LOWER  CONTROL ARMS

A  FRAMES

TORONADO] [FAILURE] [WHAT TO DO] [SOURCES] [

REPAIR
 The real questions are:
     Is it safe to repair the arm by welding?
     Exactly what should be added to the Toronado arm to make it good for GMC'?
     Where can we find good reinforced control arms.

  CONTROL ARM UPGRADE
BY
 Steve Ferguson

http://www.bdub.net/ferguson/

 

  100,000 MILE FRONT BEARING SERVICE
What may not be clear, is that front wheel bearings are becoming hard to purchase and very expensive as a result. 
One reason is, our current procedure of bearing service every 25,000 to 30,000 has almost eliminated bearing failure, but the damage caused by Knuckle removal to front end steering components and  bearing puller damage to Knuckles and Hubs is trashing many of the front bearings and components.

The Zerk
Our GMC forefathers  determined  just before the end of GMC production, that the front wheel bearings needed a way to be serviced without removing the knuckle and bearings from the coach

Brich wrote this design in 1976  showing where to locate a Zerk fitting in the knuckle so the bearings could be greased in place.
http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=5987
shown here
http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=5991

Wallace incorporated the Zerk in his 3 bearing modification
http://users.california.com/%7Eeagle/wallace1.html
http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=5990

 The 3 bearing modification never became a universal standard because it is very hard to keep a 3 point alignment of the bearings during machining and later versions of this modifications of this design were never of the same quality of  the Wallace components and the bearings became hard to find and  repair.

BEARING  GREASING   PROCEDURE
As a part of his design, Wallace developed a greasing procedure that allowed the bearings to be serviced without removing the hub knuckle, bearing components.
http://users.california.com/%7Eeagle/wallace1.html

Dave Lenzi improvements
Dave Lenzi, one of our modern GMC heroes,  has been rebuilding and providing hubs and knuckles with the Zerk and bearings with a modified bearing spacer that is allowing bearings to last in the area of 100,000 miles with 30,000 mile (non removal ) bearing service. 

HOW TO GET  THE ZERK ON YOUR GMC
1 At your next bearing service if you find damaged hubs and knuckles, send them to Dave Lenzi or his supported vendors, to get them rebuilt and drilled for the Zerk.
2 Drill your own knuckles using this procedure from Ray Swartzendruber


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