# Confused about front lower control arm bushing



## Dailydriver (Apr 10, 2010)

I am currently swapping the bushings of my 66 GTO (cloned Le Mans) to PU and I am confused about the long holes I found on my front lower c-arms (see pictures) I haven't seen those in any pics of other 66 Pontiac c-arms and the PU bushings I bought don't fit.
Can anyone help me identify what I'm having here?

Thanks!


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## chevyboy91188 (Oct 31, 2009)

thats how they are in lots of the a-body cars my 66 gto has those and so does my 72 chevelle


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## Dailydriver (Apr 10, 2010)

thanks for the quick response.
Hmmm... bad thing is that the new bushings don't fit. Any ideas?


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

My'67 GTO has A-arms just like that. The earlier arms had round bushings on both ends, instead of the oval bushing. You need the correct bushings. Also, it looks to me like the sleeve of the old bushings are still in place in your A arm. those need to be removed before the new bushings can be pressed in. If you are unfamiliar with the process, take the whole mess to a machine shop and have it done. Cheap and easy, and the A arm won't get all mangled up.


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## chevyboy91188 (Oct 31, 2009)

yeah I used my friends equipment at his shop to change mine its not an easy thing to do at home at all


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

When I was a flat-rate auto tech in the mid '80's, I did my share of these. I still have the special air chisel bit I used for burping the old bushings out. Remove arms, buzz out the old bushings, buzz/press in the new, replace the springs and all the other worn suspension and steering parts, throw it on the Hunter A-111, set the wheel alignment, and ready to be picked up by 5pm. MAN, I'm glad I'm not doing that every day anymore. I feel old enough at 49 as is!!! Grunt work, and how!


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## Dailydriver (Apr 10, 2010)

Thanks for your answers guys.
I'm currently in talks with the manufacturer of the new bushings to get the two "missing" ones.
Oh yeah, I kind of forgot about the sleeves. They're coming out at the shop around the corner next week... Thanks for reminding me ;-)
Enjoy the rest of your weekends!


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## Thumpin455 (Feb 17, 2010)

That should be in some sort of sticky that if you are going to replace the LCA bushings you should check to see if they are round or oval. Also I have found two different sizes of round holes. Maybe a list of odd things to check before you tackle a project like this...

geeteeohguy I did it too, the new cars with the toe and go are awesome. I would just break even doing A bodies, and I could crank out 4 new cars in an hour, provided they didnt need much more than tie rod ends and an alignment. Changing a rack can be a HUGE pain.. I to am glad I dont do that stuff for a living anymore, it was rough enough in my early 30s when I could still walk ok.

I did the bushings on the 65 last month with my press, its still tons of fun with the right tools, I need to build a fixture for those things. I have 4 more A bodies to do...


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## 66tempestGT (Nov 28, 2009)

when i changed my bushings they asked if i had round or oval. i didnt know it was such a mystery.


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## hookemdevils22 (Mar 27, 2010)

Hey, does anyone know the lower control arm bushing OD for a '66 with round (not oval) holes? I got a kit from PST, and one of the bushings is waaaay too big (if I had to venture a guess, I'd say it was about 2" in diameter). I don't have the arms (or resto book) with me right now, but the smaller of the bushings in the kit fit the larger hole in the control arms, so I'm trying to figure out the correct OD of the bushing. Thanks.


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## hookemdevils22 (Mar 27, 2010)

Called PST and got it figured out (hopefully). There were apparently two configurations of round bushings (to Thumpin's point). The first are 1 3/8" (front) and 1 5/8" (rear), the other are 1 5/8" (front) and 1 7/8" (rear). Looks like I have the first (smaller) style, while PST sent the larger bushings. The 1 5/8" front bushings in the kit do work as rears on the smaller style, so the 1 7/8s just need to be swapped with the 1 3/8s.

One final thing, to make matters a bit more difficult - I was told also that GM used either 1/2" or 9/16" mount bolts, so I will have to verify that as well. Hope this helps anyone doing this in the future.

EDIT: Passing along some info I found at chevelles.com. From Global West:



> There are three different lower control arms used between 1964 through 72. First, the arms used from 1964-66 all had 1.625 diameter and a 1.900 diameter bushing. The bushings are also round. From 1967-1972 GM changed the bushing diameters to 1.375 diameter and 1.625 diameter. This change would have been easy for replacement parts but somewhere along the way they through a third design in the mix which apparently was a replacement for all 1964-72 A-body control arms. The third arm has a 1.625 diameter round bushing and a oval bushing. There are cars out there with round style arms on one side and oval on the other. You could have oval on both sides all together. The oval bushing is the problem. We do not make Del-a-lum bushings for this application.
> 
> In order to check and see what type of lower arms you have, simply lay on the ground and reach under the car and feel the bushings in the control arm. You will be able too tell if one is oval or not.


Napa also had the 1 3/8" bushings I needed (I exchanged mine with PST), PN 267-4237. Hope this helps the next guy who can't figure out their bushing situation.


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