Like I said before, I had done this last summer, so the details are kind of fuzzy to me. As best as I can remember it, you will need to remove your brake caliper and support it properly, and you DO NOT need to remove the ball joint's castle nut (the one with the pin going through it) unless you are also replacing the ball joint, in that case, loosen then castle nut first, then remove the lower three bolts. You will only need to remove the bottom 3 bolts from the ball joint, then kind of pry the control arm down ward and clear it from the ball joint, then remove the giant forward facing nut that is at the tip of the gusset that holds the control arm in place, then use a deep socket and an air impact wrench to get the bolts holding the control arm bracket towards the rear, notice which bolts goes where, as I think they are of different sizes. Then the fun part begins, begin by cutting across the control arm pivot point with a dremel tool, using heavy duty cutting disks and applying medium pressure (should should only go through about 1-2 disks) where the gusset is sticking through it, it will literally spring open when it is cut (you WILL need a dust mask and goggles when doing this, also, wear long sleeve shirt and pants as molten rubber will be flying all over the place), once you got that done, just wiggle on the control arm until it comes lose, if you are havin a bit of trouble here, just fire up the torch and concentrate on the trouble spot only, keeping the flame about half an inch from the surface (if you want to be extra careful, then place a thick notebook or metal sheet right behind the part that is getting heat blasted (just to keep area behind that cool, if the notebook starts to catch fire, pull the flame away until it no longer burns the notebook.) After that, what should still remain on the gusset should be the inner part of the control arm bushing, you have two choices here, burn and scrape the rubber off until the metal is exposed, or just cut through the rubber with a dremel. I recommend option 1. after the metal is exposed, use the dremel tool again to cut diagonal lines on the metal surface (what you want to do here is make slightly deep cut, close together so that it will form a notch on the surface of the metal, do it on both sides, then finally, use your air hammer and a V shape chisel attachedment and blast the little pesky metal O off of the gusset and you're done.

Forgot to mention:

you will need
- a set of hex metric wrenches (avoid the 12 points one), the quality kind
-hammer (may not even touch it, but having it in the vicinity is always good)
-cheater bar (same as above)
-band aids :-)

 

does it matter if it comes of an se vs a gxe?

 

Check on ebay - I got a nice set of NEW Cntrl arms on there for a damn decent price.

 

nope, theres no point in buying used arms.
new ones are too cheap

 

I did the same damn thing in the rain once. Someone cut me off and I hit the curb and bent my control arm on the front passenger side. That probably all that it is. Just your control arm. And you need to stop driving that thing before you end up having to buy a couple of tires. You are wearing down you tread on your tires because it's pulling.

 

yer i know.. only places it goes is to the mechanic and back (they are close)
im going to look at a rear ended maxima on saturday and gonna get some parts off that (timing ) hopefully it will just be the control arm...

 

CHEAP??????

A new control arm in Perth (aus) was gonna set me back around $450. Im gonna go look at a 93 maxima today that was rear ended. Hopefully the control arms in that are still good (dude only wants $50 per arm)

 

I don't know how much shipping would be from Chicago, but Brian sells them for 62.50 each...

 

likely your control arm and possibly some suspension links are bent - usually your knuckle will not bend, it will snap and break if it is damaged

look for cracks or missing pieces of the knuckle (the upper & lower control arms attach to it) They're pretty stout and usually don't get damaged, but its all worth inspecting since you'll have it all off!

Good luck!

 

My wife bent the control arm on her old 92 SE once. She slid on ice going around a roundabout. She claims she was only going about 10mph tops but she managed to bend it good enough that the tire was rubbing against the fender. I replaced the control arm and not 2 months later she totals the car. Lol, the funny thing is we replaced that Max with an identical looking all the way down to the color '91 SE. This one's an auto though so she's much happier. It only has half the miles of the '92 too.

 

I got a quote from a local mechanic. apparent control arms for nissan maximas are extremely expensive down under..

i got my 2nd hand one yesterday, looks ok now all i gotta do is fit it.
it was actually pretty funny, we got to the wrecker and there is the car, exactly the same as my one right down to the color

 

Strip it for everything you want!
car should look like this : When you leave

 

I did almost the same thing going 35 mph my front passenger side tire blew
and the only thing i could do to stop from hitting the car infront of me was to jump the curb and take out a sign =/
I bent both control arms 2 places are saying its going to be about $600 for both. I would try to fix it myself but i dont have the tools or even a place to do it.

 

I'll bet $400 or so of that is parts
buy a couple of arms off of me and you'll cut that part cost in 1/3rd

 

i bought my transferlink and gusset for 20 dollars and it fixed it, took me about an hour to swap them out