Lower A arm woes

[emosfiat]

Well, I don't know if anybody else had this problem when changing out the lower A arms but I found out the hard way. On my 1981 the control arm mounting bolts/studs on both sides began to spin on me which made getting the nut impossible to remove. This precluded the installation of the new control arms. Had to leave the old ones on to get the car to a welder. One side was solid with a tac weld. Found a muffler guy to fix it good. Now good to go to finish the job. The moral to this is to check if both studs are secured with tac welds prior to attempting a control arm replacement or bushing change. They may spin in the crossmember.

[halg]

That is one of the reasons I fabricate my own crossmember.
Hal

[joelbert2k]

Seems to me you fabricated your whole car, Hal

[Westlotorn]

I had my front end aligned at a shop. They called right after I dropped the car off and told me my lower control arm bolts were stripped out. Funny because I just replaced the lower control arm bolts and they held torque at 40 lbs per the book.

I suspect an impact gun was used to strip them good but there is no way to prove this. I picked up the car took it home and tore the whole thing down again. Removed both of my new lower control arms, knocked out the old Fiat studs and put in new Grade 8 fine thread bolts. 7/16 diameter. Welded the heads to keep them from spinning and put it all back togeather. Now I am ready for an alignment again. New shop I suspect this time around. Cost me nearly a day in labor to fix this.
The new bolts are really sturdy though. I put 75 lbs on them with no issue. I did not want to go tighter and bend things.

I had one heck of a time installing the new sway bar bushings. There must be an easy way?

[manoa matt]

You can jam a large flat blade screw driver between the head and the crossmember to stop it from spinning.

[halg]

I never weld the heads of a heat treated bolt. You never know what the heat of welding will do to the heatreated material.
Hal