tube control arm jig

anyone have any pics of tubular control arms being buil? pics of the jig or any suggestions on how to make the jig and the arms?

Cut your stock arm to lay and make a jig off of that. Its pretty easy. I don't have pictures of any of my jigs really, but they are all fairly simple.

what are you making the jig out of and do you have any pointers on making it? I will be making upper and lowers for an s-10. i have an idea of what i need to do just never done it before. can you give me a step by step run down of how you useually make your arms?

I make the base out of whatever I can. Usually 3/8" plate because I have an odd sized abundance of it. Bolt in balljoints are the easiest. I just make a plate with the same bolt pattern, and attach it to the jig with some 1x1 tube, or 1" round, whatever works. I like to space it up a few inches so I can get all the way around it without removing it from the jig. Then for the pivots, I like to use brass bushings, because they don't fuse themselves to the steel when they get hot, at least to an extent. You can still get them apart. I like to machine my own, and put a lip on one end like a bushing has. But you can buy just about any size brass bushing at a bearing supply house. From there, I build tabs to hold that bushing in place, usually use a 3/8" bolt. So 3/8" ID and whatever OD will fit in the bushing sleeve you decide to use. I have an Energy Suspension for a nice small bushing that fits in 1.5" .120 DOM very nicely. And for an inner sleeve I use a piece of .625" .120 wall tube.

Most of my jigs aren't really very fancy, because in most cases I use them once, and throw them away. If any part of that doesn't make sense I can elaborate. I don't feel like proof reading.

thank you. as far as the arms i am going to make the lowers the same as the stocks. and the uppers i plan to shorten a half inch and angle the ball joint plate down 5 degrees from stock. any other pointers? making an old body styke dime lay 20's? I Have the screw in moog lower ball joints and stock uppers.

For the screw in style bung, I got a piece of tubing that fit nicely inside the threads, I think 1.750" fits nice, but I can't remember, could have been 1.625". Anyways, I welded that tube to a piece of plate, used some 1/4x2 strap and tapped a hole in the center. I cut another piece the same size, and drilled a hole in the center. Now you have a plate with a tapped hole, and a tube welded in the center that the bung will slide over. Cut the tubing a little shorter than the threaded bung so that when you bolt the top plate on it clamps it in place and won't let it move. Then when you do the other arm it will still hold itself in the same place with ease.

That, or you can machine a solid bushing again that fits in snugly and has a hole all the way through. I used aluminum when doing this. But either way will work just as well. Whatever you can do. Most people don't have a lathe so the first way is easier for most.

Don't first gen S-10's have press in lower balljoints? I guess maybe you are going with screw-in's instead. I have a couple jigs for different arms but I don't have any pics online.

Originally posted by ChumpChange



thank you. as far as the arms i am going to make the lowers the same as the stocks. and the uppers i plan to shorten a half inch and angle the ball joint plate down 5 degrees from stock. any other pointers? making an old body styke dime lay 20's? I Have the screw in moog lower ball joints and stock uppers.

why are you angling the ball joint plate down? when you pie cut them and lay out, it bends the ball joint up more.

when i get them finished, i'll show the jigs i have setup for HB and 98-01 Frontier arms.

mine are being made from angle iron with bolt holes to bolt the upper control arm bushing sleeves into place, then it has 2 pieces of flat that holds the ball joint plate. that way they are in the factory locations on the jigs, you can make the tubes straight or bent, etc. as long as those 2 things are good, your tubes can look any way you want em too.

i havent found much to do about the pressed in lowers, other then i'm having Chris at unusual fab make the sleeves for me for awhile for all my arms.

Balljoints are angle up from the factory. Angling the plate down helps with up travel in the suspension.

this might help ya it might not but atleast i tried lol

http://streetsource.com/tech/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=397