240 Gap from control arm to rear bushing

car is a '79 242. I have an odd issue with rear control arm bushings I'd like to see if anyone else has dealt with it.

I'm in the process of swapping steering racks, cross member and bushings in the car. On assembly I'm finding that the rear of the control arm is not coming up flush with the rear (large) control arm bushing. This presents the same with two different cross member, two different bushing bracket sets, and two sets of bushings (some old OE Volvo and new Delrin). The control arms are stock, boxed, and measure up the same and do not appear to be bent at all. I have the small STS delrin bushings installed the front of the control arms. Again this comes out the same mix-matching all of these parts. The bushing brackets are pushed as far forward as they can go in the slightly slotted holes.

Because the delrin bushings are so stiff I want to assemble everything with zero-load, so I can't just pull it in with the nut. That would mean I'd have to either "float" the bushing forward to meet the arm and weld the cup in place there, or space the gap from the front of the bushing to the "washer" on the arm. I think both of those options could work, but I'm troubled by why I'm seeing it. Unfortunately I do not have another set of arms to measure as a reference.

I ran into this issue on the drift car as well, mine was off a bit more than what you have going on. This was with KL Racing arms and poly bushings, so a bit different on the setup. It wasn't an issue until it pulled the poly bushing through the sleeve and the front wheel moved forward an inch+. This bent the control arms, and now they're straight-ish and boxed.

I took some 1/4" aluminum flat bar and used a 2" hole saw to make some thick aluminum washers that ended up slightly preloading the rear bushing into the cup. This has worked without issue.

I can measure another set of control arms tomorrow when I'm at my shop if you PM a reminder sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Now that I think about it a bit more, I have seen this countless times. The brackets have to be pulled back in order to get the bolts to go into the frame. I always use a large phillips screw driver through one of the holes to pull the bracket back and get one of the bolts started. They fight me every time, every 240. With solid bushings the issue would be much more apparent.

culberro said:

I ran into this issue on the drift car as well, mine was off a bit more than what you have going on. This was with KL Racing arms and poly bushings, so a bit different on the setup. It wasn't an issue until it pulled the poly bushing through the sleeve and the front wheel moved forward an inch+. This bent the control arms, and now they're straight-ish and boxed.

I took some 1/4" aluminum flat bar and used a 2" hole saw to make some thick aluminum washers that ended up slightly preloading the rear bushing into the cup. This has worked without issue.

Click to expand...

I almost used this as an excuse to order KL arms then I got ahold of myself. I am liking the spacer method over floating the bushing I think..

2manyturbos said:

I can measure another set of control arms tomorrow when I'm at my shop if you PM a reminder sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Now that I think about it a bit more, I have seen this countless times. The brackets have to be pulled back in order to get the bolts to go into the frame. I always use a large phillips screw driver through one of the holes to pull the bracket back and get one of the bolts started. They fight me every time, every 240. With solid bushings the issue would be much more apparent.

Click to expand...

glad to hear this is something that happens and I don't need to go crazy over a bent car somewhere. If it's easy and you want to grab a datum for me off another control arm I'd certainly take it, but based on what I've measured it's hard for me to really suspect the arms.

Thanks guys!