58 screw in upper control arm bushings

[Bob Cobb]

While installing a set of Moog cc850 springs in my 58 discovered wasted upper control arm bushings,anybody know of someone who replaced the bushings and not the shaft or if there's a workaround for this? Found bushings for $30 apiece but the shaft kits are $175 apiece on ebay.Appears that the bushings screw in to the arm and onto the shaft at the same time I'm thinking swap the shafts side to side to put the wear on the  shaft threads opposite of where the most load is. Anybody have a suggestion.

[RICH MUISE]

Hey Papa, good to see you posting. Unless there has been collision/offroad damage, the shafts are probably just fine. When I did my '57 suspension, I replaced the upper control arm shafts because I was expecting wear, and I was building my car with a "if it can be replaced with new, do it" guideline. I bought the Rare Parts shafts at 180. each. Waste of money. The control arms don't really wear, and in fact the new ones I got were actually .001/2 smaller on the machined shaft ends than my 50 year old originals.
It sounds like you're aware the '58 has the threaded bushings, the '57's do not. Yours is a better setup imho.
Since you're a new guy, I should tell you my '57 was my first ever build, there are lots of guys on here that have been doing it all their lives and know a lot more that I do. That's why I'm here, for their expertise.
PS..you don't mind a 72 year old calling you Papa, do you?

[KYBlueOval]

Rich asked that I take a look at your post and see what I could add.
I have a '57 Ranchero I'm building, and I used the '58 Upper Arms because of the screw in bushings. I made the decision to use the '58 version based on information I read here on the forum. I used the original '58 shafts and control arm, and replaced only the bushings that have a grease fitting. I believe I bought them from Kanter in N.J.
What else can I tell you about what I did?
John

[RICH MUISE]

haha..ok....Bob it is. John could answer this....... you said " It appears the bushing screws into the control arm and the shaft at the same time".............. Now I'm curious as to how that would work.

[Bob Cobb]

Hi Guys
Thanks for the replies to my post. This is my first time on a forum like this so I'm still figuring out how it works. By way of introduction I'm a retired construction equipment mechanic and have been working on cars as a hobby since I was 16 (I'll be 70 in November) and am not an expert by any means because I learn something new every day,this control arm bushing thing being the latest example(I had the same reaction that Rich did,how does that work?). I know a little bit more about the situation now that I have both sides torn down and cleaned up, the right side bushings are shot and the shaft has about 1/4 of the thread diameter worn completely away so it needs to be replaced.Thanks to John for the heads up on Kanter, they have the shaft and bushings for $89 shipped, Don't know the reason for the price difference between Kanter and ebay. The left side is pristine, no slop and no visible wear on the on the shaft and bushings so it gets reused, maybe it was replaced sometime during the 79,000 miles the car shows on the odometer? The last problem is how to center the shaft in the control arm while the bushings are being threaded in, the shop manual I have shows a special tool T58P-3044-A and says to use it to center the shaft but I don't find any info on the tool anywhere. Maybe I'll just use a tape measure (The one with the numbers on it). Or maybe John remembers how he did it. I ordered the shaft kit from Kanter this morning and when it comes in I'll try to figure out how to post some pics of the old parts and the new ones so the forum has a little bit more info on the subject.

[KYBlueOval]

I can post some photos of my installation if that will help. Let me know.
John

[gasman826]

I believe the '58 bushings can be installed in the same manner as '57s as to installing the bushings toward the rear to help with positive caster at alignment time.

[jwtdvm]

I will throw in a few things here as I am going thru this right now to try and help caster a little bit--the cross-shaft was designed to be centered in the arm--once the cross shaft and bushings are all in place you can spin the cross -shaft to move it "off center--I could really only move mine 1 turn off center--2 turns seemed to want to bind and then the outer bushing wanted to move in the A arm  as the arm cycled instead just movement along the shaft--we will see what 1 turn does.  Another note--A arms up to 1964 will fit BUT==somewhere in there they went from a 6 inch on center holes in the shaft to 5.5 inch !!!!--My nicely painted and refurbed 64 passenger arm don't fit!!!!----I ordered a 58 cross shaft with 6 inch centered holes today off ebay . They should fit right in the 64 arm----Kanter now shows 215.00 for that cross shaft piece!!!!-----there is an aftermarket upper and lower A arm kit but it runs around 1000 bucks--it is supposed to allow you some good alignment specs and better camber curve