The bolts that are used to tighten down on the upper control arm shims have rusted solid. Is there a hardware kit that I can get that would include these bolts/nuts?? if so, what are these called, I've always referred to them as shim bolts but i'm not sure if thats correct.
There is no kit, but the individual parts are available.
The frame to upper control arm bolts are a specific high-strength item, with a serrated or splined fit to the frame, and should not be substituted.
The bolt PN is 10262655, 2 per side.
PN 9442939 is the locknut used with the bolts and is a prevailing torque design, which means it should be used only a couple of times and then replaced.
There are probably quite a few "tired" locknuts out there in use, so when you consider that on any B-body that is nearing 10 years old or is older, it MAY be time to have the locknuts replaced, at the very least--many of the comments here on Forum about shims falling out may be for a reason.
Somebody better tell Dal to stock up on these locknuts!
I do think that these bolts are important... but I don't see any reason why a good grade 8 bolt wouldn't work fine as a replacement.
The serrated or splined fit makes the bolt a kind of "press-fit" into the frame. This helps by both preventing the bolt from spinning when you tighten the nut and also provides "zero play" so that your alignment specs won't get wiggled out.
The problem is that if your bolts are rusted that bad... the frame will be too. This means that when you put the new bolts in they won't be a tight fit anyway (and i don't think there is and "oversize" part available from GM). This fact along with the idea that the prevailing torque design parts need to be replaced if you change alignment specs a few times leads me to believe that good grade 8 hardware with a few drops of loc-tite is a better soloution.
i had a similar problem.... except it was the bolt that was spinning.
My suspension guy ended up welding the bolt in place after he tighted down on it all the way. then he shimmed it.
And yes positive cambers looks stupid on our cars
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