HELP-- 1997 riviera control arm bushings

Hi All.. I am new to the forum... have a gaggle of buicks and I am redoing the suspension on one of the newer ones and I cannot find a part ANYWHERE.

Its a 1997 Buick Riviera, with a 3.8 v-6 supercharged engine,

the part I need is the front lower control arm bushing for the front mount.. the vertical one.

both sides are badly dry rotted and split

car has aluminum arms. the ball joints bolt on and are available from almost any source and the horizontal rear bushing on the arm is still available from Buick.

Buck parts guy tells me it never offered the front bushing as a separate part on the 1997. no part number available.

It looks just like the 1995-1996 part-- which is offered by Buick, Napa, Autozone, Rockauto etc.. but those are approx 2 inches in diameter. The 1997 ones are approx 2 3/4 inches in diameter.

I have heard and seen pictures of the 1998 arms and I think those have 2 horizontal bushings.

also the control are assembly's I have seen pictures of in the parts books and in the online catalogs show pictures of the dual horizontal bushing arms. I even searched Gm"s online part site and it gave me a part number-- and a price of like $5.00 but when I took it to my local Buick part guy he told be it was for a single sway bar link bushing.

any help or direction would be appriciated.... i am sure someone out there must have come across this before.

I would even be ok with a poly bushing. I searched PST and Energy's websites but found nothing offered there either. thanks for reading

HI, I think you have to change the whole control arm, that's what we did on my '99 riv right after i got it with 168K on it.

Your dealer 'friend' should have known that.

Having just converted my car over to the style you are talking about there is no option except replacing them. I have been looking at poly, but they will need to be custom made, but I need a spare arm to have it made.