ES LCA Bushing install
ES LCA Bushing install
I never really found a definitive install how to, so after doing it, i thought id post one to give back to the org!
Tools:
-Impact gun helps ALOT, but not neccesary
-1/2" Ratchet with 17,19MM, 22MM, 27MM, 36MM
-6" Extension + Universal joint(Friction ball style)
-Side cutters + Needle nose pliars
-Moderately sized hammer (4LB worked good)
-Brazing torch + pry bar or some tool with a large blade
-Hacksaw
-12MM, 14MM, 17mm wrench
-Breaker bar
-Torque wrench 1/2"
1.So start out by putting the car on jackstands, always use jackstands in a pair, never trust a floor jack on its own
2.Remove wheel
3.Remove the 2 17/19MM bolts that hold the strut housing to the knuckle, Dont remove the bolt yet, just take off the nut and leave it in.
4.Remove cotter pin on tie rod end, remove the 19mm castle nut. You should replace the castle nuts on the Balljoint and tie rod
5. Soak the tie rod with penetrating fluid, let it sit for ~10 minutes, now grab your hammer, and hit the side of the knuckle where the tie rod goes in. Dont thread the nut on and hammer it, you'll pose a risk of destroying the threads, and or nut. Trust me i know. It'll pop out after a couple of good hits! Mine had never been seperated in 220K miles and it came out after 5-6 hits
6.Remove the 36mm axle nut. Remove the cotter pin first, i used an impact, but you might need to do this while there is weight on the wheel. Remove this, carefully push it out of the steering knuckle. You may want to thread the 36 back on and tap it out with a hammer. Make sure the axle doesnt pop out of the tranny when you let it hang!
7. remove the sway bar link from the LCA. Before you go and ruin your sway bar link; put a 14mm wrench on the actual link, then pull off the 14mm holding it to the LCA. The top one is a 14mm too, it holds the link to the swaybar, use the 12mm wrench to stop it from spinning. Just loosen this one to the top, dont fully remove the nut
8. Take off the 2 14mm bolts that secure the sway bar to the subframe.
9. Remove the cotter pin on the ball joint, and use a 19mm socket to remove the nut. Soak it in penetrating fluid, let it sit. Hammer it from the side, underneath, whatever, but dont hit the threads, when you strike it from the side the force oblongates the hole and it should pop off. Put a jackstand underneath the control arm because it will drop abit.
10. Congrats, the control arm is almost off.
11. Get underneath the car, you should see 6 22MM bolts. They are torqued down to 108ft.lbs, so a breakerbar is all you'll need. Warning. The 3 bolts that secure the pivot arm (closest to the back), strip easy, ask me how i know. Again, MARK THE BOLTS. On the pivot arm, one bolt is shorter then the other 2, if you put the wrong one in the wrong hole, you will strip it.
12. Your control arm should just come off. If you dont have an impact, beofre you take off the 6 22mm bolts, break loose the 27MM bolt on the control arm.
13. Go start your torch and start the burning process, its long, smelly, and boring, unless you like fire like myself, just heat it up, and poke at it with the pry bar till it starts to burn off. You dont have to be overly careful about damaging the shaft where the bushings go, because there are metal sleeves from the OEM bushings.
14. After you burn out both bushings, you will use your hacksaw/dremel tool to cut off the metal sleeves from the OEM bushings. Carefully cut a grove into them, the pivot shaft is easy it just slides off, the other one is a little more difficult, you'll have to dissasemble the hack saw to get the blade in then cut and hammer out. I used a 27mm socket to press out the old bushing after i cut a line into it.
15. Go clean up the arm, if you undercoat it, make sure you let it sit overnight to dry or it will make a huge mess.
16. UNpack your ES bushings, you dont need a press, a bench vice will work fine. Lube up any part of the bushing that will contact the metal. Line up the bushings, use the vice to press them in, put the metal sleeve in. Press on the pivot shaft bushing the flat rounded one.
17. Make sure you have 2 washers on either side of the bushing on the front. Install reverse of removal, tie rod and ball joint get torqued 41-65ft.lbs, the 6 22mms get torqued to 108ft.lbs, the 27mm gets torqued to 108ft.lbs, put cotter pins back everywhere that had one previously, the 36mm gets torqued to 231ft.lbs, sway bar/link 18-22ft.lbs IIRC.
18. That should be it, those 6 22mm bolts strip VERY easy, so thread them in by hand, all the way, if they dont go in by hand, turn the bolt backwards till you feel a couple clicks then try. for such a large bolt, they are so easy to strip, and its not fun it they do. but if they do read step 19.
