from the amount of people talking about control arm bushing replacements on a 4x4, i gather that not too many people are changing these. for those of you that hit your brakes and can watch the slop in your bushings allow your front axle to seriously shift, this is for you.
i ordered new upper and lower control arm bushings for a 2000 ram 4x4 from NAPA- ( noone else locally seemed to be able to get them and the dealer sells the whole arm with bushings preinstalled)- and they are totally wrong. napa s computer only shows one part number for all 4x4 rams for the uppers and one part number for all rams lowers. that may or may not be wrong. the issue is this... when your new upper and lower bushings arrive, they physically fit the stock control arms properly- BUT, your bolt holes for mounting the control arms to the truck will be ENTIRELY too small. there is no way to properly make them work. forcing the bolts in will destroy your threads. i contacted the NAPA store and they called their tech line for advice. the tech line says " oh yeah- we have a footnote saying that these bushings have had fitment problems". NICE! let your stores continue to stock and sell these to people rather than pull them from the shelves and fix the problem. they were supposed to send them the proper bushings for me the next morning to solve my problem and all they did was send the identical improperly fitting bushings! so, now my truck will be sitting up on stands for at least several days while NAPA tries to sort this out... if they can sort this out. I will post the part numbers for the improper parts so people can watch out for this and explain to their stores that they are wrong parts should you need to order them. unfortunately, i cannot post the proper part numbers because i dont know what they are yet.

 

Good tip! You'll have to let us know if they make a big difference.

 

The same problem comes up with some lift kits. The factory made a part change some where around that year.

 

Must have been a change from my 96' to yours. The Napa replacements fit no problem. Maybe they changed from 12v to 24v? I did the replacement 3 or 4yrs ago.

 

It certainly would be a good thing to know.

 

I got mine from energy suspensions and they work great. I burnt out the old ones so it was a piece of cake.

 

That's what i was going to suggest, use the polyuerethane ones they will be the last ones you need.Still need to do mine.

 

CA bushing ID changed in 2001 I believe, later models have a smaller pivot bolt. I wouldn't call it a fitment issue, it should be a different part number.

 

well, heres how it went.
i waited for the "proper" bushings to be sent to me through napa and the identical bushings arrived. their "tech line" now states that they cannot get me the proper part...GREAT !!
so, i ended up researching companies on the internet (thanks to the advice given to me on here) about the aftermarket ones. i called "desert rat" and they ordered them for me from energy suspensions. they will be shipped directly to me from energy. the bad thing is... energy has to make them according to desert rat. then they will ship them. for those of you that may need the info, the part number is 5.3131 from energys site and they fit 1999-2001 ram 1500, 2500, and 3500 4wd models.
what a pain in the azz ! did i mention that i am fed up with napa parts??

 

I had to have a new lower stabilizer(control arm) put on my 98 12V. I kept getting a popping noise on the drivers front.The bushings were actually more than the whole stabilizer arm.

 

Could you pm me the price?? Thanks