Hey guys! New guy on the forum, but not to nissans. I have a question about an 89 Max I'm rebuilding for a gal friend of my wife's. Here's the deal...it's getting new clutch, suspension all around, and a few other this and thats. I have run into a snag that just doesn't seem right. The forward front control arm mounts are welded to the frame. Is this a normal thing? I'm having a problem getting the control arm off, and was going to just unbolt the mount and have at it with a BFH. I was considering cutting the weld with a die grinder, but wanted to make sure I should before I did.

...Discuss.

 

Welded to the frame?? Where? can you posts some pics of this?

 

Yeah, I'm dumbfounded. They are welded the full length of the forward control arm mount on the inboard side of the mount. My thoughts are that the frame may be slightly tweaked or balljoints were bad, and they couldn't get the camber correct, so they wallered out the bolt holes, set the alignment, and welded the dang things in place as well as putting the bolts in.

I can get pics, but it's just too dark right now, and they'd come out like poo....well at least like poo without that refreshing feeling of releaf.

 

I will transfer your original post and following posts into a new thread, so tomorrow you can posts some pics. I'm curious as to what some dumbass done to this car.

 

In it for pics...

 

Hey, I appreciate the move, bro! I'll try and get some pics up asap, my buddy just pulled up, maybe he can help figure this crap out.

 

Stick a lamp under the car and snap a pic for us,lol

 

lol...really want to see pics now.....

 

there's 6 bolts. what you see is just a couple of the bolts. you have to remove the whole piece, not just the welded part.

i have my camera

pics in a sec.

 

welded stuff:


the whole picture


to get the control arm mount off you have to take off all the bolts, most of which are located in the 'swiss cheese holes' you see near the swaybar bushing area. not just those 2 in the front of the gusset.

this is the way they come from the factory. rsxse just didn't know the WHOLE damn gusset was the mount, rather than that little piece they weld to the rest of the gusset.

 

lol, i get what he was asking now..

Oh well, maybe some car pics?

 

Right on, man, I'm really glad I didn't break out the die grinder now!

Well I ended up just burning out the bushing on the control arm, then heated up the sleeve that was inside the bushing, shot it with some PB, more heat, gave it a few twists with some channelocks, and she came right off. easy peasy, right...

 

don't forget to get rid of the ring that went OUTSIDE the old rubber bushing... should still be stuck in your control arm. PITA to get out the way i went about it....

 

I just did my control arms this weekend, I used a 3 arm puller to yank the arms off because I didn't feel comfortable burning the rubber out. It worked great and even pulled off the inner sleeve of my passenger side arm.