Hey guys I need some help. My control arm(passenger side) went out on me and I already bought the part. I was wondering how easy or difficult it is to remove the existing arm and replace the control arm. If anyone could give me instructions I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

 

How did it "go out"?

Unless you whacked a curb and bent the **** out of it, the only thing that really goes out is the bushings.

It's an easy job if you have a haynes/chilton.

Takes 45mins-1 hour taking your time, make sure you have a breaker bar.

 

Well I think that it is just the bushing but the dealership only sold it as a unit( the enitre arm) not just the bushing. My wheel was acting up and the wheel was moving by itself and turning the steering wheel so I had to constantly adjust the steering while driving until I blew a tire due to the pressure from the leaniong tire. Well thanks for the info. i do have a breaker bar so I guess I will give it a shot. So you know what type of other tools could be usuful?

 

You can get control arm bushings from energy suspension. Or if you're talking about the balljoint you can get that from carquest. I replaced all my control arm bushings and both balljoints in my max a little over a month ago. I work in a shop so I had access to the right equipment to do the balljoints. I guarentee you won't be able to do them without a torch, air hammer, and balljoint press

 

140$ for a new control arm from pinnaclenissan ... As low as 90$ on ebay.

I needed to replace my entire unit since teh curb > me.

If you have the extra money, you can do it at home with normal tools, (w/o press etc)

But if not, take it to a shop, and get only the bushings and ball joint replaced.

 

**cough* *cogh**$78 shipped ebay* *cough*

You'll need a torque wrench so you know you've bolted everything to spec. some type of penetrating lube should help out a lot. Inspect your axles before doing the work if there is no visible leak you may not need to put a new axle seal on.

and jack stands to load the suspension before you bolt the knuckle down.

 

I didn't have to mess with the axle at all (as per Haynes)... But then again I paid nearly twice as much for my unit

 

no you dont, sorry I was thinking you have to do what I need to do, control arm and axle at the same time. . . . got a little mixed up.

 

Everything but the ball joint is cake as far as taking off the CA. Instead of using a "ball joint remover" I used the tried and true beat the knuckle with a hammer method. This also works for the tie rod end. For the ball joint I had to heat up the surrounding knuckle metal a tad to make it break free.

 

Pickle Fork

 

Here's a write-up on how to replace the LCA

credit: Nick

http://maxima.cardomain.com/ride/348507/15

 

Wow, this reminds me of my thread from a month back....

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....26256&posted=1

I finally put both of my LCAs on over the weekend. Didn't use the instructions or the how tos that I downloaded. Everything was very intuitive. I highly recommend that you rent the pickle fork and have a couple cotter pins ready. Also, to help reduce time, gather up all tools beforehand including the breaker bar. Our total time was three hours. This includes running to the parts store for the pins and fork.

Good Luck...