How To Relocate Upper Control Arms

Once the hardware is off, the upper arms can be removed from the shock tower.

Both the Blue Moon arms and the Pro Motorsports negative-wedge kit come with a template that bolts to the existing holes in the shock tower. The small holes at the bottom serve as pilot holes to begin drilling the new holes, which will make them 1-inch lower than the stock ones. Use the existing hardware from the stock upper control arms, or the new hardware if installing new arms, to secure the template in place.

Place the correct-size bit through the holes and drill the pilot holes in the tower. Once they're drilled, remove the template.

Using the pilot holes as a guide, finish drilling the holes in the tower using a bit that will drill the same-size hole as the originals. In the case of the Blue Moon arms, we used a 9/16-inch bit to drill a hole large enough to accommodate the 1/2-inch installation hardware. The finished holes should look similar to those in the first photo.

The arms with the negative-wedge kit can now be reinstalled. Although our original set of Control Freak upper arms seemed to be OK, we wanted to eliminate the possibility that the ball joints were damaged from not originally relocating those arms. Install the supplied spacer plates with the Blue Moon arms to keep them from hitting the shock tower.

At this point, the task is to put it all back together, which begins with securing the upper arms in place in the new holes.

A knowledgeable suspension shop such as Marlo's Frame has all sorts of time-saving tools and ideas that make suspension jobs such as this easier and faster. This includes using a long bar that provides plenty of safe leverage to hold the arm and spring in place while the arm and spindle are reattached. This can be done with a shorter spring, but with a stock spring, the shop uses a compressor. Once it's back together, the front suspension is compressed with a jack on the lower control arm to allow removal of the spring clamps that are shown in step four.

The upper arms are secured by reinstalling and tightening the castle nut that keeps the arm and spindle together. Don't forget the cotter pin after the nut is installed.

With everything back together, the new ball joints in the upper arms are packed with grease. The job is completed by reinstalling the brake rotor and caliper, then aligning the front end to proper specs for camber, caster, and toe. Good street specs include 1/2-3/4 degree negative camber, 2-3 degrees positive caster, and 1/8-inch toe.