Rear lower control arms

[JD1964]

I have a factory rear stabilizer together with the lower control arms that it’s bolted to. It comes off an 87 Monte SS. I want to use the stabilizer on the 79 Malibu wagon.

I’m curious, are the 87 Monte SS control arms beefier or designed better than the 79 Malibu wagon arms? The Monte SS arms have an insert of sorts to keep the arms from crushing when tightening the bolts I suppose. If I use the stabilizer on the Malibu arms, I suppose all I need to do is use the inserts as well. Any advice is appreciated

 

[pagrunt]

Those lowers are the same. Unless the ones off the MCSS had better bushings, just bolt everything on the original wagon arms.

 

[ELCAM]

The 79 arms will only have small holes in them you have to drill them out for the sway bar bolts, the small holes are in the correct location so no measuring required.

 

[pagrunt]

The 79 arms will only have small holes in them you have to drill them out for the sway bar bolts, the small holes are in the correct location so no measuring required.

I've never seen smaller holes in a non sway bar arm. My '79 & '81 Montes had the right size holes for the sway bars.

 

[ELCAM]

Not my 79 Camino, it had like 7/32 holes, 3 in each arm so it had the holes marked for either orientation of the arm.

I just used the cordless and drilled them out and deburred so things laid flat after install. Didn't need to remove the arms.

 

[pagrunt]

Not my 79 Camino, it had like 7/32 holes, 3 in each arm so it had the holes marked for either orientation of the arm.

I just used the cordless and drilled them out and deburred so things laid flat after install. Didn't need to remove the arms.

Maybe those where from a batch made Friday evening or Monday morning.

 

[ELCAM]

Went and measured the holes in the stock arms are .385" good for a 3/8" bolt. The car with the bar from a newer car has 10mm bolts, would need to drill it a little to get them to fit. The aftermarket bar on the other car came with 7/16" bolts and would need over drilled a little more.

 

[565bbchevy]

The Monte SS arms have an insert of sorts to keep the arms from crushing when tightening the bolts I suppose. If I use the stabilizer on the Malibu arms, I suppose all I need to do is use the inserts as well. Any advice is appreciated

Yes, those spacers are there so you don't crush your control arms when tightening, also depending on the condition of the bolts I would probably replace those with some new grade 8 bolts.

 

[ck80]

Yes, those spacers are there so you don't crush your control arms when tightening, also depending on the condition of the bolts I would probably replace those with some new grade 8 bolts.

Many of the bolts once you remove them it turns out they've rusted thin from their time inside the sleeves.

These came out of an 88 SS. The spacer sleeves from inside the arms crumbled during removal. The design was fine for its purpose and the expected lifespan of the cars, but, could trap fine dirt and then water and thus rust as decades went by.

 

[JD1964]

Thanks everyone for the good info. Looks like it will be a pretty easy job since I won’t necessarily need to change the arms. I’ll just swap the parts over. Hopefully when I pull the bar off the Monte arms, those inner support spacers will be good enough for continued use. If they are, I’ll treat them to POR15 before putting them in.

By the way, the front has already been treated with a GN sway bar and Bilstein shocks