moosestang

Which way do the stock lower control arms go? My Che control arm broke at the weld, so I'm putting the stock ones back on for now. I noticed a terrible rattle coming from the passenger side rear when I'd hit a bump. It got progressively worse and I thought it was the exhaust hitting. The weld at the axle bushing broke all the way around, but it's still together for some reason.

I'll post a pic in a little while, but for now, does the offset part of the stock controls point out or in? I have the che's pointing out, which makes the control arm move inward futher, but doing that with the stock ones means the ford logo is upside down. Surely ford wouldn't have designed it to be upside down when looking at it.

moosestang

Ok, is the smooth shiny side point outward or inward?

Riptide

If you really have to know couldn't you go check out a stock car at a dealer? If I weren't at work I'd go look in the garage for you.

moosestang

Well of course I could, but it's hard to drive 15 miles to a dealer with only one control arm.

Looking at the picture in the manual it appears they have the shiny flat side facing inward. I figured someone on here had a pic of the stock ones on or still has the stock ones on.

moosestang

It's shiny side in, the chilton manual has a good pic.

Riptide

TacoBill's writeup for the Steeda billet install probably had a picture as well.

157dB

I see them as shiny side out.
http://iihs.net/fsm/?dir=65&viewfile...ower%20Arm.pdf


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harraid5711

here ya go moose, this guy's pic should help. shows the orientation of the LCA in the lower right corner

moosestang

Yep, that's how they go. It just seemed like the pretty side should face out, but oh well.

Here's a picture of the carnage. It was flopping up and down when I was removing it, but never broke. I put my weight on it while it was laying on the ground and it broke clean off. I don't know how it didn't break on the car. I had a c5 corvette pass me this morning on the way home and thought maybe i'll play with him, but remembered I had to check out that noise. good thing i let him get away. It's funny how It seemed fine except on big bumps or my dirt road. So which LCA's won't break? BMR is out, they are the same design and their bushings kept failing on my panhard bar. Suggestions?

Here's my opinion of the stock arms. They make the car feel like it's disconnected from the road, however the ride is an improvement over the che's. The stock arms allow the tires to squeal bad, but I didn't notice any hop. With the Che's my tires never squealed, just burned.

blueherd02gt

Are you gonna try bmr next?