Rear lower control arm removal

[Duranged84]

What's the trick to getting the rear lower control arm off? The rear lower bolt Will not come out of the frame. Nut came off fine but can't get the bolt out. Have swung arm all the way straight down and hit it with 3 lb sledge and nothing. Need to get the arm off to swap onto my running truck because of bad axial balljoint and bad wheel bearing. Don't have the money for new and these are very tight and quiet. The plan is to just swap the whole arm and knuckle/hub assembly.

 

[drdoom]

Could it be seized in the bushing?

 

[FordFool2]

I had a front lower strut bolt so seized in the bushing it would not come out. I ended up cutting the bolt head off with a Sawzall. Was not easy.

 

[Mrooney322]

my 4x4 light flashes from time to time, the last time i checked it my scanner came up with a 4x4 code pertaining to a communication error, i just ignore it, the nice thing is that my 4x4 doesnt engage when i make turns.

 

[Duranged84]

my 4x4 light flashes from time to time, the last time i checked it my scanner came up with a 4x4 code pertaining to a communication error, i just ignore it, the nice thing is that my 4x4 doesnt engage when i make turns.

Sounds good Mrooney, lol I think you posted somewhere you didnt intend to.



Thanks guys, I didnt know if maybe there was something I might have missed, like a keeper thing of some kind or what, I guess it'll be bigger hammer and maybe some heat, but that'll defeat the purpose of being able to use it instead of buying more parts... Never simple. Guess I'll just have to get some money together anyway. Suspension stuff on these adds up too fast.

 

[Mrooney322]

oh man could have swore i was on a different thread

 

[roush9799]

Big Hammer. I had to beat them out a bit, sounds like your are really stuck. I just loosened the nut up on mine to the end of the threads and started hammering it out. You can also get the cross axis joint at Napa and press the old out and new one in on the arm on the running truck if it will come out easier. I did this a couple weeks ago, I don't think the joints were very expensive.

 

[Duranged84]

What all did you have to use to do the axial joint? I'd rather do that but trying to minimize down time as well. The truck has 260K miles (drivetrain has 135K now) so suspension/wheel bearings, etc are hitting all at once now. body and interior are 9/10 still, as I did a complete interior swap when I got it last year, from a very babied Explorer. Its almost completely mechanically rebuilt.

 

[roush9799]

I took the lower arm off and pressed the joint out in the press. I pressed the new one right in. Didn't take 5 minutes once I had the arm off. I got the joints at oreilly's. They had to order them. They had them the next morning. I changed them both out since I was doing springs and bearings anyways.

 

[Onuma]

I currently have the same problem in my driver's side lower control arm. Along with a few other guys who are knowledgeable about this stuff, we tried to pry, bludgeon, impact, and heat the thing out with a propane torch. It doesn't budge. Even using an air chisel behind the head of the shock bolt, while using a sledge & hardened steel dowel/punch on the threaded side of the bolt didn't do the trick. It is absolutely bound up.

So come Wednesday, when I get to my auto lab at my college, I'm just going to grab a cutting torch and remove the whole thing, coil spring assembly and all. I could use a cutoff wheel, alternately, but the torch is just faster. I've already spent 3 separate nights working on these control arms and I'm no longer willing to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary.

I already have the new parts on hand, minus the nut & lock washer which will be picked up from Grainger before then. L&R shock bolts, coil spring assemblies, lower control arms w/ ball joints ready to go.

This is what happens when someone "gifts" you a vehicle. You're responsible for all of the neglect they gave it for the previous 165k miles :thumbdwn:

 

[drdoom]

Onuma, like fordfool I had the front shock to lower arm bolt seized in the shock bushing. I mean to tell you it was epic! In less than two hours I had done three corners of the vehicle, but the very last bolt on the last one would not budge. Impact, 36" breaker bar, penetrating oil, deep creep, ATF, soaked for two days, beat, chiseled, nothing. I was now in an additional seven hours at this point. The breaker bar would turn if using a floor jack to raise it, but the rubber insulator would recoil and the flag nut would back right up. After several hours with the jack, I had the flag nut out to the end of the threads to give room to drift the bolt forward. That's when I broke my thumb with the engineers hammer. So a couple of days have passed I finally realized so much time lost it was time to cut. I could see all along cutting without torch (no oxygen in the tank) was going to be difficult. I used 4.5" zip wheel, making four cuts from underneath, rotating the bolt using breaker bar + jack between cuts. I then had to cut into the head of the bolt at an angle, again making multiple cuts until I could chisel the head off, but the flange still remained. I then had to change to a grinding wheel and grind on edge while spinning the grinder in a pirouette, until the flange was thin enough to drift through the mounting hole. Geez Louise I was getting beat up! Then to really put a smile on my face, the first Explorer in the junkyard I walk up with the impact ZZIP right off, and I pulled it with my index finger and broken thumb, came right out! Lol

 

[Onuma]

Bit of a late update...but I didn't bother with the Oxy/Acetylene torch as originally planned.

I just took out the mounting bolts for the coil spring assemblies, and all of the bolts for the lower control arm & LCA ball joint. Kept the LCA and coil spring all together, pulled it out as one big, heavy piece. Put the new stuff in without too much of a hitch.

Drives straight. Rides really nicely. It's like having a new truck, practically. Didn't do my alignment yet (I know, poor form) but the rest seems great.