Replacing front control arms
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Replacing front control arms
I plan to replace the lower and upper front control arms on my car with T1 arms. Is there anything special that I should watch out for? I'll mark the position for the lower bolt/washers and the position of the washers on the upper arms so I get it back fairly in the right position before the alignment. And then tighten everything down with a torque wrench according to the specs. The last pass on the lower bolts will be done when the car is back on the ground.
Is it hard to remove the lower arms from the frame, is it a tight fit once the bolts are out or do they just slip out?
Can the spring stay in place?
Anything special about separating the lower/upper ball joints?
Anything else that's good to know?
thanks in advance.
Is it hard to remove the lower arms from the frame, is it a tight fit once the bolts are out or do they just slip out?
Can the spring stay in place?
Anything special about separating the lower/upper ball joints?
Anything else that's good to know?
thanks in advance.
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From: Vancouver Washington
Is it hard to remove the lower arms from the frame, is it a tight fit once the bolts are out or do they just slip out?
They basically just slip out with a little wiggling
Can the spring stay in place?
Yes, and it's not even under much tension on the lift
Anything special about separating the lower/upper ball joints?
No, just use your preferred method of dealing with those things
Anything else that's good to know?
Don't loose the little screw that holds the ABS wire to the A arm
It's great time to regrease the rear splines and tighten up the parking brake a touch.
They basically just slip out with a little wiggling
Can the spring stay in place?
Yes, and it's not even under much tension on the lift
Anything special about separating the lower/upper ball joints?
No, just use your preferred method of dealing with those things
Anything else that's good to know?
Don't loose the little screw that holds the ABS wire to the A arm
It's great time to regrease the rear splines and tighten up the parking brake a touch.
Safety Car
Joined: Jul 2004
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From: Vancouver Washington
Thread Starter
Instructor
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From: Europe
Yes front only. That ABS bracket screw, how do you remove that one. It looks like it's rivited to the arm, but I could be wrong. The new arms just got a small hole w/o threads in it.
Safety Car
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From: Vancouver Washington
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: May 2009
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From: Europe
I've never worked on a car with aluminum parts in the chassis before. Do the tapered part of the ball joint stick as hard to the mating surface as it does on normal steel knuckles/carriers?
Alrighty, thanks! 
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Safety Car
Joined: Jul 2004
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From: Vancouver Washington
Safety Car
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 3,904
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From: Vancouver Washington
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 224
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From: Europe
Started to disassemble today, and as you state, the front bolt is close to the spring, but it looks doable. Rear bolt is not problem, plenty of space. Now I just need to get that b-joint separated.
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So project is finished now. Thanks for the input/help.
All the b-joints separated quite easily with just a small hit with a rubber hammer, no need for the special tool. No problems there. I don't really get why they had to be torqed down twice though. Lowers are 20+80Nm, uppers 20+50Nm. I guess it's to seat them or something?
Removing the lower arms were no problem, they just slide in as stated.
Removing the upper armed involed lifting the knuckle with a jack to get the a-arm separated from the knuckle/b-joint. The GM manual states that that is not needed, there is no way to get it out otherwise because the arm collides with the shock. It would probably have been easier if I haven't bolted the lower arm in place first though. Also installing hte new T1 arm was quite a challenge. The bushings were really stiff and the arm needed to be pushed down hard to line up with the b-joint. I guess first installing the b-joint could be the trick but I was affraid I would damage the thread inserts in the frame so I bolted the arm in place first.
I hope this is useful info to somebody planning to do the same work.
All the b-joints separated quite easily with just a small hit with a rubber hammer, no need for the special tool. No problems there. I don't really get why they had to be torqed down twice though. Lowers are 20+80Nm, uppers 20+50Nm. I guess it's to seat them or something?
Removing the lower arms were no problem, they just slide in as stated.
Removing the upper armed involed lifting the knuckle with a jack to get the a-arm separated from the knuckle/b-joint. The GM manual states that that is not needed, there is no way to get it out otherwise because the arm collides with the shock. It would probably have been easier if I haven't bolted the lower arm in place first though. Also installing hte new T1 arm was quite a challenge. The bushings were really stiff and the arm needed to be pushed down hard to line up with the b-joint. I guess first installing the b-joint could be the trick but I was affraid I would damage the thread inserts in the frame so I bolted the arm in place first.
I hope this is useful info to somebody planning to do the same work.
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Instructor
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I have the T1 spring. Once the b-joint was loose I lovered the a-arm down with the jack. As stated above there isn't that much tension left once the car is in the air. Maybe another 2" and the spring adjuster was not touching the arm anymore. Cant remember exactly how it was with stock springs, but I think they had a bit more tension in the "car in air" position. Be careful working there so you don't hurt yourself or the car.
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Is there any need to re-torque any of the bolts after driving for a while? I'm concerned about the b-joins, lowers are 20+80Nm and uppers are 20+50Nm which didn't seem to much to me when I torqed them down. I guess GM know what they did when they speced the torque. Any input on this?
Safety Car
Joined: Jul 2004
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From: Vancouver Washington
Is there any need to re-torque any of the bolts after driving for a while? I'm concerned about the b-joins, lowers are 20+80Nm and uppers are 20+50Nm which didn't seem to much to me when I torqed them down. I guess GM know what they did when they speced the torque. Any input on this?
Thread Starter
Instructor
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From: Europe
Sorry for the metric spec. The eSI manual specifies upper to 15 then 37 Lb ft is and lower is 15 then 60 Lb ft. I hope I got that right since it felt kind of low for a b-joint nut, hence the question.
