Upper control arm removal

[tonymac97XL]

Hey Guys,

I'm trying to replace the upper control arms on my 97 X, get the passenger side (adjustable one) done no problem, the driver's side, however, I've hit a glitch:

The bolts that hold the arm in place don't want to come out. There's a piece of plate steel that appears to be part of the head of the bolt (pressed or welded, I'm not sure.) Is that supposed to come off of the bolt? Because if it doesn't, I can't think of any way to remove that bolt without cutting. Before I start BFH-ing and using C-clamps, I wanted to know if that hunk of steel is seperate from the bolt, or if there's something I'm missing altogether.

(keep in mind this explorer has 138,000 on it, and I think this is the first time it's had the front suspension serviced (I bought it at 117k). Things are pretty rusty. )

 

[jaimekc78]

Hey,
Did you ever figure this one out? We're having exactly the same problem and can't find an answer anywhere.

 

[zippee]

It's part of the bolt, and comes out with it. As I recall the driver's side is a pain because of all the tubing.

 

[tonymac97XL]

Yeah, I gave up and took it to a shop. I had rounded off a bolt on the wheel bearing I was going to replace as well, and working in a parking lot at my apartment, well, I don't have all the necessary tools for such an emergency. It cost me $300 in labor to have a shop change the wheel bearing and the control arm, and give me an alignment. Considering I paid $300 total on parts for my front end maintenance, I was pretty upset.

Past it now, though, I got some 265/75R15's (Goodyear Wrangler R/TS), which are supposed to be a shade bigger than 31x10.5, and I'm going to swap my speedo gear here shortly. I had 225/70R15's, and it looked terrible. The extra tire is much more pleasant on the eye. :

As a note on the tires: My 97 has had a rough life, and has been liberally beaten on by yours truly. I was worried the relatively huge tires would be a problem, but there is absolutely NO RUBBING with that size tire on my explorer. Just a note for anyone curious.

 

[mustangdave]

After 5 hours of prying, removing line clamps and rotating that $%#&!@^ bolt every way I could think of with no luck, I finally came upon a solution that had it off in about 30 minutes. I reinstalled the bolt and the camber adjusters to their original positions and took a dremmel with a cutoff wheel bit, and cut off the end of the bolt that was sticking out past the nut. I took off the nut and after rotating it past the first set of brake lines, it gave enough clearance to remove the control arm. I never took the bolt off the truck, I just mounted up the new control arm as quickly as I could and shouted for joy that the ordeal was finally over. ( I think I also wished a lot of bad feelings toward that GM engineer that Ford must have hired that routed the hard lines and the bolt in that configuration.) Hope this helps someone else save some headache while doing this job.

 

[parad1mg]

i recently replaced my drivers side and it was a PITA with 143,000 mi on it. when i finally calmed down (it also started to rain and i wasn't doing this in a garage..) i clamped down the adjuster plate to the frame with a vice grip and started pounding away. 5 mins later the bolt head had enough space from the plate to get a cold chisel in there and i just simply pried away. 15 mins after that the plate was loose and the bolt was out. but then again I wasn’t planning to reuse them since I already have a camber adjuster kit from napa.

i used the new adjuster kit to install the new control arm since the freaking fram was rusty and it was a really tight fit. did this one side for 4 hours btw but it was worth it..

 

[MountaineerGreen]

I haven't seen anything like you are talking about- does anyone have a picture? I'd like to add it to my upper ball joint replacement thread.

 

[parad1mg]

I haven't seen anything like you are talking about- does anyone have a picture? I'd like to add it to my upper ball joint replacement thread.

i actually used your thread as a guide ...

this is what i'm talking about:

then after you have enough space between the bolt head and the washer then use a large screwdriver or a cold chisel to pry loose the pressed washer so you can slide off the bolt easily between the two hardlines.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

So the camber adjuster is stuck to the bolt then? I don't remember if mine was or not :scratch:

 

[parad1mg]

No, its pressed on. the washer on bolt head side was pressed on so it comes out as one assembly, the second washer on the nut side just comes off as a regular washer. the washer hits the hard lines as you try to pull the bolt out even if you manage two bend those lines apart.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Now that I think about it, I do remember some difficulty removing the bolt, but it wasn't that difficult for me. The hardlines I split apart I think. I guess every truck is different, I didn't have any major issues.

 

[gijoecam]

Yeah, some are tough, some are not... jsut depends how much give there is in the lines...

The first time I did mine, they were a royal PITA. The last time, the bolt came out fine, but dropped down into the lines and was a RPITA to extract it and get it twisted back into the UCA.

I suspect that the suspension got mounted before those fuel lines did at the factory, or at the very least, both were installed long before the body was dropped over the chassis. I can't see anyone working 8 hrs a day from underneath or beside it installing those things the way we have to currently.

-Joe