A-arm's in stock anywhere?

[dmwhiteoak]

Yes Kent, uppers and lowers.

[Kent124]

How difficult was it to install the bushings? I've read you need to have a press to get them in.

[dmwhiteoak]

I used a 1/2 drive socket , don't remember what size , and drove them in. They have ridges on them that compress when you seat them. I seated all of them flush with the arm. I can see where a press would be smoother.

[burlyb]

Thought I would check in on this project. One side down, one more to go. Advil coursing through my veins allowing my destroyed hands to type...

Buy complete control arms. Really. Why didn't I buy these this winter when they were in stock!?



Spent about 10 hours this weekend beating, burning, drilling and grinding. Inside style spring compressor: evil. Requires removal of the arms on one side in order to fit in the spring shaft. Then try to reposition the tine/arm and thread the pivot bolt back in... Drill out old ball joint rivets... try burning out lower control arm bj bolt... give up and grind it off.

Things that did go well were not having the shock tower spin while removing and re-installing and using a proper press to remove the ex'g bushings. They and the old bj's shot were really stuck in there and shot out like a rocket when they let go. Don't know how I'd get them out w/out a press. New bushings were a biotch to install. Top ones pressed in but wouldn't stay. Kept falling out, so I reinstalled loose and cinched up with the bolt. On the bottom, one side pressed in perfect, but the other wouldn't go and was deforming the arm. Ended up pressing out the good one and pressing the bad one first (the first was easier because the shaft didn't have to be installed. Then re-pressed the good side with shaft in place. Reassembly was ok. Had to fight with the sway bar to align back on the arm. Tie rod ends want to spin no matter how much I clamp them down.

Good times. Admittedly, it's pretty par for the course for suspension work. Nothing ever goes smoothly. Many of the hiccups were self inflicted - I get tunnel vision and spend 30 minutes trying to loosen the bj bolt before realizing I should break out the grinder and start throwing sparks.

Other side should go much faster now that I have the procedure quirks worked out.

Buy complete control arms!

Cheers,

Bryan

[steve8462]

you could sell your story as a pilot for a new comedy series! Charlie Sheen could play you! i would definatly buy the whole control arms! if you really like the colored bushings. i suggest using nail polish to color them. it frees up more time for other things like family and therapy! LOL

[KidDingo]

you could sell your story as a pilot for a new comedy series! Charlie Sheen could play you! i would definatly buy the whole control arms! if you really like the colored bushings. i suggest using nail polish to color them. it frees up more time for other things like family and therapy! LOL

I saw a comment from a previous post somewhere that the newer control arms are not as strong as the originals.

Any truth in that? Anyone know? Sounds bogus to me, but what do i know?

[DocGraphics]

When I did mine last year, new arms from Vicks, I measured the thickness of the metals, new ones were .125 & the originals were .125 to .140 depending on the dirt....so same thickness metal.

[KidDingo]

Yeah. That sounds logical to me. Couldn't imagine them being less than the originals.

Thanks for the verification, Don.

[124JOE]

i bought a lower one from IAP it came complete $72.50
but i bought a set of delrin bushings from vicks 10 yrs ago
delrin is hard and wont go bad on you
but is a stiffer ride

[djape1977]

be aware, there's A LOT of A arms for lada out there that happen to fit 124, but quality is pure crap.
same goes for balljoints and silent blocks.




from what i can see advertised on the net, about 90% of spider A arms are in fact russian lada parts.
diferences? instead being made of steel, they're stamped from much softer material, prone to bending and cracking.
balljoints that were originally made by avtovaz (company manufacturing lada) are good quality but aftermarket parts are so bad that they're dangerous to use.
again, original silent blocks for lada last about 80.000miles, but aftermarket parts don't last 800miles.

living in eastern europe, over the years i've had chance to work on fiats as well as ladas. some examples of what i'm talking about:

aftermarket silent blocks before instalation

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and 500km later

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than i switched to these, but they prooved to be just a bit better, lasting 3-4.000kms

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than i decided to make some mods, using silent blocks for E class mercedes.

