1962 Control Arms

[Ken]

Re-doing the control arms on my 62. 1. What wears on thes bushings. The end cap. 2. Is the end cap threaded into both the control arm and the shaft? 3. How do you remove the upper inner shaft? 4. When I re assemble, is there a starting point to set the camber when the outter upper shaft is re-installed? 5. Are all rebuild kits mostly the same or are there better bushing avail. 6. How tight do I make the end cap bushings when re-installing? 7. Any good books avail on this subject? Thanks

[Bill Clupper]

Re: 1962 Control Arms

I'll try to help with some of the questions. The shaft removes torard the front of the car. either the "Corvette Service guide" or any chevy manual 54 or earlier shows the process, basically you bottom out the cap on the rear of the shaft with a spacer, and use the hex on the cap to fit a wrench to unthread the old shaft from the crossmember. If the crossmember isn't worn too badly, the replacement shafts come win a variety of oversizes depending on the manufacturer. I'm referring here to NOS parts which are again interchangable with '54 and earlier pass cars. you'll have to measure them and try to find one that will snug up in your housing. the manual shows an exact dimension to thread the shaft to. don't go beyond that or you'll oversize the hole, as well as create an alignment problem due to the a-arm not being centered. when reassembled, the a-arm should drop of it's own weight, but have no noticable "slop". usually i just center the adjustments until I get it back on the ground, then do a quick check with a level for camber, rough adjust that & you'll get to the alignment shop ok. I hope this helps (another "restorer" story I haven't written ---yet)