Lower Control Arms Help

[Anubis]

Did you have any issues with your control arms making contact with your knuckles when you made the swap? That was what I ended up having such an issue with, maybe my knuckles were just casted weird. Grinding a tiny bit off and I was able to slide them up the balljoint and seat them fully finally.

What’d you end up using to paint your frame? That looks great! I’m hoping this chassis saver I used duals out a bit so it’s not as glossy

I didn’t have any issues with the control arms making contact with the knuckles. No grinding was required.

I live in the Midwest so my frame was undercoated. After removing the undercoating I found nice clean bare metal below with no rust. The paint that I use is Napa chassis black in an aerosol can. I’ve used POR and Eastwood Products in the past but they are difficult to spray and brushing it on looks like crap.

 

[ItsMarty]

I didn’t have any issues with the control arms making contact with the knuckles. No grinding was required.

I live in the Midwest so my frame was undercoated. After removing the undercoating I found nice clean bare metal below with no rust. The paint that I use is Napa chassis black in an aerosol can. I’ve used POR and Eastwood Products in the past but they are difficult to spray and brushing it on looks like crap.

Good to know, I'm not sure why mine were different but it didn’t take much to get it to work right. That frame paint definitely turned out good, that’s how I feel about mine since I brushed the Chassus Saver on. Yours is much smoother.

 

[ItsMarty]

Once I find a brake pedal from a 88-94 truck with Hydroboost I’ll report back on how it drives with all the changes, for anyone wondering. Everything has been replaced so it will be hard to tell what all made the biggest difference, but it has

-Cunningham Machine steering shaft
-Cunningham Machine tie rod adjustment sleeves
-Mevotech TTX tie rods and balljoints
-Energy suspension poly control arm and end link bushings
-Cognito pitman and idler arm braces
-BlueTop steering gear box
-New AC Delco Pitman and Idler arms
-New center link
-Belltech shocks and lowering keys
-Forged lower control arms off a 3500 truck
-Knock outs in upper control arm removed for alignment with new alignment cams

While installing the poly bushings in the upper control arm I had to buy a new set of upper control arms bushings and remove the caps/inner sleeves from them to install them into the new poly bushings as the energy suspension kit only comes with the lower control arm sleeves.

The Cognito pitman and idler arm braces are a bit of a pain to install, even with everything removed there just isn’t much room to get access to things. I had to install the center link/idler arm and idler brace after assembling it out of the vehicle and then slide the pitman arm and brace on as I installed the assembled center link/idler/brace all at once. Having 2 people is needed to do this as it’s very difficult to do by yourself. I had to use a 1-5/16” wrench to install the nut for the pitman arm to steering gear box as there is not enough room to get any kind of socket on it, more so with the added thickness of the brace. I used some red-loctite on the pitman arm nut as well and tightened the nut as tight as I could (spec is 184 ft lbs according to my alldata account) since I couldn’t get the torque wrench on it. The sway-bar needs to be removed to get access to this. If anyone has any questions on that feel free to ask any questions and I’ll help the best I can. On my GMT800 the braces themselves made a huge difference in steering feel.

Along with all new brakes/stainless lines and a hydroboost brake conversion. Should be a completely different truck compared to the worn out parts that were on there. Turning with the wheels in the air felt very firm and precise, hopefully all the work paid off in the end when I finally get to go on a drive again.

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[ItsMarty]

I noticed when putting the belltech lowering keys on that they didn’t quite match up correctly, turns out I had the torsion bars on incorrectly. The “R” bar goes on the passenger side and the “L” goes on the drivers side. I had that part correct but from researching through the forums I found that this end (pictured below) needs to go into the crossmember (I had the bars flipped around) and the other end just has some random letters and the 3 digits stamped into it which is supposed to go into the control arm.

Figured I’d post that here for anyone else looking for info about installing the torsion bars correctly after failing to mark them. The side with the arrow goes into the crossmember/key and the side without the arrow goes into the control arm. For me it was a lesson learned the hard way. Hopefully this can help someone else out.
Another note, the passenger side bar is typically 1 number higher than the drivers side (in my case the passenger side is 958 and the drivers side is 957). This can help you determine if someone swapped out one of the bars and the load rating is different. I don’t know what each of the numbers correlate to for load ratings or what other options there are for them, but once again just posting the info I found to hopefully help someone else out.

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[eran tomer]

don't know where you got this info.
on my suburban both ends look the same- the groove, the 3 digits etc.

 

[ItsMarty]

don't know where you got this info.
on my suburban both ends look the same- the groove, the 3 digits etc.

From the info I’ve gathered searching through forums and after spending hours looking at pictures of control arms trying to see the stampings on the ends, that’s the best of the info I could come up with. The other side of my bars are stamped with the 3 digits and 2 letters, while this side was stamped with the 3 digits and the “L” or “R” along with the arrows. They’re similar but not the same, atleast that’s how this 93 RCSB K1500 was setup.

 

[454cid]

Left and right are different part numbers, and each pair are given letter designations that correspond to the spring rate. I've seen a list posted before, although I'm not sure of it made it to this forum. I know when I initially saw it, it was on FSC.

My torsion bars are probably all wrong.... I don't think I paid any attention to the way I put them back in, back in 2007. I do recall that I had to adjust one quite a bit more than the other.

 

[eran tomer]

From the info I’ve gathered searching through forums and after spending hours looking at pictures of control arms trying to see the stampings on the ends, that’s the best of the info I could come up with. The other side of my bars are stamped with the 3 digits and 2 letters, while this side was stamped with the 3 digits and the “L” or “R” along with the arrows. They’re similar but not the same, atleast that’s how this 93 RCSB K1500 was setup.

well i looked again and on mine the arrow and R and L are on the front end, i can't see the rear end. what's the difference between front and rear and what does the arrow denote?

 

[ItsMarty]

well i looked again and on mine the arrow and R and L are on the front end, i can't see the rear end. what's the difference between front and rear and what does the arrow denote?

From what I understand that’s the direction it is designed to spring towards. I’ll search again for the forum where I saw someone state the arrow-end goes towards the crossmember. They could have always been wrong also, or it could possibly depend on the year? Or possibly just depend on your particular torsion bars? I know if you were to buy new ones, there is a barcode sticker that is supposed to be the front. But that is long gone by now

 

[eran tomer]

From what I understand that’s the direction it is designed to spring towards.

or it could be their natural direction of moving...

i could find only this thread that supports your theory:

What am I doing wrong!!!

I am helping my buddy with his lift on his Tahoe( not sure year, the one with square headlights) I just put a RCX 6" on mine by my self so I know a little bit a bout how it all works now, but this is beyond me. Or it's just one little thing we did wrong causing it all. He bought a RC 3" lift but...

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