LGREF9
New Member
Okay so I have an 88 EF STD hatch and I'm having this issue with the upper control arms, hope someone knows about this. I can't seem to find anything on this. So first of all, my OEm upper ball joints were dried out and there was play on it so I figured I switch it out. The OEMs were welded on so then I had to get brand new upper control arms. Got'em but they didn't fit in. Took a look at both and it seems the former owner used after market upper control arm bushing kit on the OEM one. The catch is that the new ones I bought and the OEMs had different kind of bushing stud. The new one's stud flanges out on the bottom and the OEMs aftermarket bushing stud is straight all the way to the bushing itself. I took a look at the mounting holes on the chassis and sure enough it wasn't big enough for the new arms bushing stud to go through so even if I tried I couldn't get a nut on the thread. I thought I'd bought the wrong arms so I returned them and went and picked out a set of 90 Ef upper control used and pressed in new balljoints but when I installed it, the outer tip of the arm hits the top welded points of the chassis so I ground off the arms so it wouldn't hit. I had used the old OEMs aftermarket bushings on the arms and now the bushings are going and I can't find anything close to it. I said it was aftermarket because it looks aftermarket, but am not sure if model was built like that. Weird thing is every ef8 and ef9 on Honda and other store sites states they all use same arms but mines look way different. If anybody knows anything about this weird arm I'd appreciate any information on it. I'm sure I would be able to help out with other pproblems anyone has as I am a mechanical guy too. I'll post up pictures when I take it back out so everybody could see what I'm refferring to.