Boxed LCAs?

[Husky44]

Anyone boxed their stock LCAs instead of springing for aftermarket ones?

I'm going to be putting the vert away for the winter soon (we've got good snow on the mountains--should be here in 30 days or less).

Anyway, I'm probably going to do a gear swap over the winter. Figure while I've got the rear axle housing removed, this would be a good time to box LCAs, if it's worth doing. I can do my own welding and have good plate here, or readily available for less than $20, so it's a LOT cheaper than aftermarket LCAs. Is it as effective? I have a hard time with wheel hop and getting it to hook up now; the 3.73s will make it worse.

Opinions? Hopefully ones informed by experience?

 

[revhead347]

The big difference is in the aftermarket control arms is the bushings. If you box the stock ones, then the control arms will be stronger, but the stock arms have eliptical bushings in them. All the aftermarket stuff uses regular round bushings. I've never seen better bushings available for the stock ones yet. I'd say if you can't get better bushings to fit in the stock ones, then it isn't worth the time.

Kurt

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

+1. You still have stock rubber bushings, plus the sway bar bolts inside the stock LCA's so if your sway bar ever broke, how would you get it out of there.

Just buy new ones. Don't buy expensive ones like BBK or Steeda. Buy Latemodel restorations kit. Under 200 bucks for all 4 with hardware. I have a set of 179.99 UCA and LCA on my black notch and I have a set of 400 dollar ones on my yellow notch. They are the same.

 

[94-302-vert]

If you put in th epoly bushings and box the arms you have spent close to $100 and a LOT of time (bsushings are not fun)...

If you have time then go for it and I bet they are at least 85% of what an aftermarket one is...

Personally I have thought about boxing mine since I already did the bushings...