The lower a-arms were really worn out. The threads for the lower spindle bolt had worn completely out and were oval shaped. After searching for some replacement a-arms and having no luck, I decided to have a machine shop fabricate me some threaded inserts. Here is how I fixed the damaged threads.

This is the good a-arm, the other one is missing an area where the shock bracket bolts up.

This is what the threads looked like. Some what of a poor design in my opinion.

This is one of the thread inserts that I had made. If you are in need of these let me know. I will be offering them for sale.

To install the thread insert I had to drill a 1-1/16 hole in place of the old threads. I priced a large 1-1/16 drill bit and they are expensive. So I decided to try a step bit. I found this one on eBay for $18.00. I had never used a step drill bit before until now. It worked very well for this application.

The hole drilled using the large step drill bit.

The threaded insert is shown nicely fitted in the a-arm.

Stay tuned…the next post I will show them welded in.