Pyrophilus

Hey guys,

I have been trying to remove my front control arms (have new ones with new bushings and balljoints), and I am stuck. I removed the large nut that goes on the bolt that goes through the front bushing, and the U-Shaped bracket that holds the rear bushing.

Problem is, I cannot figure out how to slide the front bushing off! The inner metal is really stuck onto the rod. I've tried to use a puller (that I used for tie-rod end), but it seems to stretch the bushing out w/o doing anything. When I losen the puller, the bushing goes back and the arm is still stuck...

I've tried liberall coating everything with liquid-wrench, and no joy...

Any help would be truly appreciated.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

pull the bushing apart with the puller, then clean the rubber off the sleeve that's left behind. once that's done. use a blowtorhc and some large channel-locks to heat and twist the sleeve until it comes off.

Pyrophilus

Thank you Matt,

I did read your how-to, and was contemplating on breaking out the blowtorch... For someone with my screename, I am bit nervous about putting fire everywhere...

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

LOL!
well as long as you get the worst of the oil and grease out of there before you torch it, you'll be fine.

Pyrophilus

Actually, I have a ruptured outer CV joint on that side... Oh boy...

Driver's side CV joint I did (I believe I followed your write-up again Matt), but I can't get the passenger side CV axel off for the life of me... I did pull off the 3 bolts that everyone spoke of, but I can't even wedge a prybar in the inner CV joint seam, because it's so dang tight...

Anyway, thank you Matt for your help, this forum wouldn't be the same place without you.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

spray it with penetrating oil (brake fluid or ATF will work if you don't have anything else), then whack that bizatch with a hammer a few times to break it loose.

glad I helped someone around here.. usually I just act like a grumpy old man.

broncoguy

So does that mean it's going to be just as much of a pain to get the new one back on? This is my next major project, so I thought I'd jump in here...

Bman

I hope not! I'm paying attention here because I'll be doing this in the next day or so too. I think the problem with removing it the first time is because the metal inner sleeve that contacts the stud is frozen on from rust. I'm sure Matt or someone will correct me if wrong...

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

Brian is 100% right. the old one is frozen on there due to age and weather.

when you put the new ones on, they'll slide right into place. but when you get ready to torque the bolts down, DO NOT torque the front bolt down until the car is on the ground and the suspension is loaded. If not, you'll end up runing the new bushing in a very short time. if you have the car on ramps, it's easy to get under there and tighten the bolt. If you have impact tools, it's still easy. just put the car on the ground and roll it back and forth a few feet, then reach under there with the impact and crank the nut on there good.

broncoguy

Hmm.. I'll have to read my manual to get up to speed. I have ramps, but I was thinking I wouldn't be able to use them to change the control arms. Guess I was figuring I'd have to use jack stands, but I haven't thought it through yet.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

well yes.. you will need to have the car up in the air on jack stands to swap the arms, but when you get the control arms back on you'll need to tighten that front control arm nut while the car is on the ground.. that's why you need it.

broncoguy

Yeah, I understand about the tightening part, that makes sense. I was just thinking that you wouldn't want to pull the control arm with the car on ramps, because won't the car drop down once the arm is off- unless you have additional support somewhere? Again, I haven't thought all this through yet....

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

something to that effect, yes. the control arm holds the ball joint in place.. which holds the steering knuckle in place... which connects the strut, tie rod (steering rack), and ball joint together. you remove any one of those pieces with weight on the car, and you're going to be in a world of hurt.

broncoguy

Exactly....and since I'm not into pain, I'm thinking a combination of ramps and jackstands...anyways, I'll figure it out when I get to that point. And if not, I know where to get the answers

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

One of these days I'm gonna pull a Daniel B Martin and just dissappear, and all your punks will be left sucking your thumbs and nobody to answer your questions.

Bman

Hey I do that every few months.... only no one misses me when I vanish.

Pyrophilus

This is based on Matt's FAQ with additional comments:

So far, I've done:

o Remove hairpin clip off front axel bolt.
o Remove castle lock
o Losen the axel nut with breaker bar with wheels on the ground.
o Crawl under and losen the 27mm front nut of control arm
o losen the two 22mm bolts of the U-shaped bracket
on the rear of the control arm
o Losen lugnuts
o Raise the car on jackstands
o Remove front wheels
o Pull off tierod-joint with a puller
o Losen the 19mm brake bracket bolt, and the caliper bolts
o Using breaker bar, remove the 2 knuckle-to-strut nuts
o remove top 3 strut-to-strut tower nuts
o Pop off the clip that holds brake line to strut body.
o pull out strut (I replaced them while they were out).
o Remove the brake caliper do not remove lines. (I hung
mine via zipties off the hole on top of the strut tower)
o pop off ball-joint with a puller (this was a PITA)
o Your steering knuckle should now be free except axel bolt
o remove the axel bolt (I hope you remembered to losen)
o pull off the knuckle.
o the control arm should be STUCK by the front bushings.
o Taking Matt's advise, "pull" the control arm, until
bushing is stretched to hell.
o Try to "score" the stretched bushing with something
(I used a knife).

