Team,
Last year I rebuild my front suspenstion on my 71 chevelle. Mostly stock everything. I then had it alighned and balanced last year after the work was completed. Late last year before she got put away I noticed her starting to pull to one side. I thought this was odd since I had it just aligned a few months prior. I have the motor out doing a rebuild and I noticed something missing last night. I am missing a bolt that holds the drivers side upper A-arm onto the pivot shaft.
*this is not my car, but you can see what I'm talking about*
http://i.pbase.com/u47/shayfah/upload/33967391.1966chevelleenginebay.jpg
I am talking about the bolt and larger washer in the picture between the steering shaft and fender. I lost both the bolt and washer.
I'm curious about replacing these parts. I noticed all the washers on the other three have a "cup" to them. Is this correct or have they just been stressed? I am considering buying all new washers on all four and lock-tighting the four bolts.

Any of you guys have one of these large cupped washers that holds the bushing onto the pivot shart? I doubt you can order these from GM anymore.

Do you have a pic of the washer. The link above is no good.

You would be suprised what you can still get from GM, but you have to do some research and get your own part numbers.

Most everthing is available through www.oldmusclecar.com. I order a set of washers through my local Chevelle store. If it's on the attached photo you can get it.
Ray

Looking at Ray's photo I am missing washer number 17. What rattled off to allow it to fall was 14 and 15. Now that I think about it. I'm not sure if my car has the lock washers shown as 15 on the other three joints. This might explain how everything cam loose.

You do need to replace the bolt, lock washer and large cupped washer, but I don't think those items being missing would cause your car to pull to one side or another unless the arm had come loose from the bushing. If that had happened, you would have noticed a lot more problems than just pulling to one side or another.

head to a junkyard. they have millions of those washers there just taking up space.

I was just about to say the same thing. A junkyard should have that part easily. I doubt they would even charge you for it.

Randy,
Have you tried a local parts store or the Chevy dealer ? Those washers and bolts were used in millions of cars and I bet I could find them with no more than two phone calls. The first would be to my local "real" parts store and if they did not have them I bet my local Chevy dealer could have them in no more than a couple fo days. Sure beats wasting time at a junk yard.

This is a 69 chevelle, anyway http://www.1969supersport.com/021.html picture #16 and #20


Rob

that happened on my 70, when I figured it out. the rubber inside the bushing already came out. I was able to use my air chisle to knock out the outer shell. and used a blunt ended attachment to knock the new one in without removing it from the car. jim

If you have trouble finding any let me know I have a brand new set of 4 washers and the bolts for 64-72 model.
Ray

Sure beats wasting time at a junk yard.

that statement right there is blasphemy- and should probably be a bannable offense.
every car guy knows it's impossible to "waste time" at a junk yard.

Nothing like a Sunday afternoon stroll through the pick and pull, smell of varnished gas in the air, wrenches in your back pockets, Good times..... Jim

Thanks for all the posts guys. I hope I didn't loose anything about of the bushing, but who knows. I'll have to investigate it furter today. Well I've never been to the junk yard around here. If it is cheap new it would make more sense to buy one rather than drive 20 miles in to the closest junkyard in my truck that gets 18 MPG with $4.11 gas here in Illinois. It would cost me over 8 bucks to get there and back.
Just out of curiousity what is a "real" part store. I'm assuming Autozone and Advanced is not "real". I'm just curious what a "real" example would be.

I would assume a real parts store would be the good Ol' boys that have worked at the same parts store for 30+yrs. We have one like that here and they know about every part without using the computer. Ours is a Napa store.

Hey Randy, I'm going to be in Peoria on saturday for the "Missions Spectacular". Thanks for the heads up on gas prices. It's still about $4 here.

most NAPA stores would qualify as "real"- but not all of them.
the best places to go are the local places that resemble a greasy garage inside- when you walk in, you can instantly smell the oil and grease, the floor is kind of grimy from 30+ years of mechanics and farmers coming in for parts, and the counter has those things called "books" with pages full of greasy fingerprints. the guys behind the counter are either old gearheads that have been doing it forever, or young kids with greasy shirts and grime under their finger nails.
the Autozones and Advance autos of the world aren't like this, and they tend to not have people there that can't find things that aren't on the computer.
and, as i said before- a junkyard trip is never a waste of time.. even if you don't buy anything, it's fun to walk around and pop hoods and think about what you could use for your projects. the best seats are in the Japanese cars in the back corner of the lot, and the best engine cores are in the rows of 3/4 and 1 ton pickups..

Added pictures of my "issue".
http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/aa265/dauber65/A_arm_bolt/