<VV> Upper A-arms

[James P. Rice]

Stew:  Back in maybe early to mid-1980, sometime after the 1979 Detroit
CORSA convention, where Frank Winchell spoke, the then Chairman of the
Competition Committee wrote him, asking if they could provide the Stinger
racers with any suspension set up info.  He sent a copy of the engineering
drawings for the LM suspension.  Last I knew, these prints have been
subsequently lost one of the following CompCommChair. 

As I was the one who wrote the letter, co-signed by Seth IIRC, I got the
print.  One thing I took notice of was the chart of the chamber change on
the front suspension as it rose and fell.  It was different left to right.  

Are the upper a-arms different, possibly in width, ie: inner mounting center
to center of ball joint?  Don't know.   But I can remember someone at some
point of time reporting reassembling a rebuilt front suspension (don't even
remember if it was a racer), and the car reportedly handled funny (ie:
differently) after reassembly.  The eventual solution was to swap upper
a-arms.  

So maybe marking the arms physically is the best way to go.  A die grinder,
a file mark or scribed letter someplace on each would tell the tale for
reassembly.  

And maybe you can accurately measure your arms and let us know if you found
any dimensional differences. 

Historically Yours,
		James Rice 


Message: 1
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 18:55:53 +0000
From: Stewart MacLeod <stewartmacleod at hotmail.com>
To: "virtualvairs at corvair.org" <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Subject: Re: <VV> VirtualVairs Digest, Vol 145, Issue 4
re: LM Alignment

This is a really timely discussion, as I have the front end of my '65 apart
to replace ball joints and A-arm bushings. Surprisingly, the A-arm bushings
are original '65 rubber and not in bad shape, but it's apart so out they
come. What's worrying me is the discussion of "did you switch the left and
right upper A arms?" Naturally I marked them left and right, then soaked
them in carb cleaner, which deleted my markings. So the question is, are
they different? And how do I tell left from right? The lower arms are
obvious because they have the sway bar mounts.

Stew from Arkansas

'65 Red Monza 140