So after spending $15 to get 2 new pivot rods at the junk yard, I attempted to replace my lower control arm again today. It was a cakewalk because I no longer have to deal with the hassle of removing the old one anymore. The process was pretty much painless compared to yesterday where I spent over 5 hours just to do one side.

I only did one side today because I had a couple of things to do but it only took me like an hour and a half.

You need to take the outer tie rod off along with the (2) 19mm nut & bolt holding the strut assembly off.



Remove the 36mm axle nut while the car is on the ground! Unless you have air tools. You're going to need a really big breaker bar for this



My work area. Notice the big-*** breaker bar



Here's what it should look like, when you're at this stage, now you can take the LCA assembly off. (6) 22mm bolts.



The left and right side are interchangeable. Do yourself a favor and buy these before hand, unless you feel like wasting time trying to get the old one off.



Everything is back together and running perfectly.

 

Looks good (like mine ). Glad it worked out for you, even with the similar troubles.

 

how difficult was it to take the silver piece off? Also I noticed you used a pitch fork. How was that. I got some new control arms myself. Just hesitant to do the job.

 

you could've left the axle in and took the ball joint nut off with a wrench. would've saved some time. glad you got it done though

 

If you read the post, it said I bought new (used) ones from the junk yard because it's such an aggravation to get them off. I even recommended that you buy them before replacing the LCA because it's not worth the hassle (First 2 sentences of the post).

Easy to say when you don't have the ball joint nut rusted to ****.

 

thanks for the answer. I'm not a newb. But thanks

 

must live in a snowy area. mn winters are eating my underbody too

 

Yea I gotta do mine soon. There creaking slowly

 

What brand of LCAs do most forum members buy?

I am currently looking at the brands on rockauto.com(Raybestos, Dorman, Mevotech, Deeza, and ACDelco). Which one of these is best? The pricier the better? I have managed to get 300k+ on my OEM LCAs...so, unless they are made differently...I can't go wrong with these.

What do you guys think?

I need to take care of both of mine, this coming week.

 

I just installed my LCA a few days ago with Mevotech units. About 50 bucks a piece, hell of alot cheaper then what autozone wanted for a single control arm at a hundred and fifteen dollars

 

Hey kroze what are those silver units called that were built into the oem LCA's I actuallly ran into a problem with those and had to reuse the old ones because new ones were not included in the new LCA set.

 

Those are pivot rods. They are not included with new LCAs because they are only made by Nissan, 54428M. If your OEM pivot rods aren't badly rusted then reuse them.

 

Good luck getting the old one off your LCA.

 

Just ordered my LCAs from FCP and planning on doing them this weekend if all goes well.

How hard is it with the axle on? Or is it better to take it all off for efficiency and more space?
Also, is that "pin link" silver piece fused to the LCA or should it come off easy by just prying it off the old one? I'm in Cali, so we don't really get rust, or snow or any other harmful mother nature related seizing component and if they're still good, I should be able to use them, correct? I have 260k on the clock and it's just been creaking bad due to the bushings.

Thanks! And again, nice write up! I'm definitely gonna be using this for mine!

Also, did you get an alignment done after the install?

 

I did mine a couple weeks ago. Driver side I took the axle out because I couldn't get a bite on the ball joint nut. Passenger side I got the nut off and left the axle in. My pivot rods took a 3ft pipe wrench and a monster vise to separate the sleeve from the rod. I ended up ordering new ones, I did get the old ones off so they're perfectly useable, I'd be willing to sell them. I can get pictures of them tonight. If you've got a good size vice and a good way to bite on the sleeve and some good penetrating oil you should be able to re-use your pivot rods. Definitely need an alignment after replacing LCAs, gotta do that with any major suspension work.

 

Thanks for the detailed info, will be useful when i try to replace mine

 

Yes you'll need an alignment. But if I were you, I would replace everything (Lower Control arms, inner/outer tie rods, sway bar endlinks, shocks & struts) and THEN do an alignment

 

What brand control arms did you buy and hows the ride now?

 

I got it for cheap on ebay and it's riding like a brand new car.

 

Wow, lucky guy!
Man, I cannot wait to get my new parts installed. Bought monroe sensa tracs and tein h techs, was just waiting for the dough to buy brand name control arms (ACDelco has lifetime warranty) dunno if any other brand offers that. As per your advice will also buy inner/outer tie rods, sway bar endlinks in the next couple weeks and then its gonna be a fun ride back from the shop, yes yess

 

brand of control arms dont make a difference...they dont make "performance" control arms for our cars like others....you can get a complete setup of lcas with balljoints sway bar links inner and outter tierod ends on ebay for 110 shipped BRAND NEW...ive used them on my 5th gen before and had NO problems with them,there is a thread going on here somewhere abotu snomax control arms,they have difference bushings etc etc in them and are about 100 each i believe regardless a control is a control arm....theres no way youre going to break one easily unless you run over curbs and whatnot...