19. So you stripped it, dont worry its not new subframe time. You have two/three choices. 1) Go buy a M14x1.5 tap and try recover the threads. If it works, it works, if not, move onto 2. 2). Go buy a M14X1.5 Heli-coil set. It will include the M14x1.50 Tap, helicoils and insertion tool. Im not sure what they run, but we have htem at work so i used the shop tool, you'll need a 9/16" drill bit, which will run you another 10$. 3). Go to your fastener store, and pick up a M16x1.5 which is one size up, drill out the hole with the according size 37/64th i believe? not sure, you will also need the M16X1.50 tap. I was quoted 60$ for the tap, so i decided to use a helicoil. Last resort, would be to tackweld the plate to the frame, this would be a last resort for me, just in case, but i think i might do a couple tack welds, just to be on the safe side.
Believe it or not, for those of you who know what helicoils look like, they are stronger then the original threads, apparently with some reading, the nuts welded in there, loose there strength once the heat from the weld is applied. Hence the reason why they strip kinda easy. We used helicoils on the block/heads in our school race car with no ill effect. They were re-torqued so many times too!
Oh, make sure you get a grade 10 bolt too. Any M14X1.5 bolt that says 10.9 is a grade 10 bolt. 8.8 is about a grade 5ish bolt, i think stock is grade 6-7, but stronger is always better. If a 8.8 is all you can find, it "Should" be okay, but take it with a grain of salt.
All in all, it was definately worth it, i had a timing cover leak on one side for probably 6 years, which destroyed my p/s LCA, the d/s had my tranny leaking gear oil on it for like 10 years. The car feels so much tighter. My whole front end overhaul is complete now, ive done motor mounts, LCA's, sway bushings, links, subframe bushings, coilovers, strut isolaters, mounts, bearings etc. Just fixing stuff now! Have a rattle i need to track down.
Ill be posting up pictures tomorrow, its too late now!
Enjoy, if you see anything that doesnt seem right, just point it out and ill address it, very tired!
Tools:
-Impact gun helps ALOT, but not neccesary
-1/2" Ratchet with 17,19MM, 22MM, 27MM, 36MM
-6" Extension + Universal joint(Friction ball style)
-Side cutters + Needle nose pliars
-Moderately sized hammer (4LB worked good)
-Brazing torch + pry bar or some tool with a large blade
-Hacksaw
-12MM, 14MM, 17mm wrench
-Breaker bar
-Torque wrench 1/2"
1.So start out by putting the car on jackstands, always use jackstands in a pair, never trust a floor jack on its own
2.Remove wheel
3.Remove the 2 17/19MM bolts that hold the strut housing to the knuckle, Dont remove the bolt yet, just take off the nut and leave it in.
4.Remove cotter pin on tie rod end, remove the 19mm castle nut. You should replace the castle nuts on the Balljoint and tie rod
5. Soak the tie rod with penetrating fluid, let it sit for ~10 minutes, now grab your hammer, and hit the side of the knuckle where the tie rod goes in. Dont thread the nut on and hammer it, you'll pose a risk of destroying the threads, and or nut. Trust me i know. It'll pop out after a couple of good hits! Mine had never been seperated in 220K miles and it came out after 5-6 hits
6.Remove the 36mm axle nut. Remove the cotter pin first, i used an impact, but you might need to do this while there is weight on the wheel. Remove this, carefully push it out of the steering knuckle. You may want to thread the 36 back on and tap it out with a hammer. Make sure the axle doesnt pop out of the tranny when you let it hang!
7. remove the sway bar link from the LCA. Before you go and ruin your sway bar link; put a 14mm wrench on the actual link, then pull off the 14mm holding it to the LCA. The top one is a 14mm too, it holds the link to the swaybar, use the 12mm wrench to stop it from spinning. Just loosen this one to the top, dont fully remove the nut
8. Take off the 2 14mm bolts that secure the sway bar to the subframe.
9. Remove the cotter pin on the ball joint, and use a 19mm socket to remove the nut. Soak it in penetrating fluid, let it sit. Hammer it from the side, underneath, whatever, but dont hit the threads, when you strike it from the side the force oblongates the hole and it should pop off. Put a jackstand underneath the control arm because it will drop abit.
10. Congrats, the control arm is almost off.
11. Get underneath the car, you should see 6 22MM bolts. They are torqued down to 108ft.lbs, so a breakerbar is all you'll need. Warning. The 3 bolts that secure the pivot arm (closest to the back), strip easy, ask me how i know. Again, MARK THE BOLTS. On the pivot arm, one bolt is shorter then the other 2, if you put the wrong one in the wrong hole, you will strip it.
12. Your control arm should just come off. If you dont have an impact, beofre you take off the 6 22mm bolts, break loose the 27MM bolt on the control arm.
