Upper Control Arm Question... Urgent!!!

[2000black&gold]

Well my Explorer is in pieces in the garage, and I'm not sure I did everything right. When I put the new Moog UCA's back into the knuckle, and I put the pinch bolt in place, it doesn't want to stay. The UCA wants to come out of the knuckle, even with the bolt tightened as tight as I can get it. What am I doing wrong???!!!

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Are you getting the ball joint stud down far enough in the steering knuckle? You have to push down pretty hard for the stud to go in far enough to line the groove in the ball joint stud with the bolt.

 

[2000black&gold]

So here's what happened. When I put the bolt from the UCA's ball joint into the hole in the knuckle, it would only go so far. It wouldn't go past the notch where the pinch bolt is supposed to go. We've been hitting the UCA with a hammer trying to force it into the hole on the top of the knuckle, and it just won't go. I've got a buddy helping me and we're not having any luck. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[paWOLFck]

Hammer?

I just hit the UCA with the hammer and the ball joint stud slid right in and then tapped the pinch bolt through. It shouldn't be too difficult. Just make sure they aren't going in at weird angles.

 

[2000black&gold]

That's how I thought it should be, that it should go pretty easily. But myself and another guy have been trying for hours and it's just not going. It does want to go at an angle, so we straighten it back out and it still won't go in. I just called a buddy of mine and he thinks the knuckle just closed back up when the original UCA was removed. If no one has any ideas I guess I'll just take it to a shop tomorrow and see if they can open it back up with an air chisel.

 

[patrick112390]

what i would do is use a big prybar on the control arm and stick it in a frame hole and pry down, then get someone to smack it with a hammer...

 

[bluestream1]

I used a jack under the lower control arm, raised it up into the ball joint stud and then pushed the bolt in with my fingers. No need for a hammer

 

[my98nnj]

Jack up the lower control arm and it should just slide right in. Perhaps your at the lower swing limit of the upper arm. It's never going to go in if the lower knuckle is to low.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Look in the hole where the pinch bolt goes to see where the groove of the ball joint stud is at. This way you will know how close you are to them being lined up.

 

[2000black&gold]

In my desperation last night, I pretty much tried all of those approaches. I put a jack under the lower control arm and tried to jack it up, and it didn't help at all. I loosened up the bolts on the upper control arm and made sure it had the ability to reach the hole on the spindle, and even though it did, it just wouldn't go in. The pinch bolt is, of course, removed. And the thing is the ball joint stud isn't even going in deep enough to get close the the groove where the pinch bolt would go.

And like I said, we tried putting the old, OEM UCA in the spindle and it wouldn't go either. It's as if the spindle closed up when the OEM UCA was removed. So I've got a couple of mechanic friends of mine coming over today to take a look and give me a hand. Hopefully they can figure something out or show me where my stupidity has gotten the best of me and fix it!

Thanks for all your suggestions! Keep 'em coming!

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Planning on tackling this soon, and would like to hear the outcome.

 

[2000black&gold]

Planning on tackling this soon, and would like to hear the outcome.

I'll keep you up to date. Apparently I'm the only one to have this problem, so you should be fine. Even the shop foreman at the local Ford dealership said he'd never heard of anything like this.

My buddy came over today and heated the knuckle up with a propane torch. This allowed the driver's side UCA to drop in with a couple of hits of a hammer. We didn't have as much luck with the passenger side. So I've got another mechanic friend of mine coming over shortly to take a look at it and see if he can figure something out. If not, I'm taking the parts to the Ford dealership in the morning so that they can see it first hand and hopefully use the press to make it go.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

If you have to press it in there is a serious problem. They are not press fit. Have you checked to to see if there is rust built up in the steering knuckle?

You shouldn't have had to heat the other side either.

 

[2000black&gold]

If you have to press it in there is a serious problem. They are not press fit. Have you checked to to see if there is rust built up in the steering knuckle?

You shouldn't have had to heat the other side either.

There's a small amount of rust but not a lot at all. It's a southern truck and has been so there's hardly any rust anywhere on it. I know the press *shouldn't* be necessary, but I'm out of ideas on how to fix this.

 

[carlover]

Ok a shot in the dark here. I had the same issues a few years back. It turned out i mixed up the control arms and put them on the wrong sides. Id double check that before you go to extreme with anything. Just a thought....

 

[2000black&gold]

Ok a shot in the dark here. I had the same issues a few years back. It turned out i mixed up the control arms and put them on the wrong sides. Id double check that before you go to extreme with anything. Just a thought....

No a lot of the times it's the simplest things! But I have the two piece passenger side UCA, so I know that can't be the problem. Thanks for trying though!

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Is it fixed yet?

 

[2000black&gold]

Yep got it fixed today. I tried taking a round metal file and filing down the inside of the knuckle, cause there was a small lip that we thought it might be getting stuck on. Well, I filed it down and still, nothing. So I finally took it back off the truck, took it to a local shop and they took it back in the back. About 20 minutes later they came out and had gotten it on. I have no clue how they did it but they did, and they only charged me $10! So I'm happy. I had work tonight so I didn't have a chance to get everything put back together, but tomorrow morning, it's going to be done then I'm getting an alignment.

For anyone who reads this and is thinking about tackling this project, don't let this worry you. Apparently I'm one of the only people it's ever happened too. Even the Ford dealership had never heard of the problem. So don't let it scare you. Even with the headaches I still consider it worth it. I learned a great deal and saved several hundred dollars!

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Glad to hear you got if it fixed! Wonder what they did--bigger hammer? Heh Heh

 

[2000black&gold]

Glad to hear you got if it fixed! Wonder what they did--bigger hammer? Heh Heh

Who knows?! The only thing I know is that I tried everything... and then I called up two buddies of mine who know a lot more about cars than me! Either way, I'm glad I got it fixed and glad it wasn't expensive!