Fitting new ball joints and new lower A-arm bushings. One side at a time. No problem pressing out the old bushings, but with all the cautions I’d read about the fragility of the A-arms, I took the new (IPD rubber) bushings to a trusted local garage for installation on A-arm #1. When I picked it up, the guy advised me that the bushings seemed pretty loose and recommended he tack weld them in place as he often did in those cases. Obviously, “loose” is a relative term and they certainly didn’t wobble, nor could they be moved by hand. Unfortunately, I had an incomplete idea of how these things actually worked, so I declined and brought the thing home. But, before I installed it I gave it a more thorough think and concluded he might be right. So the project is now on hold.

It looks like the long bolt that goes through the bushings gets torqued pretty high and squeezes the interior cylinder in the bushings tight against the subframe tube. They become immobile. The outer cylinders of the bushings, press fitted into the A-arm apparently are supposed to be immobile relative to the A-arm itself. So, really, the only thing that’s supposed to move is the rubber itself. Which is why you final torque that long nut after the wheel is on the ground.

As such, I’m concerned about his concern. Don’t want the A-arm rotating on the outer cylinder of the bushing, and inclined to take it back to him and have him tack the bushings outer cylinders to the A-arm. This guy yearly inspects my 1800 and has aligned the front end once or twice. I feel strongly he knows what he’s doing when it comes to bushings. Assuming that my above-stated understanding of how this is supposed to work is correct, does anyone have any input that might dissuade me from having him tack the bushings?