13. Go start your torch and start the burning process, its long, smelly, and boring, unless you like fire like myself, just heat it up, and poke at it with the pry bar till it starts to burn off. You dont have to be overly careful about damaging the shaft where the bushings go, because there are metal sleeves from the OEM bushings.
14. After you burn out both bushings, you will use your hacksaw/dremel tool to cut off the metal sleeves from the OEM bushings. Carefully cut a grove into them, the pivot shaft is easy it just slides off, the other one is a little more difficult, you'll have to dissasemble the hack saw to get the blade in then cut and hammer out. I used a 27mm socket to press out the old bushing after i cut a line into it.
15. Go clean up the arm, if you undercoat it, make sure you let it sit overnight to dry or it will make a huge mess.
16. UNpack your ES bushings, you dont need a press, a bench vice will work fine. Lube up any part of the bushing that will contact the metal. Line up the bushings, use the vice to press them in, put the metal sleeve in. Press on the pivot shaft bushing the flat rounded one.
17. Make sure you have 2 washers on either side of the bushing on the front. Install reverse of removal, tie rod and ball joint get torqued 41-65ft.lbs, the 6 22mms get torqued to 108ft.lbs, the 27mm gets torqued to 108ft.lbs, put cotter pins back everywhere that had one previously, the 36mm gets torqued to 231ft.lbs, sway bar/link 18-22ft.lbs IIRC.
18. That should be it, those 6 22mm bolts strip VERY easy, so thread them in by hand, all the way, if they dont go in by hand, turn the bolt backwards till you feel a couple clicks then try. for such a large bolt, they are so easy to strip, and its not fun it they do. but if they do read step 19.
19. So you stripped it, dont worry its not new subframe time. You have two/three choices. 1) Go buy a M14x1.5 tap and try recover the threads. If it works, it works, if not, move onto 2. 2). Go buy a M14X1.5 Heli-coil set. It will include the M14x1.50 Tap, helicoils and insertion tool. Im not sure what they run, but we have htem at work so i used the shop tool, you'll need a 9/16" drill bit, which will run you another 10$. 3). Go to your fastener store, and pick up a M16x1.5 which is one size up, drill out the hole with the according size 37/64th i believe? not sure, you will also need the M16X1.50 tap. I was quoted 60$ for the tap, so i decided to use a helicoil. Last resort, would be to tackweld the plate to the frame, this would be a last resort for me, just in case, but i think i might do a couple tack welds, just to be on the safe side.
Believe it or not, for those of you who know what helicoils look like, they are stronger then the original threads, apparently with some reading, the nuts welded in there, loose there strength once the heat from the weld is applied. Hence the reason why they strip kinda easy. We used helicoils on the block/heads in our school race car with no ill effect. They were re-torqued so many times too!
Oh, make sure you get a grade 10 bolt too. Any M14X1.5 bolt that says 10.9 is a grade 10 bolt. 8.8 is about a grade 5ish bolt, i think stock is grade 6-7, but stronger is always better. If a 8.8 is all you can find, it "Should" be okay, but take it with a grain of salt.
All in all, it was definately worth it, i had a timing cover leak on one side for probably 6 years, which destroyed my p/s LCA, the d/s had my tranny leaking gear oil on it for like 10 years. The car feels so much tighter. My whole front end overhaul is complete now, ive done motor mounts, LCA's, sway bushings, links, subframe bushings, coilovers, strut isolaters, mounts, bearings etc. Just fixing stuff now! Have a rattle i need to track down.
Ill be posting up pictures tomorrow, its too late now!
Enjoy, if you see anything that doesnt seem right, just point it out and ill address it, very tired!
Last edited by 96blkonblkse; Feb 18, 2009 at 12:45 AM.
Senior Member
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 415
It took me an hour to remove both LCA's. Took them over to a shop and had them install new ball joints. That took about an hour. Then 1.5 hours to put back together. Then had to get alligned. I bought a liftime alignment so all my alignments are free now. THe cost was about $150 for the liftime.
That saved me because i had to replace wheel bearings once and then axles once, so i came out ahead on the alignments.
I did this with an impact gun and an air wratchet, on my driveway. Goda have airtools.
That saved me because i had to replace wheel bearings once and then axles once, so i came out ahead on the alignments.
I did this with an impact gun and an air wratchet, on my driveway. Goda have airtools.
Yeah, its honestly not that big of a job, if all goes well. The passenger side took me about 3-4 hours and that includes the 1.5hours i left it to dry after undercoating it. Drivers side took me about 2 hours from the minute i took off my lug nuts to putting them back on. Then the car was down for awhile as i continued my search for a M14x1.50 helicoil set.
Id say after doing my set, i could probably replicate the job for both sides in 2-3 hours.
Id say after doing my set, i could probably replicate the job for both sides in 2-3 hours.
bookmarked for future refernece. My set is still siting in my garage waiting for install.
thanks.
