Well the ScanTech control arm arrived from FCP and even though I'm packing it up and sending it back, it looks nice. Hard to tell its not original. I thought the welds looked good and the weight/thickness feels the same, just to the eye.

The bag says Scantech Sweeden. I didn't know this is a Sweedish company and hear everybody bitch (strong word, but I haven't heard one compliment) about their parts. This one is nice. I've never got a bushing and that seems to be what everyone dislikes.

Boge bushings are in fact the Volvo/Boge run. My rear positions bushes have "Volvo" scraped off the rubber. The dealer Volvo front position bushings are nice. Boge's too.

POR-15 is incredible stuff. I hope to post some pictures of the sandblasted/refurbed ca's. The guy at the machine shop I showed thought it was powder coated. Dries fast and fills nice. I will use this stuff again and I should have removed the entire front cross member and sand blasted that too. Next year, or when the steering rack goes.

I tried freezing the bushings and using a vice and wood blocks to get them in. I got the big bracket bushings in, but I couldn't get the fronts in. Back to the machine shop. I hope he doesn't hammer these too. I asked him to use the press.

Well I'll update again when installed. I had bad clunks that I felt slightly in the steering wheel but mostly hard under my feet in the floor board on my side. This was after I replaced upper strut mounts, struts, inner and outer tie rods, ball joints and all sway bar bushings. This is the last thing in the suspension to address so I'm looking forward to finally having a properly dampened front end.

As many folks mention here on BB, the control arm's rear position bushings were shot and the fronts were comparably ok. Still meriting replacement, but not falling apart like the rear.

Some people told me "those Volvo's are just clunky by nature." But that's untrue. Any 20 year old car that clunks has worn out parts. It's just the question of whether or not you want to deal with trouble shooting it. You'd never tell by looking at the rear control bushes from under the car that they were roached. Apart, was a different story. That and the inconvenience of the car being on jack stands for a week and me riding my bike to work 3 miles in the wind and rain.

As soon as I can afford a $500 project 240 sedan, I'll have a second car!
--
89 245 'loaded' with a Great Pyrenees

Adk gave me some nice beta on the Scantech control arms. Y'all can read his detail here if you're interested. They sound serviceable and if I had no other option, that's what I would do. For $75 each, that really is not bad at all.

I took the original CA's to South Austin Machine shop, told them how I did not want them to pound out the bushings, but press them out. They had no problem with the two bracket bushings, but 5 minutes later the guy is whacking the hell out of a control arm. I went back to check on him and he said the problem one (rusty drivers side) wouldn't go in the press. I'm not going to argue with guys that have done this more times than I have. He kept wacking and got them out. The holes look fine. I decided to have them sandblast them (and I told them not to dig too deep with it).

For $60 they removed bushings and sand blasted the control arms and brackets. The best thing, is I can now see the structural integrity of the CA's. They look sound. Welds look solid.

Tomorrow after work I'll hit them with POR-15 metal prep, give them a coat of POR-15, hopefully I have enough for two coats. Then spray them with silver (contains small frags of metal to "fill" the imperfections).

I wanted to go with SuperPro Urethane bushings. FCP had the large rear position, but the front position was out. Same with IPD. Couldn't find a front kit anywhere. They are made in Australia. Tein in California is the new supplier in US but they couldn't track any down either. So...

I figured having the Urethane in rear and rubber in the front would inevitably be different durometers and I didn't want to potentially risk either one wearing out the other prematurely. There is no evidence for this, but it's logical. I think!

I decided to order the rubber Boge/Volvo big rear bushings from FCP for$12 each (or $36 at the dealer). FCP only had ScanTech ($7) front bushes, so I ordered the Boge/Volvo small front bushes from the dealer at $26 each.

I'll update on the painting process and bushing installation process this weekend. Hopefully this helps someone facing similar issues/questions in the future.

~jason
--
89 245 'loaded' with a Great Pyrenees

i had the front driver side A arm rust out to the point of cracking almost all the way through, i ended up calling my local indie volvo garage. they sell tons of parts as well as service, got a cherry used one with nice bushings real cheap. if you have the option thats the way to go, no lying in the mud in the spring and its a volvo og part.

I bought two of them for my wife's '90 sedan- pressed in new control arm bushings. This was before I realized it was really not that hard to press OUT the front control arm bushing (in the arm) with my 12 ton shop press. I still have them in the shop- did not put them on the car. While they don't seem to be made quite as well as the original Volvo arms, they are probably OK for normal driving.

Heck, if you're near the Albany, NY area, I'd probably be willing to part with them for like $100 each with a new Meyle control arm bushing installed.