the A-Arm with the new bushing line up to the spring pan with the old bushing. Leave all the spring pan bolts loose until you get all the bushings replaced and then lower the car to the ground. It's tight - but lastly tighten the spring pan bolts with the cars weight on the pans (loaded).

If you haven't already ordered them one of the major suppliers has poly bushings on sale. I ordered the steel replacement type and one out of the four was crumbling - badly - brand new in the pack. I re-ordered and used the poly bushings on the MGB and the MGA we recently restored. No problems with the poly bushing in fit or performance on either car.

Good luck,
Eric

Re: A-Arm Bushings

cschaefer — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:49:51 -0600

Once you take off the lower trunion bolt (not the trunion) to change the seals........ You are 75% of the way to changing the a-arm bushings. This is the safest way to do it. You could (in theory) remove the lower trunion seals, then remove the lower a-ram assembly, replace a-arm bushings, reassemble loosely with new seals, then change out the upper trunion seals. That is if the distance pieces and their bushings are still in good shape. Chances are you will have to replace and/or clean them, but you might get lucky.

A-Arm Bushings

marshuff — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:56:35 -0600

I'm getting ready to replace the A-arm bushings. Having not done this before it appears the A-arms that bolt to the spring pan have to come off. I really don't want to take the entire suspension off the car so I plan on bracing the spring pan with 4 x 4 wood blocks then removing one A-arm, replacing the two bushings. Then putting it back on and doing the other one. Is this the correct way to go about it? I plan on replacing the trunion seals at the same time since they are pretty torn up. The king pin seals look good. Yes I read Barnes MG article but don't want to tear everything off the car.