Upper control arm bearing

[NebraskaSpider]

I am finishing up my front end rebuild and am having trouble with the bushings in the upper control arm. I pressed them into the arm with a table vise and went to put them on but couldn't get it around my shock tower. After trying to muscle it on, one of the bearings came out which allowed me enough room to get it around the tower and slide the bolt through. I figured after tightening the bolt down the bearing would slide back into place, which it didn't. So I tried to pry on the control arm to get it to go in and the bearing on the other side just slide over to compensate.
Currently, both side have the same problem. The upper control arm slides back and forth on the bearings. There is only a small amount of sliding room, and both bearings are mainly in but have about a 1/8in gap on both sides and I can slide the arm to one side creating a 1/4in gap on the other side. What am I doing wrong?

[So Cal Mark]

sounds like the ears on your control arm are bent. Some of the replacement bushings don't fit the arms very well, but your arm may have gotten squeezed together when pressing bushings. I've seen owners tack weld the bushing shell to the arm when the bushings didn't fit tightly, but I'd measure the distance between the ears of the arm and compare it to the other side

[NebraskaSpider]

Both side have the same problem and have the same distance between them. Would it be ok to try to spread the control arm?