- Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:08 pm
#23169
I dunno if anyones done this yet but I just did mine with little suspension experience and it came out ok. It took me a lot longer to do it than it should have but I came up with some short cuts. I bought a pair of Wicked Tuning arms. They look great, come in different colors, and are fully adj for a fair price. Plus the company is decent and backs their product. About $90 on ebay. Skunk2 of the same variety are a lot more. Its raining today so I took a few pics of the manual and a few random pics to simplify. And, of course, if you mess up Im not responsible.
You'll want these things to make life easy:
An air wrench or impact with a 14mm fitting (to make it easier) You can use wrenches and ratchets but if you have access to air tools use them.
14mm wrenches
Spare cotter pins in case your kit doesn't have em
17mm wrenches and sockets
A jack to jack up your car and jack stands
Tie rod puller(dunno why its named that) from advanced auto
Or you can use a two jaw puller but good luck finding one. It took half my day to locate something that I could use.
1.Moving on! After you have your car up and on stands and the wheels off, you'll have this to look at. Remove the cotter pin underneath the castle nut. Heres a pic of the nut.
2.Now use your jack to support the back end of the assembly behind the rotor. You dont need to lift it much, just enough to support it a bit.
3. Loosen, BUT DO NOT REMOVE the castle nut with a 17mm wrench. Separate the upper control arm from the steering knuckle with the use of the puller. Jam it between the ball joint boot and twist the rod up until its pushing on the bottom of the ball joint stud. After a bit you'll hear and see it separate. At this point stop and remove the puller. I you continue you will either bend the stud or screwup the threads! Heres a pic of a two jaw puller just as a reference for what needs to be done.
4. Grab the now loosened assembly and pull them apart. The jack should support the weight of the lower half and the upper control arm should be hanging by itself.
5. Now in order to have any usable space to disconnect the arms, you need to disconnect the mounts from the inside of the engine bay. My friend and I found this out by default and the manual mentions nothing of it. Mark these two nuts and their position with a marker so you can set them back properly when you put it back together. Use a 17mm ratchet set. You might have to tap on the top of the studs to disconnect them. The mounts for the arms are now easier to get to. Heres a pic from the engine bay.
6. After those are loosened mess with the free arm and set it so you can loosen the rubber mounts. Use a 14mm wrench to hold the inside nuts in place and loosen the bolts from the outsides with an impact or air wrench. If you try to man handle them, the rubber mounts will rip. Remember when reinstalling this stuff to the new control arms, you need to have the nuts on the inside and the bolt facing outside or it'll be messed up. Heres a pic.
7. Now, most kits come with new cotter pins and castle nuts. Use all the new stuff, dont be cheap and reuse the old junk. You'll pay for it later. You can save the arms and reuse them later sometime if you were careful when removing them and the boots weren't damaged. Now work in reverse. If you work fast you can have each side done in 40 min or less. I am slow, so it took me longer. Heres some pics of what the new ones should look like. Adj the sliding mount to the middle and take your car to an alignment shop that knows this setup. Use 8mm allen wrenches to tighten the bolts down before you drop the car!.
I blab alot as many of you know so that turned out to be long. Hope this helps someone!
You'll want these things to make life easy:
An air wrench or impact with a 14mm fitting (to make it easier) You can use wrenches and ratchets but if you have access to air tools use them.
14mm wrenches
Spare cotter pins in case your kit doesn't have em
17mm wrenches and sockets
A jack to jack up your car and jack stands
Tie rod puller(dunno why its named that) from advanced auto
Or you can use a two jaw puller but good luck finding one. It took half my day to locate something that I could use.
1.Moving on! After you have your car up and on stands and the wheels off, you'll have this to look at. Remove the cotter pin underneath the castle nut. Heres a pic of the nut.
2.Now use your jack to support the back end of the assembly behind the rotor. You dont need to lift it much, just enough to support it a bit.
3. Loosen, BUT DO NOT REMOVE the castle nut with a 17mm wrench. Separate the upper control arm from the steering knuckle with the use of the puller. Jam it between the ball joint boot and twist the rod up until its pushing on the bottom of the ball joint stud. After a bit you'll hear and see it separate. At this point stop and remove the puller. I you continue you will either bend the stud or screwup the threads! Heres a pic of a two jaw puller just as a reference for what needs to be done.
4. Grab the now loosened assembly and pull them apart. The jack should support the weight of the lower half and the upper control arm should be hanging by itself.
5. Now in order to have any usable space to disconnect the arms, you need to disconnect the mounts from the inside of the engine bay. My friend and I found this out by default and the manual mentions nothing of it. Mark these two nuts and their position with a marker so you can set them back properly when you put it back together. Use a 17mm ratchet set. You might have to tap on the top of the studs to disconnect them. The mounts for the arms are now easier to get to. Heres a pic from the engine bay.
6. After those are loosened mess with the free arm and set it so you can loosen the rubber mounts. Use a 14mm wrench to hold the inside nuts in place and loosen the bolts from the outsides with an impact or air wrench. If you try to man handle them, the rubber mounts will rip. Remember when reinstalling this stuff to the new control arms, you need to have the nuts on the inside and the bolt facing outside or it'll be messed up. Heres a pic.
7. Now, most kits come with new cotter pins and castle nuts. Use all the new stuff, dont be cheap and reuse the old junk. You'll pay for it later. You can save the arms and reuse them later sometime if you were careful when removing them and the boots weren't damaged. Now work in reverse. If you work fast you can have each side done in 40 min or less. I am slow, so it took me longer. Heres some pics of what the new ones should look like. Adj the sliding mount to the middle and take your car to an alignment shop that knows this setup. Use 8mm allen wrenches to tighten the bolts down before you drop the car!.
I blab alot as many of you know so that turned out to be long. Hope this helps someone!
