Lower Control Arm Confusion

[John Cunningham]

I am hoping somebody knows whats going on with lower control arm Identification.

I have a 1997 K3500 4x4 I would like to purchase some lower control arms to rebuild for a swap.

They claim there are two types both forged and stamped steel. ( each take a different ball joint) One has a better turning radius than the other?

Some wrecking yards say that suv Lowers are not the same as pickup trucks..others disagree...these are torsion bar suspensions so its obvious you would not want the ones for coil springs.

Nobody can clear up how many years and which models are the same...some say 96-2000 but in 99 the ball joint size went smaller...its all very confusing and not sure where a good source that is reliable would be.

 

[454cid]

Well you've mentioned something I've never thought of... turning radius. I have the forged arms and I think my turning radius is terrible, but I don't have a lot to compare to.

A stamped arm is made of pressed steel sheet. In our case multiple pieces that get welded together.

The forged arms look like they're cast in one piece, but they're not actually cast. They use a specially shaped blank and a gigantic forge (Power hammer?) hits it super hard and bam, you've got part that gets machined a bit for the shock mount and ball joint to fit.... could be heat treated, too? I don't know the details or the technicalities of the procedure, so consider this a very simple description.

The two look night and day different.

The lower forged arms came later in the GMT-400 run, but I don't know what year. Also, not all the 8-lug 4x4s used them. I've seen many 2000 1-tons at municipal auctions that used the stamped arms, for instance.

 

[John Cunningham]

I have the stamped steel on my k3500 model 97 year...I cannot find out if they ( forged) ever came on 1 ton nor can I find anything in wrecking yards stamped or forged except suv 4 wheel drive lowers.........nobody knows if they are the same for pickups......

 

[454cid]

I have the stamped steel on my k3500 model 97 year...I cannot find out if they ( forged) ever came on 1 ton nor can I find anything in wrecking yards stamped or forged except suv 4 wheel drive lowers.........nobody knows if they are the same for pickups......

It looks like 96 was the first year for forged lowers, according to the Rockauto catalog. 95 had two different arms available, but neither were forged... one used the press in ball joint, presumably the same arms that you have, and arms that used a bolt on ball joint.

The only SUV that would possibly have forged lower arms would be an 8-lug K2500 Suburban.

 

[454cid]

Read through this thread:

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/forged-lower-control-arms-for-1998-k1500.38795/