 

Can't agree with that, The quality of control arms do differ. I replaced my control arms with an ebay set, don't remember the brand (red/blue box?). Not too long after that the passenger side started separate at the spot welds, then cracking and then caused the end/bottom half where the ball joint is to completely snap off. Ended up just getting an oem set at the junkyard and just replaced all the bushing myself. Not saying all replacement control arms are junk but they are definitely not the same quality.

 

Good to know, i was a bit leery at buying those cheap ones, i'll get a cheap branded one off rockauto, you get what you pay for.

 

nice job there broo

 

Guy at NAPA said that some brand was OEM...can't remember the name of them. Had 8 at the end.

 

would love to know this brand

 

Altram Ultra 8

 

Im gonna be doing both my LCA's soon and I had a question.

1- When do you take off the pivot rod head bolt? I haven seen anyone mention when to do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTIePKbH3hY

^^^^ This guy shows how to take out the whole LCA but doesnt show how to take off that nut.
Any advice is much appreciated.

 

If you're using an impact you'd probably want to do it after (clearance issues), if you're using strictly hand tools you're probably going to want to do it with it bolted on the car so it doesn't shift around on you. If you have a vice handy you don't have to really worry about taking the nut off first, however.

 

oh ok, theres clearance issues with this nut, I might be using a combination of both hand and impact tools. good to know. Good info, Thanks

 

Nice work kroze.

Removing the pivot rod from the old control arm is nearly impossible without the right weapons.

Just a note to people ready to buy replacement control arms:

Before you buy the eBay specials consider the cost of a decent ball joint, then decide if there's any chance that special deal has a decent ball joint.

I don't doubt they'll ride like new for a few months.

 

Yeah, Ill probably buy some used pivot rods.... I heard FCP Import has some pretty decent LCA's even at $40 a pair....

 

Does anyone know what the torque spec is for the front axel nut? and how do you tighten it? put the spare tire on, put the car on the ground then tighten?

 

From what I remember the axle nut requires a torque of 200 ft/lb. To tighten it you'll have to throw on that spare tire and then lower it alright. To get that torque you'll need at least a 36" breaker bar. That's all I needed but if you're not a weight lifter like myself then try sliding a hollow bar over the breaker bar to get more torque.

EDIT: I only needed a 24" breaker bar to fully tighten those axle nuts.

 

Cool, I was thinking it was about 200lb. I have my jack lift bar its like 5 ft long, I think that should do it lol .Thanks....

 

Finally did this last week, I had a impact gun so it was pretty smooth. I didnt have to take out the axel nut which was huge.... literally.... the only problem that I encountered was the actual ball joint removal. I had literally(again) everything unbolted and the whole control arm was hanging from the ball joint that would NOT come off the steering knuckle....

For anyone attempting to do this, I advise to get/rent a PICKLE FORK! to remove the ball joint. its suggested that you can just hit the knuckle and the ball joint will just come loose.... I hit that sucker like 10 times with a 4 lb hammer and nothing! I actually put the whole control arm back together and went to rent a fork from Autozone, sucked but well worth it in the end....

get everything that the OP list and thats in his pictures, impact gun helps a ton! and get that fork.... besides that, any problem that you encounter can be handled with simple tools....

Good luck and Thanks to the OP and all the people who contributed to this thread, I couldnt have done it without you guys....

 

Your one of the lucky ones who didn't have to slide the axle out to remove the ball joint nut. That nut was so badly rusted it wouldn't move with an open end wrench. After sliding the axle out I had to use the breaker bar to loosen that ball joint nut. The pickle fork at autozone was low priced so I ended up purchasing it for future use.

 

ive changed both the LCA without loosening the wheel. i had a lift. are there some reason, other than youve got more room, that you are loosening the hub or???

 

Loosening the hub makes it easier, not only for more space, but better access to torque down the balljoint. I have done it both ways before and this is DEFINITELY the more hassle-free way. I am currently swapping out the entire front end (LCA, CV shafts, bushing pins, tie rod ends, sway bar end-links, and coil-over suspension) from my old max to the new one. Removing the axle nut has made it incredibly easier. Now back out in the heat to finish.

 

Going to bump this up...

I'm hearing a creaking/knocking noise from my driver side when I turn on uneven surface at low speeds. It's not my axles for sure. I know my LCA bushing is completely shot. I was thinking about replacing the LCA because of the pressed in bushing.