Control arm bushing

[Wwabbit]

I could find no previous thread on this, but my rear lower control arm bushings (swing arm) at the knuckle end are starting to unravel. Anybody had issues with theirs? I'm going to continue to watch it closely but am inclined to pop them out of there sooner than later (assuming they are not baked in). Other side is same or worse and both are oozing a bit. Fronts are fine.

 

[427Aggie]

Don't know about the bushings but I think the ball joints require arm replacement. Rich or dennis will know.

 

[Wwabbit]

^^ I was afraid they might be part of the arm. Not sure they are toast yet though. Seems early at 5000 mi. Maybe other forum members will tell me what theirs look like.

 

[Indy GT]

Don't know about the bushings but I think the ball joints require arm replacement. Rich or dennis will know.

I too believe this is a true statement. Requires a new A-frame assembly.

Perhaps Scott Ahlman could comment as well. He may have some repair thoughts (if there are any).

 

[Xcentric]

Surprising to me how generally worthless the workshop manual is. No discussion of bushing replacement and no ID of bushings as separate components, which would imply they are integral to the control arms. It would be helpful if that was stated.

 

[MNJason]

Scott can comment but I had a ball joint go bad (I think) and had to replace the entire A-arm. This was at 8k miles.

 

[Xcentric]

 

[427Aggie]

My understanding from talking to the GT guys about this a couple of years ago is the A-Arm holds alot more weight of the car than a normal arm. The ball joints and possible the bushings are pressed into the arm and basically they deform fit (i'm making up things here) to where you can never get another balljoint to press in and have the same stress amounts. Think of them as torque to yield bolts...one use then throw away...sucks when you think about it.

 

[Wwabbit]

^^ yep, especially considering the price of the arms. I've got an email out to Rich. Maybe the visual is just the flanged end of the rubber doing its thing and it's a non-issue. Will see. It's not uncommon for mounts like this to be vulcanized in place. Might be helpful of some of you with lifts could check under there and see what you've got. Thanks for the replies.

 

[sahlman]

I could find no previous thread on this, but my rear lower control arm bushings (swing arm) at the knuckle end are starting to unravel. Anybody had issues with theirs? I'm going to continue to watch it closely but am inclined to pop them out of there sooner than later (assuming they are not baked in). Other side is same or worse and both are oozing a bit. Fronts are fine.

View attachment 28741

Indy GT gave me a heads up on this thread. First to note - the bushings and balljoints on the FGT are integral and not replaceable. You must replace the arm assembly if there is an issue. I wrote a one pager regarding reasoning for integral joints and posted it on the forum a year or two ago.

Wabbit, I have looked at your pic a and I am confused at the moment...are you sure this specific pic is on a FGT? Especially the rear lower ball joint? This does not look like a control arm to knuckle interface front or rear on the FGT, but maybe I am just having serious brain fade at the moment. See Xcentric's manual post for the rear. Do you have another picture of this joint? Another angle? Sorry I know this is not helping.

Scott

 

[Xcentric]

^^^ Looks like the pic is rotated 90 degrees and it is the upper control arm. Joint shown is 3078 in the pic in post #7. ???

 

[sahlman]

^^^ Looks like the pic is rotated 90 degrees and it is the upper control arm. Joint shown is 3078 in the pic in post #7. ???

In this pic it appears the "Arm" is on the left? It does not appear to be a "swoopy" FGT upper control arm. And the FGT upper control arm has the balljoint in it with the stud going down through the knuckle (both front and rear). It looks very different than this picture. The nut is buried in the knuckle to a fair degree. The rear lower control arm lower ball joint is sandwiched between legs of the knucke with the joint in the arm as shown in your drawing posted. And the front Lower control arm lower balljoint area also looks very different than this pic.

I am refreshing my memory and staring at exploded views front and rear. The picture is not making sense to me for a FGT. Wwabbit- are you playing stump the engineer?! :lol

 

[Xcentric]

I think this is one of those visualize spatial relations IQ tests...which I have failed. :lol Here's the point paper on integral arm bushings.

http://www.fordgtforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22506&d=1318808967

 

[BlackICE]

I would think whatever tooling was used to create the control arms can repress new bushing safely in place. A real shame for those of use with the machined control arms to discard them for some forged ones.

 

[Chris A.]

A couple of questions:

Was there ever an average life expectancy established for these pieces?

What’s the current going price for the replacements?

 

[TrackAire]

I found it interesting that the document list this as a caveat:

The integral joints chosen are designed to last the life of the car (as long as it is not
crashed or hit significant potholes)

I've seen what I feel are pretty significant potholes on major interstates that sometimes cannot be missed.

Did any of the Ford GT's used in the race world use any type of mono-ball bushings in the a-arms?

Cheer,
George

 

[fjpikul]

Well, so far, Larson, coming up on 100K, and Ralphie, over 60K, don't seem to have problems. Camillo has run three cars to some unknown high mileage, but the new owners haven't complained about this issue. I'm at 28K and seems Ok when I check alignment. The worst potholes I ever saw were in Detroit at Rally I and at the GT Guys place.

 

[PL510*Jeff]

I would think whatever tooling was used to create the control arms can repress new bushing safely in place. A real shame for those of use with the machined control arms to discard them for some forged ones.

It's a one time install, friction fit under pressure. Not safe to re-bush.

 

[BlackICE]

It's a one time install, friction fit under pressure. Not safe to re-bush.

I understand that is the design. However unless pressing the bushing in the 1st time damages the A arm I would think cutting the old one out carefully and using the same factory tooling another could be pressed in place. Of course, no one I know of has access to the tooling and if they did they probably wouldn't do the job for reasons of liability.

Just an academic question.

 

[twobjshelbys]

I could have a ham sandwich if I had some bread if I had some ham

I could put a new bushing in if I had the bushing if I had the tool to put it in

Good luck. If you find the part numbers for the bushing please post it to our soon to exist (started by someone besides me) of part numbers/mfgrs of components for parts that ford wants to ding you for the whole assembly