Another aluminum lower control arm question

[palomino]

I purchased 2 aluminum lower control arms. When I went to put these on the frame, the front bushing is almost ½ inch narrower than the bracket. Is this OK or do I need to put a spacer in there?
The second question is about the front hub. The top bolt hole is larger than the bottom. The top had the offset bolt for camber? The instructions say to use one from the rear but that is somewhat smaller than the hole in the hub carrier. Is this OK too or did I select the wrong rear bolt to use on the front?

[Kyle@AJW]

Its sounds like you have some older control arms off the 93-01 impreza style. You are going to want to run some spacers in there to fill up the gap.

The top front bolt is used for camber adjustment on the impreza but on the 818 it can be done at the upper control arm so its not needed. That is correct to use the unused rear bolt on the front.

[palomino]

Thanks! Spacer shopping I will go.

[Xusia]

What is the issue with using the original upper bolt?

[Santiago]

I think what Kyle was saying is that the original upper bolt for the front spindle was used to adjust camber. Since camber on the 818 is adjusted by the upper arms, the camber bolt is not needed. I haven't seen it, but if it's like other camber bolts, they are smaller in dia. than the hole they mount in except for the "bulge" in the middle that is used to set camber. If you can dispense with it, so much the better as a full-size bolt will be stronger.

We see this in Mustangs a lot. Some aftermarket companies sell camber bolts for the new cars to get more negative camber (they're not used as OEM), but this solution is frowned upon for the strength reason - in that situation an aftermarket camber plate (upper strut mount) with a greater adjustment range is the preferred method of getting more negative camber.

Best,
-j