epic LCA install fail

[TurboMike]

I havent posted a good fail story in a while, and this one really made me feel like a dumbass. So I'll share lol. I go for an alignment at a local place, and they tell me one of my front balljoints is all over the place. Make an appointment with dealer for the "10year 100mile LCA warranty", they say "its within normal spec tolerances come get your car" wtf. I jack up the car myself and shove on the wheel, and its moving. I put my snows on at the same time, and the vibration in the steering wheel I assumed was a bad summer wheel was actually the suspension. And the dealer says its within spec. Assholes.

So I order all four front lower control arms "kit" from Pace, and next weekend thats my project. $300 for four arms, but fuck it I drive like an ass I cant have a weak control arm risking my life. Sat morning I go on the forums and search and tips or tricks to how the arm change goes. Everyone says its easy as hell, bolts never rust or anything, its just a bitch to get the long body studs out of the control arms because there is a small hole in the body just enough to get a socket in but hard to pull the long stud thru the control arm and body brackets. But should take an hour or two on one side and half that on the other once you know what you're doing and all your tools are setup.

So I go out in the cold, jack it up, take off wheels. Big stud on body side of arms, and balljoint on spindle side of arms. I got two arms on each side. I'm worried about the balljoints and breaking them loose. I check out the arms on the body side, and yeah there is very little room to get a socket or wrench in there. I start on the balljoints. One facing up and one down. The one facing down i can use an impact gun. Zips off. The one facing up I have to get a wrench and a socket on there. Stupid australian car instead of putting a joint under the balljoint to keep it from spinning you need to get a wrench on the balljoint nut and a socket on the threaded end to crack them open. Still, no problem.

So I go to loosen the control arms at the body side, and before I try and get that long ass stud out thru the body hole, I'm gona take the nut almost all the way off, then hammer the stud thru as much as I can, then take the nut off and deal with the small access hole to get the stud out. Fucking nut wont crack loose. Socket, wrench, wont loosen. So I fuck with it for a few min, then soak it in BPBlaster and go inside to warm up.

Get back on my the forums and research. Nobody mentions having problems loosening the nut. Go back outside and try again. Broke a socket on it. Tried to get my impact gun and socket on it using an extension with a joint in the middle. Joint explodes. Try to get a wrench on it, and hammer on the wrench. Nothing. Soak it in BPBlaster and go back inside and let nut soak while I sulk and eat lunch. Look on internet more, NOBODY has this problem. Just me. I do HAVE the shop manuals for the car, I should probably just look up the shop procedure maybe there is some hidden access hole to that nut I dont know about.

I go back outside. Break another socket on it. Soak in BPBlaster. Put the biggest wrench I have on it. Put a pipe over the wrench. I only have a few inches of movement for the pipe, but it still will not loosen. Get out the torch. Heat it up until its red hot. Wrench and pipe again. I swear I saw the wrench bend this time. But the nut probably stripped a little. WTF.

Go back inside. How does this always happen to me while every pinhead on the internet changed their arms so easily? Fuck it. I call the shop that was gona do the alignment. "Listen I need that alignment, but I have new control arms for you to put on first". "we wont use outside parts, we only use the parts we order". Fuuuuck me.

Go back outside. Try to look at nut and its limited access. Am I gona have to cut it off with a cutting wheel? I'm gona have to cut a lot of the frame mount to cut that nut. This will be a disaster. The arms come with new hardware so I'm replacing it anyway. I better check to make sure the new studs and nuts are there before I even think about cutting anything.

I look in box, and hardware is four new studs, four new balljoint nuts, but no nuts for the studs. Hm why would it come with everything except the nuts for the studs? Thats weird. Hm no nuts. No nuts.

Ruh roh. I better look at that nut. Take off glasses and stick head around spindle and look at nut. Yup, its welded to the frame. Its not a nut. Its a threaded mount for the stud.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Took out stud. It took about 30 min to wiggle it out since the tip was now bent and hammered on and melted. Did the four arms in about an hour. I was sore for two days. Had to replace some broken tools. But my pride will never heal.

[Chewy]

You're not the only one that's done that! I've seen that posted here before! It's pretty common for them to weld the nuts on for ease of assembly. Don't feel too bad!


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[BuildItYourSelf]

Haha must have been a slap the forehead moment.
The spot weld on nuts don't look welded on. I have backed up a bolt with a welded on nut before. Then tried to tap the nut off so I didn't loose it. Had to take a second look to make sure it was actually welded and not just painted.
Shit happens.

[Napalm]

melonfarmer - all day.

Thankfully I read this post becasue that's a job I need to tackle one of these days soon. So if anything else you've been an example to me to tell me to stop and look twice before I go all gonzo on moar powar.

Thank you.

And good luck on the other bits.

[TurboMike]

After being chastised on the "other board" for not indexing the bushings (tightening with full load on suspension) I'll also reply here in case someone reads this before tackling the job.

I was skeptical that the bushings "locked" into place and would be under torsion with the car at normal ride height, but I jacked up the car again and took off the balljoint bolts and yes, the arm "wants" to stay in the down position. While you can easily move it with one finger (its not going to effect ride height or suspension) the bushing will be constantly twisted at normal ride height and probably destroy itself early.

So I loosened all the arm bolts at the body frame, put a second jack under the brake rotor, and lowered my main jack and raised the jack under the rotor and put "full weight" on the suspension and then re-tighened all the arm bolts. Now the arm wants to stay pointed at the balljoint when the car is at normal ride height and not be under tension 24/7.

Learn sumthin new every day.

[wyome]

if itz any consolation to you...I've replaced the control arms three times with no problems at all, heck I let my 14yr old daughter take care of the passenger side install all by herself.


Sry...couldnt resist


Glad u got it figured out...

[J Wikoff]

On the tightening note...

When my control arms were replaced the first time, I noted that the car was noticeably higher in the front. Drove it that way maybe a week and took it back in and explained the need to have weight on the wheels. They redid it properly and the front end came down what seemed like half an inch. The tech said 1/4". Either way, it made a difference. Then the arms went bad again like a year later. Was it related to their tom-foolery, I don't know. I had a thread about it on the other board.

TLDR: Tightening with the wheels on the ground DOES make a difference.

[sixt9stang]

Crap. Now I am going to have to loosen and retighten mine. Did the passenger side last year and just did the drivers side rear arm. Hopefully I haven't wore out the passenger side prematurely.