Control Arm Removal

[Trevor Jessie]

You'll need to buy new kingpins anyway. All you are trying to save is the A-arm.

 

[jhorton3]

If you're having that much trouble with the fulcrum I suspect the bronze bushings in the A arms are shot too.

 

[motofiaccone]

Are they thrust bushings or actual flanged bushings? If they are just thrust bushings, I can stomach chopping through those much easier. Looking at the VB catalog, it seems like they are..right?

--Thanks, Chris

 

[bill_young]

The A arm trunion bushings are threaded bronze inserts. If they're worn, and they probably are then you will have to get new A frames. There still might be some places that rebuild these, but it seems that most are now new, perhaps because of the years of metal fatigue and the possible liability to the rebuilder if one fails. There is supposed to be a rubber seal on each end of the lower trunion between it and the bushings, that's where you need to cut if you have to saw it out. The trunion pin is cheap, the A frames and king pin aren't.
As to removing the lock pin for the trunion bolt, yes you can drill it out. Keep the drill bit slightly smaller than the pin and you should be able to drive out the remains or shear it off when driving out the remaing bits of the trunion pin. I assume that you have removed the A frame and Kingpin as an assmebly and are now working on the bench to remove the fulcrum pins, it's a lot easier than working on the car.

 

[motofiaccone]

Yep, that's exactly right. Upon closer inspection, those are rubber (or cork) seals. They are greasy, so I presumed they were bronze bushings, which honestly, shouldn't they be?

At any rate, I'm in good shape now. This evening, I'll cut the fulcrum pin and drill out the set pin. Thanks gents!

I'm fabricating new control arms anyway, so keeping the stock control arms intact is just for jigging purposes.

--Thanks, Chris

 

[jlaird]

Will prob have to be cut on both sides of the swivel pin, it's called a swivel pin.