Topic: Upper control arm change?

[bryancobb]

Thanks Charles,

You a fine gentleman!  They, like yours, need a little gouge repair so when I get that done, I'll blast them and then contact you.

Bryan

[Anghelrestorations]

I am going to post some pictures here of the upper control arms so we have a visual of what the cutback versus non-cutback style looks like.  They are essentially the same control arms with some very minor differences and you can see where they literally cut back the front portion of the arms here.  Although I dont know if I agree that there was a defined date late in 69 assembly where the cutback was exclusively used or changed over.  I have plenty of examples on cars where the cutback was already being used as early as October 68 time frame. 






And from this side you can see exactly where you have the issue of the wheel/tire rubbing against the control arm if you look at the upper control arm in the photo:



And here is a more visual reference when installed on the car the clearance issues you can run in to:

[Bob Gaines]

I am going to post some pictures here of the upper control arms so we have a visual of what the cutback versus non-cutback style looks like.  They are essentially the same control arms with some very minor differences and you can see where they literally cut back the front portion of the arms here.  Although I dont know if I agree that there was a defined date late in 69 assembly where the cutback was exclusively used or changed over.  I have plenty of examples on cars where the cutback was already being used as early as October 68 time frame. 

Marcus, The progression was non cut back in 67 then it changed to cutback in 68 and when a pattern of problems with fatigue cracks developed because of the metal taken away in the cutback design. Ford changed back in 1969 to the former design that had more strength. I am sure special Ed will be along to elaborate .

[TLea]

I believe cutbacks were introduced around 4/68 when the CJ cars came out because of the 70 series tires

[Anghelrestorations]

I had to think about this and re-read the comments here.  I mis-read some of the previous posts.  And looking at the parts book (for what its worth) it shows three different variations of the upper control arms from 1967 to 1969....in other words there is a C7-A, -B and -C version which probably is the three different version arms we are talking about here.  So I cant comment on exact dates when they changed over from one to the other but for sure we know there is different versions out there.  In my opinion there is probably two versions of the non-cutback but I dont have anything now to show that side by side (non-cutback 67 and non cut-back 69).   

[Anghelrestorations]

And I am also seeing a pattern of at least two different vendors of the upper control arms which probably makes sense from Ford's perspective.

[Bob Gaines]

What is the part number of the 3 rivit upper ?

[Anghelrestorations]

I'm in Oregon now so don't have access to parts book but I know it's a D0 part number.....probably with same basic part number I would guess.

[J_Speegle]

What is the part number of the 3 rivit upper ?

Have some with the (later) D5DZ-3082-C and the 72 MPC shows a D00Z-3082-A part number

[specialed]

The c7oz a & b look the same but the c (trimmed off c7oz-b) was done for clearance for the new wide f-70-14 polyglas tire being used on 68 1/2 cj cars & the rims were getting wider as the tires were. In late 69 when they beefed up the spindles rotors tie rods drag link etc for the shelbys & b2s to use the new f-60 -15 tires they went back to the c7oz-b upper arms as they were stronger & they were using a new 15'' taller rim. If you look closely at a c7oz-c (trimmed back upper) that has many miles on it you will see a crack going to outside from the outer 2 rivets to the end where it was trimmed off making that stressed area weak from where the metal was trimmed off. In 1970 ford redesigned the upper arm (dooz) to a new rounded off end by putting a 3 rivet ball joint on arm with a rivet to the center inside style. This made it alot easier having 1 upper arm to use from 70 to 73 instead of 3 different upper arms in 69.

[Bossbill]

Another oldie but goodie.

My two 65 upper control arms show a single date code with the character M.
My 67 upper appears to only have a number.
Marcus shows a later (than 67) upper arm which appears to show an alpha and a number.

Is there any later data, especially 67 examples?