Threaded Upper Control Arm HELP!

[thegrandiman]

Thanks in advance for any help or insight guys. I have a 1968 C10 that I'm working on. The original front cross member was rusted and rotted out pretty good. So I found a replacement cross member on FB Market Place that included the upper and lower control arms as well as new ball joints already installed.

So I got the rusted cross member out of the truck. Planning on disassembling the replacement one I just purchased.... Clean it up, paint it, Torque all the bolts, and all that fun stuff.

Can someone look at the pictures and tell me what year cross member I have?

There are 2 things that differ from my original cross member assembly.

1. The bushings on the upper and lower control arms are threaded. DOES ANYONE KNOW THE PROPER ASSEMBLY PROCEDURE FOR INSTALLING THESE CORRECTLY? It seems depending on how they thread in, i can adjust front to back spacing slightly? Also what are the torque specs? In the pictures, is there anything missing?

2. The U-bolts that hold the Lower Control Arms on are 1/2" bolts vs the 9/16" bolts from my original set up.

I guess what I'm getting after here is trying to figure out what I bought so I can research the proper assembly, so I can torque thing properly and don't lose the front end driving down the highway.

Thanks in advance.

[chevy_mike]

If the crossmember you removed had rubber bushing control arms and the u bolt holes were 9/16", then you did not have an original '68 crossmember. The screw style metal bushings and 1/2" u bolt holes were used to '72. In '73 GM went to rubber bushing and the larger u bolts.

Did you have disc brakes on the front too? It was common to swap a '73+ crossmember with the disc brakes into pre '70 trucks, long before there were disc brake spindles for the '70 and earlier trucks.

It would be good to see what you had removed, to help verify.

As for fixing what you have, you need to screw the bushings in until they are flush with the arm, no outside threads showing. Make sure you screw each side in evenly, so you don't offset your arms. Oh, you are also missing the rubber seals that go on the cross shaft and over the lip of the inner part of the bushing, to keep the grease in.

The u bolt holes, you will need to drill out. This is common now a days because no one makes the 1/2" u bolts because there was a breakage problem with them. This is why GM upgraded to the larger size.