Noticed there was a hole on one side of my upper rear control arm... possibly the dowel fell out? But then compared it to the passenger side and it was the same, one side had a dowel, the other didn't. Am I missing one or is this normal? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
If there is no pin then how is it going to keep the thrust washer from rotating on a surface it should not rotate on? The pins are not usually tight in the hole and should be removed prior to cleaning and repainting.
Answers like this are really simple. If it looks like something is missing what would it do if it was there? If you really have no ability to answer that or do not know it is important to hold the trust washer from rotating maybe reconsider the advisability of even doing the work.
The answer may be simple to you. The cars that I've worked on are not 40-year-old cars and do not have this type of mechanism. Now I could have just looked at it and thought, "EH... whatever." and put the thing back onto the car. But I want to do it correctly. I want to learn. I'm not in a rush and I'm not wealthy so I can't afford to have someone else do it... nor do I want to have someone else do it. I'm not a mechanic by trade. Not even CLOSE. This is my hobby, It's what I do to "relax" believe it or not. So if we were to change this scenario to what I do for a living and you were to ask me how to limit the inherited velocity on an object so that the child object moves in a believable way in Maya, 3ds Max, Unreal engine... etc. I wouldn't tell you to simply "give up" and go hire someone else to do it for you. I'd explain to you how to do it... why it needs to be done and hope that I passed on a little knowledge along the way. This life is far too short and what we leave behind matters. I appreciate your help and I'm sorry if I aggravated you... wasn't my intention.
You'll notice one side of the washer is plain steel, that will go against the arm bushing with the pin.
Just make sure the washer or shim with the special coating is facing the shiny smooth plate or it’s facing towards inside the A-arm. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yeah when i removed it I video recorded and then quickly put everything back where it was supposed to go and took pictures. It's quite a complicated little mechanism as opposed to the ones I'm used to.