Rear Control Arms? Cast or Stamped Steel

K

kennyo

Registered User
I need to replace a drivers side lower control arm. Mine is a '89 s/c made w/stamped steel. Every piece i've seen is cast. The dealer list the same part for all years. Was this a running change or are s/c arms different? Will it hurt to run them mixed? Need info asap. Thanks,Ken.
 
All I can tell you is this. My original set of control arms were made of steel, they were heavy and had a smooth finish. My replacement control arms were identical with the exception that they had a semigloss clean black paint finish. If I had cleaned up the originals, I'm sure they would have looked the same. There was a difference in that the main bushing inner sleeve of the newer arm had a saw-tooth edge which grabbed onto the frame once it was torqued down. That edge wasn't on the OEM control arm.

Since I'm not a metal fabrication expert, I don't see how the part like that could be "stamped", so I conclude that it is cast. :cool:

If the dealer lists the same part, you can be rather confident that it is the correct part.
 
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there is a remarkable difference between the two. You can tell the replacement part is cast steel by the roughness. My original is smooth and had to be forged or stamped from steel stock or plate.
 
Sounds like cast steel is the way to go. BTW, here's a pic of what was on the 90 year model.
 

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TbirdSCFan said:
Sounds like cast steel is the way to go. BTW, here's a pic of what was on the 90 year model.
Click to expand...

those are the front control arms. They've allways been cast.

The thread here is talking about the rears.
 
The cast version is definately the way to go. The stamped design ones were "patched" together during development (added more and more material to them) as they kept failing duribility tests. The "patching" got them to pass but the cast pieces have 6 times the torsional rigidity of the stamped pieces. I would suggest that if you are doing one side you might want to do both to keep the rear suspension responding correctly and the same side to side. You will probably experience less Upper Control Arm Bushing wear as well.
 
Stamped control arms

Hey Ken.
I would be interested in seeing a pic of these stamped control arms (curiosity). Or anyone else that may have one.
Bill
 
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