Front upper Control arms

Hi,
I've got a '95 4.6 T/Bird as well as the '94 Mk. When I replaced the front upper control arms on the Mark the ball joints were ok so I intended to use them on the T/Bird when necessary. I punched out the old bushes but the new ones I got ( T/Bird ) are too small to fit. I thought the arms were identical except for the sensor lugs on the lincoln. Is there a difference in bush diameter or have I been sold the wrong parts? they looked the same in the box! Can't take'em back 3000 miles, either!!
Incidentally,the ones I bought are TRW 12744 if anyone knows about part numbers.

RE: Front upper Control arms

Bushings are officially non-replaceable. As you've found out they can be pressed in and out, but with the books saying they're not serviced seperately, the sizes may have changed at some point without the parts manuals noting the change. If they needed a larger bushing for the mark, chances are they made a running change to t-bird production at the same time, and kept the bushings as non-serviceable so as to avoid re-publishing service manuals to account for the change. then ran out old stock on t-bird production.

just a thought. probably not true.

i did think that the mark and thunderchicken arms were the same. but it looks like you might have to go buy two more.

RE: Front upper Control arms

I've just got some new Mk 8 upper arms and comparing them with new
T/bird ones there is a difference in the bushings. The Lincoln bushes are greater in diameter by about 5mm but do have the same size bolt hole. T/bird ones you can replace - Lincoln ones you can't - go figure.

RE: Front upper Control arms

It is only the lower control arms that are the same on the 2 cars.