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while at it, some reinforcement because i found one of the factory spot welds broke

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and result - a bit stiffer ride and MUCH more precise handling.

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same manufacturer for other suspension components, turned out to be less than perfect, balljoints lasted about 20k and tie rods about 15k

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been fiddling with rear suspension too. learned that using PU bushings leads to chasis repair. so my advice is - don't.

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about the balljoints:

original ones

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with grooves for grease on the ball and socket made of 2 pieces

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cheap replacement on the left. note the shape of the hole in the socket. when worn, these will fall out, unlike one on the right which will stay in one piece no matter how worn

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decent quality replacement, lasted 80k kms on my car

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[KidDingo]

Djape, was that from normal street driving, or were you using the car on a track?

The reason I am asking about this stuff is that I need to do the front end and am trying to figure out the best approach:

- spend more and buy pre-assembled a-arms for easier installation, but risk lower quality, or
- buy the bushings, do it the hard/frustrating way, and be confident with what appear to be good condition OE a-arms ?

Won't be racing. Intend to do highway/city driving, so potholes are my greatest concern.... but I do enjoy hard cornering.

[vandor]

be aware, there's A LOT of A arms for lada out there that happen to fit 124, but quality is pure crap.
same goes for balljoints and silent blocks

My family has owned 4 Ladas, and I can tell you that both the control arms and the balljoints are different from the Fiat 124.
They could be substituted, I suppose, but they are not the same.

As far as I know there is only one company in Italy take still makes 124 a-arms, Vema, and all the US vendors sell arms made by them.

With any luck we'll have them in stock next week.

[djape1977]

Djape, was that from normal street driving, or were you using the car on a track?

The reason I am asking about this stuff is that I need to do the front end and am trying to figure out the best approach:

- spend more and buy pre-assembled a-arms for easier installation, but risk lower quality, or
- buy the bushings, do it the hard/frustrating way, and be confident with what appear to be good condition OE a-arms ?

Won't be racing. Intend to do highway/city driving, so potholes are my greatest concern.... but I do enjoy hard cornering.

normal street driving, very entusiastic, hard cornering most of the time, 205 tyres on 7x13 rims, mostly on bad potholed roads.

once you remove A arms from the car, changing the bushings and balljoint is a 15 minute job with a set of tools that every amateur has in garage. if you are capable of removing lower suspension arm without loosing fingers in the proces, bushings are a piece of cake.

be aware, there's A LOT of A arms for lada out there that happen to fit 124, but quality is pure crap.
same goes for balljoints and silent blocks

My family has owned 4 Ladas, and I can tell you that both the control arms and the balljoints are different from the Fiat 124.
They could be substituted, I suppose, but they are not the same.

As far as I know there is only one company in Italy take still makes 124 a-arms, Vema, and all the US vendors sell arms made by them.

With any luck we'll have them in stock next week.

i was not intending to spoil a job for you or anyone selling parts, and if my post appeared that way than i apologise.
it was intended to save time and money and some very frustrating learning on your own mistakes for fellow entusiasts.

if you were to put upper A arm for lada and fiat 124 side by side, with or without bushings and ball joint, you couldn't tell the difference unless you measured distance between balljoint mounting holes and even that's just a couple milimeters. whole A arm, silent block and balljoint assembly is a straight bolt on from lada to 124 and vice versa.

lower A arms are a bit more diferent, because shock absorber mounting point is higher than on spider, but if i wanted to fool an unexperienced fiat spider owner, it would be a half an hour job to make necesary mods and again, one should be very experienced fiat entusiast to tell the diference, especially if it was a whole assembly with balljoint and bushings. it would be straight bolt on job.

[djape1977]

by the way, on the subject of front suspension bushings, has anyone actually bought and installed ones that lasted at least 50k kms? is there a vendor out there willing to guarantee 2 years of everyday use?
my experiences on this subject are horrible as you can tell from the pics.

[vandor]

>i was not intending to spoil a job for you or anyone selling parts, and if my post appeared that way than i apologise.

I did not take it that way, I just wanted to clarify