Very complete write up. I love it when members list the socket sizes to use. Not everyone has a full tool kit including 27mm sockets. lol
thanks.
Very complete write up. I love it when members list the socket sizes to use. Not everyone has a full tool kit including 27mm sockets. lol
Newbie - Just Registered
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 7
Hi,
Nice job... can you post information on the replacement bushings ?
Did the oil leak kill the middle or rear passenger side bushings ?
Also... have you posted the pictures (I can't find them).
Thanks again for your excellent work.
Nice job... can you post information on the replacement bushings ?
Did the oil leak kill the middle or rear passenger side bushings ?
Also... have you posted the pictures (I can't find them).
Thanks again for your excellent work.
Member
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 46
From: Eastern Va.
Am getting ready to tackle this project in about a week. Thanks for listing the required tools. Quite basic. Picked up a set of LCAs off the net for $118. Probably made in China, but hey, what the Hell.
Last edited by kolbpilot; Jul 11, 2010 at 06:46 PM.
spray some rust preventative on them this will help in the longevity of them, they are oem so doing this is not a bad idea at all
Member
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 199
From: Bolton, CT
Nice level of detail on the write up!
Since I just replaced my LCAs recently, I'd like to add a point or two.
I noticed after getting the six bolts that hold the control arm out (had to use the four foot handle from my floor jack on my 1/2" ratchet to do it), that the bolts have a "disturbed" thread which is why they wreak so much havoc on the nut threads as they come out. I suspect the control arms are mounted to the subframe first, at the factory, and then they disturb the threads to ensure they will never come out. The disruption looks like the kind of feature you would see on a self-tapping bolt but without the one sharp cutting edge.
Also, I wonder if it's wise to lubricate the interface between the rubber bushing and the control arm? After all this is an active part of the suspension and I've always been led to believe that any motion beween the two parts is bad. A bushing made that way and oriented as it is is relying on the torsion created between the two parts to perform it's magic. It is also the reason why the manual instructs you to tighten the bolts with the weight back on the suspension.
Since I just replaced my LCAs recently, I'd like to add a point or two.
I noticed after getting the six bolts that hold the control arm out (had to use the four foot handle from my floor jack on my 1/2" ratchet to do it), that the bolts have a "disturbed" thread which is why they wreak so much havoc on the nut threads as they come out. I suspect the control arms are mounted to the subframe first, at the factory, and then they disturb the threads to ensure they will never come out. The disruption looks like the kind of feature you would see on a self-tapping bolt but without the one sharp cutting edge.
Also, I wonder if it's wise to lubricate the interface between the rubber bushing and the control arm? After all this is an active part of the suspension and I've always been led to believe that any motion beween the two parts is bad. A bushing made that way and oriented as it is is relying on the torsion created between the two parts to perform it's magic. It is also the reason why the manual instructs you to tighten the bolts with the weight back on the suspension.
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,184
From: 92626
The bushings were great. Eliminated 95% of the wheel hop i had, the front end also felt much tighter and much more responsive.
I sold the car approximately a year and a half ago, and actually had the opportunity to drive it again. Felt just how i remembered it.
I would definately recommend air tools, the worst part about the job is getting the old bushings out, if i were to do it again, id just take it to my work and press the old ones out or pay someone to press them out.
I sold the car approximately a year and a half ago, and actually had the opportunity to drive it again. Felt just how i remembered it.
I would definately recommend air tools, the worst part about the job is getting the old bushings out, if i were to do it again, id just take it to my work and press the old ones out or pay someone to press them out.
The bushings were great. Eliminated 95% of the wheel hop i had, the front end also felt much tighter and much more responsive.
I would definately recommend air tools, the worst part about the job is getting the old bushings out, if i were to do it again, id just take it to my work and press the old ones out or pay someone to press them out.
I would definately recommend air tools, the worst part about the job is getting the old bushings out, if i were to do it again, id just take it to my work and press the old ones out or pay someone to press them out.
If you're just doing bushings, just set the old ones on fire and then scrape away whats left then put the new ones in.
/pic whoaring.
Last edited by aackshun; Oct 12, 2010 at 08:42 PM.
You have to love the southern climate and the lack of rust on parts. It kills me to see the underside of the western and southern Maximas. Working on a norther car makes for a lot of headaches with rusted bolts and parts. It adds about 100% more time to a job. aackshun, didn't you have to remove the outer metal sleeve of the OEM bushing before insterting the new ES bushing? I'm positive the outer diameter of the ES bushing is designed to have the sleeve removed from the LCA. I'd be surprised if it fit without removing the sleeve.
Last edited by toddemullins; Dec 22, 2010 at 09:58 AM.
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