This is the part I havent' tried yet...

o Once the control arm is off, scrape excess bushing
material off the pointed arm that comes off the chasis
o heat the #$%@ out of the metal tube (that once used
to be part of bushing) that is stuck on the metal rod,
and then twist the hell out of it until it comes off

As for replacing the bushings, I'd probably do the BlehmCo bushing replacement. I was going to do this, until I found a really good deal. Somone with OEM Nissan control arms new (new arms have bushings already installed), and ball joints could'nt install it, and so sold both pairs for $120. Other than that, you can't beat BlehmCo's $130 deal...

As for Matt's Ramp suggestion, I believe that he means you to put everything back together, making sure you DID NOT tighten the bolts/nuts that aren't supposed to be tightened before lowering the car, and then lowering the car. Drive back and fourth (he probably means in the driveway, and NOT a trip to the local quickmart), and THEN drive it up a ramp, so that you'd have clearance to torque the bolts/nuts.

Anyway, the job is a PITA, so I'd probably refrain from pressing in my own set of bushings, because if you do not have a shop press, you will probably be cursing the day that you decided, "hmm, I think I'll try to press in the bushings myself...".

I'll try to re-write or make corrections (if any) AFTER I finish my job, that is unless Matt gets to this post before and makes corrections first...

Pyrophilus

Matt, when you said "whack it couple of times", you meant the control arm front bushings, right? and not anything to do with the passenger CV joint I spoke about... I just wanted to double-check before I started whacking parts on my car, because after 12 years of rust, one can get carried away in anger and start whacking the @#% out of everything in sight (probably not a good idea)...

By the way, on your BlehmCo site, you spoke about your prices going up because of doubling of steel prices...

Do you know why? My brother-in-law is an architect/engineer and he designed some of the floors of the Trump luxury building that the winner from the 1st Apprentice show is in charge of... Anyway, they had to change the design of the building halfway through the building's completion, because of the price of the steel.

It turns out, it's because of the Chinese, no kiddin!
They are preparing for the next olympics, and because none of the existing cities are suitable to host olympics, they are bulding cities out of scratch... Most countries in the world have placed quotas on steel export to China, and China has already exhausted most quotas, and apparently, steel prices have all risen around the world due to this...

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

just buy a complete control arm next time

broncoguy

??????? Umm, did I say something wrong ?????

DanNY

iTrader: (14)

i'm here...Jeff is here...don't worry goober we'll be ok.

jk

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

No.. Just an off-handed comment about how many people rely on a few veteran members here for everything. they wouldn't know how to change their oil if they didn't ask one of us OGs first.



Pyro, I was talking about the carrier bearing support bracket- where you remove the three bolts. often that piece rusts together in the middle and you can't remove the axle because of it.

the price of steel sucks.. I didn't even think about it being from the olympics and construction needed, but it makes sense. I just knew it was because the Chinese were buying all of the steel they could get their hands on and reselling it to the rest of the world at a huge profit. the price of steel for me has gone up about 160% in the last year. some of the steel that used to cost me $2.50/foot is now running me $6.50/foot!

edit: and yes, your interpretation is dead-on. I didn't feel like writing it out in great detail, but it would probably save some time if I did.

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

broncoguy

Understood. I suppose it's probably cool for a while having everyone go to you guys as "the answer men", but I can see how it could get tiresome after a while. I moderate over on teamnse.com for Stanzas, and there's a lot of the same questions over and over.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

any more of these smilie only posts and it'll look like OT on MAX-WORLD

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

where you think they came from?

bvtran

iTrader: (3)

I've done this before, it's one of the more challenging project for a rust-infested car. There are two tubes associated with the upper bush, outer tube and inner. The outer tube can be removed by either using a press if you wanted to put up with the hassles or using a hammer and slap your new bush in with outer tube attached right over the old one (assuming you're using polyuranthe bushings, rubber bush might not survive the beatings). The inner tube is a real itch to get off. I mean f....itch... I'd tried just about every rust penetrants out there, nothing worked. I'd even tried heating it up with a blow torch (NOT recommended), super large grippy lock plier (whatever they're called), hammer beating, etc.... Nothing worked. However, what worked for me was sanding it down with a rotary device and I was able to put the new bush right over. If worst comes, just forget about removing the old inner tube. Just sand it down enough so you could pop your new kit over. Another suggestions, don't torch anything while they're still attached to the vechicle. You got petroleum lube everywhere under the hood. Just a little bit of heats will set various parts on fire. I was ultra careful when I heated up the inner tube but somehow heats were exchanged to my axle and it burned my freaking boots. Lucky me, I was able to put out the fire. Trust me if you can't get the inner tube off, then forget about play with fires and forget getting it off.

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

Theres always and and
















(I had the same problem with mine, the trick is to just pull the whole control arm down, over and over. Eventually it will move just slightly, do it over and over again and it will get easier and easier, then you can just pull it off ).


edit: damn, Danny beat me to it

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

I see some white in that smilie that shouldnt be there

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

They came from OT

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

Matt is hiding at MAX-WORLD too now?

DanNY

iTrader: (14)

back on to topic...if you have a dremel/rotary tool...

use the cutter and make 2 cuts along the bushing. the get a prybar/cheap screwdriver and hammer it between the bushing and the stud that holds it on. peel it like a banana. once that's done get a pipe wrench and go to town.

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

he lurks

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

Matt=

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

And Danny, I dont think that will work if he hasn't seperated the bushing yet.