Anyone tried the cheapie Tubular Control Arms on Ebay?

Ya I got suckered into buying the front upper and lower tubular control units. Let me tell you that they are nothing but junk! I had a 69 Skylark (loved that car). I now own a 67
Impala which Iput these on.
First off the I had to open up the bolt holes on the upper control arm cross brace 1/4 inch, the bumper pad compleatly disintegrated while I was putting the units on. the lower spring coil seats fell apart. I had to replace them with Global West parts. With a 2 Inch drop spindle I had to grind the end off the lower to get it to turn.
As I was putting on the upper ball joint the shaft spun coming out of the ball joint. I had to replace the bumpers ,lower coilspring seats,upper ball joints. I am in the process of getting lower ball joints. According to Global West these units are Chinese knockoff JUNK!!! AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!!!! Spend the money and get a good set. You will have a better unit with good quality control. I can tell which one are junk by the color. The junk one color look like puke red versus a bright red on the Gobal West stuff.
Plus it is American made.

 

Ah, a blast from the past.

If anyone cares, I swapped the SC&C sourced upper A arms to a set of ebay tubular uppers and lowers. The uppers are lighter than stock but the bottoms are about as heavy so it is a little lighter over all. I put new springs in and used the Proforged tall upper ball joints then put a +5 caster, -1 camber alignment on it and absolutely love the way it handles. I've laid into some pretty hard turns with it and the throttle is the deciding factor between under and over steer.

These are like the arms I used though the seller I used is not selling them any more

http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-64-72-C...Parts_Accessories&hash=item2339002e26&vxp=mtr

 

The main thing I read about failures with the (cheap) tubular arms was with the ball joints. If you replace them before install, they should be good to go.

 

Yeah, I replaced the uppers but let the lowers run... mistake. Bit me yesterday in a slow turn, thankfully.

 

12 years on Global West with their ball joints. You get what you pay for. Screw China.

These are parts that you life may depend on. Who will you trust with that.

 

x2000

 

My widow will cash in then.

The world has to have guys like me to push the limits to see what works and what doesn't. So far, the arms work great, just the ball joints were questionable.

Now we have more data to work with.

 

I bought a set of cheapie upper front control arms off eBay several years ago, holding up fine, except as stated ball joints are cheap...mine lasted 4 years before both went and just replaced with quality ones so should be good to go for a while longer now. This is on a 69 Sportwagon.

 

Best of luck and glad that these are working for you. Keep those life insurance policies up. :laugh:

 

I'm lucky, no doubt about it. I'm not worried. That which does not kill me makes me stronger.

 

Are there still issues with broken ball joints with the Ebay control arm sets? I have no problems replacing them if needed.

 

After a decent conversation with knucklebusted I purchased a set for a whopping $135 on eBay. I also bought some proforged tall ball joints to install. I knocked out one of the eBay ball joints and to my surprise they looked EXACTLY like the proforged. They were 1/2” taller and had the same exact dimensions and shape as the proforged. They also fit just fine in my frame. Only “issue” I had installing them was where the spring pocket is, you have to compress it quite a bit to get the spring to clear the top of the pocket and finding a spring compressor to do just that was difficult. If I could of found my old school compressors it probably would of been far easier than the new junk you rent at the parts store.

 

Here are some pics. Last one is of a stock replacement ball joint

 

Thanks for posting this info. Those BJs do look identical. I'll be on the look out for a set on the bay.

 

Are there any sort of rules against posting eBay links? These are the arms I bought and they’re currently at $135 on “sale”

 

I wasn't aware of any problems posting links to products related to our cars. I have been away for awhile. Rules may have changed since then. PM me the link may be best to avoid problems. I will search ebay as well.

 

Oh, I need uppers and lowers. The bushings wore through my A arms on the drivers side.

 

I've had my cheapy ebay arms for a few years now and no issue. Even bought a set of upper for my 1971 GS 350 and installed Proforged 1/2 taller ball joints. The lowers offer stiffness due to better bushings but they are heavier than stock. Upper ebay arms are lighter than stock.

 

There are uppers and lowers for as low as $230 that I’ve seen. I’m running spc uppers.

Another benefit of these arms is my QA1 shocks fit thru the hole where as the stockers would require opening up the holes and redrilling the shock mount holes

 

To start off with, I plan to stick with OE springs and shocks. Eventually, I hope to do air ride with outboard shocks. I've had good success with my air ride setups.