How To Relocate Upper Control Arms

Since our car already has the Blue Moon arms, our main task at Marlo's was to remove the upper arms and drill the relocation holes in the shock towers. Though a fairly basic task for a fully equipped suspension shop, it takes a few hours to remove the arms, drill the holes, put it all back together again, and align the front end. We began by removing the tower dust shields, as shown here. One person holds the nuts in place underhood while the bolts are removed from inside the fenderwell.

Blue Moon's Control Freak upper control arms (center) incorporate the negative-wedge ball-joint angle into the arm. This means you can drill the holes in the shock tower and install the arms. Also shown is a set of Blue Moon's lower-front control arms. The installation of those was shown in our Nov. '05 issue.

If you retain your car's stock upper control arms, they can be relocated. You'll need to install a negative-wedge kit, as shown here. This setup includes new ball joints and hardware, templates to properly locate the holes, and the wedge spacers themselves (center, near top). The spacers install between the ball joints and the arm to keep the ball joint from binding and possibly breaking once the arm is lowered in the shock tower. It also optimizes the camber curve. This kit is made by Pro Motorsports Engineering and is available at Marlo's Frame.

The shocks must be removed. Unbolt the three nuts at the top of the tower...

...and remove the shock and its mounting bracket. Two nuts need to be removed on the bottom of the shock where it attaches to the spring perch.

Since our car had shorter-than-stock springs in place, the springs were removed without a compressor. Marlo's compresses the spring by lifting on the lower control arm, then installs these clamps. When the jack is lowered, the clamps keep the spring compressed for safe removal. If your car has stock springs, you'll need a compressor.

With the spring out, remove the nut that holds the upper arm to the spindle. Note here that the brake caliper and rotor have been removed for easier access to the suspension parts.

A couple of small hits with a ball-joint spreader shocks the pieces apart, and the arm is easily separated from the spindle.

Next, the arm is removed by unbolting it from the shock tower. A helper needs to hold the nuts in place from underhood while the bolts are turned from inside the fender.