LCA Tips - CEG Archives

Search for my old threads. Basically, you take the nuts off, push the bolts up and out - cutting the heads off the ones that won't come out. It helps to undo your engine mounts and jack the engine/tranny up a bit for more room. Air tools help a lot!

cool i just found it, i dont have air tools, its gonna be by hand and to cut the bolts using a dremel..

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:
cool i just found it, i dont have air tools, its gonna be by hand and to cut the bolts using a dremel..

how are you goign to get the new bolts in correctly ....

all you need to do is one, disconnect the steering, its one bolt inside the cabin, disconnect the roll restrictors, and with alot of PB Blaster work the 4 subframe bolts out and drop the subframe about 4 inches. should be able to do one side at a time, can use a 14 or 15 mm deep socket as an alignment tool. It is so much easier as you don't have to load up the control arm as you try to get is into the subframe and under the hub. Other wise you need to pull the strut and get the hub out of the way to make it easier.

my father and I have done the 4-bolt lower arms both ways, moving the engine or the subframe to get the bolts out, the subframe is the best way to go imho

I did mine without dropping the subframe, and only had to install two bolts from the bottom up (drivers-side, under the MTX). The bolts directly below the axles are pretty tight to get out, but if you loosen the nut at the top of the strut tower it will allow the strut tower assembly to be pushed around to get the axle out of the way enough to remove/replace the bolts below. If you're axles are old be careful not to tear the rubber boot when you're sliding the bolt in/out.

If they're still origional LCAs, be patient. My bolts were in bad condition and did not come out easily. I had air tools and got the nuts off the bottom of the bolts ok, but especially the bolts below the axles were in really bad shape. I had to drill one of them out, the other took a BFH and lots of PB blaster and about 45 minutes of wackin. The bolt was in such a deteriorated condition it was all malformed, corroded, or something. The middle of the bolt was about half the thickness it origionally was. It seems my case was extreme though as I haven't heard of anyone else having so much trouble. My LCA's were also over 10 years old and had 158,000 miles on them

so you guys are saying that if I dont move my subframe then I have no chance of getting the bolts in and out? because this isnt somthing I wanna do to be honest..

If you leave the subframe alone, you will have to cut two bolts off and put them in from the bottom. If you move the subframe you won't need to cut anything.

Originally posted by Auto-X Fil:
If you leave the subframe alone, you will have to cut two bolts off and put them in from the bottom. If you move the subframe you won't need to cut anything.

fair enough then, I will cut..wish me luck and also are there any torque sepcs I should be aware of? thanks

62 ft-lbs for the LCA to subframe bolts and balljoint to knuckle pinch-bolt
The only other bolt I removed (to make things easier) was the sway bar endlink... I just hand-tightened that.

SHouldn't he make sure to use some heavy duty lok-tite if he is going to be installing these upside down.

It doesn't worry me, since they're a locknut anyway. But some thread locker wouldn't hurt, certainly.

Originally posted by rkneeshaw3.0:
the sway bar endlink... I just hand-tightened that.

I hope you don't mean by bare hands.

I hope you meant by feel. I think they are about 30 ft lbs. Not too much. I just snug the EL's down.

There has been cases here in the UK of the bolt shearing off when fitted upside down.

well i didnt get to it today as stupid errands got in the way..Also I noticed that I didnt have the specific tool for the star bolt on the knuckle..I'll see if any of my friends have it..However I did get a change to PB blast the crap outa all those bolts..I wont get to it till Thursday so I'll be spraying as much as I can before then

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:
well i didnt get to it today as stupid errands got in the way..Also I noticed that I didnt have the specific tool for the star bolt on the knuckle..I'll see if any of my friends have it..However I did get a change to PB blast the crap outa all those bolts..I wont get to it till Thursday so I'll be spraying as much as I can before then

The bolt on the knuckle is a T55 torx I believe.You can't get to the bolt under the tranny with a dremel on two bolt LCA's,I don't know if the 4-bolts are the same way.

I used an angle grinder on my four-bolt LCAs. An abrasive blade on a reciprocating saw would probably work well, if slowly.

also another question, how well will new LCA's improve my ride? im just curious..

lol sorry about these questions, how hard is it to raise the subframe to get easy access to the bolts? how would I raise the subframe too btw?

Don't know if you came across this write-up I did a while back. It goes over how to move the subframe out of the way, along with the rest of the job.

Marty

Originally posted by GrooveNerd:
Don't know if you came across this write-up I did a while back. It goes over how to move the subframe out of the way, along with the rest of the job.

Marty

That's a good write-up. I wish I had come across it before I installed my LCAs. I just went by what the manual said, to loosen all 4 mounts and then we lifted the engine/tranny out of the way with a jack, which gave just enough room to switch the driver's side LCA. The passenger side isn't nearly as difficult. Basically: passenger side, 1 - 1.5 hours, driver side, 3 - 4 hours, and that's if you know what you're doing. It took me a bit longer on both counts because there were a lot of other little issues that came up.

Took me only 1.5 hours to do my driver's side 4-bolt a couple of weeks ago.

Would have only taken 45 minutes, but the inboard CV joint popped apart so I had to pull the knuckle to pop the joint back together.

I both raised the engine (loosened forward mount only) AND dropped that side of the subframe a bit. Gave me enough room to get the bolts out.

Steering is a lot tighter now. The forward bushings were worn out on the old LCA.

Steve

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:
lol sorry about these questions, how hard is it to raise the subframe to get easy access to the bolts? how would I raise the subframe too btw?

Originally posted by BrApple:

all you need to do is one, disconnect the steering, its one bolt inside the cabin, disconnect the roll restrictors, and with alot of PB Blaster work the 4 subframe bolts out and drop the subframe about 4 inches. should be able to do one side at a time, can use a 14 or 15 mm deep socket as an alignment tool. It is so much easier as you don't have to load up the control arm as you try to get is into the subframe and under the hub. Other wise you need to pull the strut and get the hub out of the way to make it easier.

my father and I have done the 4-bolt lower arms both ways, moving the engine or the subframe to get the bolts out, the subframe is the best way to go imho

please don't do what one person suggested and take one side of the subframe bolts out and pry on it, that is stupid

take your time and you will be all set

Originally posted by Yummy Mummy:

Originally posted by rkneeshaw3.0:
the sway bar endlink... I just hand-tightened that.

I hope you don't mean by bare hands. I hope you meant by feel. I think they are about 30 ft lbs. Not too much. I just snug the EL's down.

lol, i thought that would be obvious

how did you guys get the ball join out of the knuckle? use a crow bar to pry it out? and also I think Bill sent me the wrong nuts for the bolts..they all are the same size nuts..this sucks! should i just re-use the old ones?

Big pry bar and air chisel sometimes to split the joint. Usually a good push down will pop it out.

Originally posted by T-o double dizzo:
Big pry bar and air chisel sometimes to split the joint. Usually a good push down will pop it out.

I didnt reall dissconnect the tie rods and all that, just the calipers and rotors, I dont wanna take too much out..i should be fine with all that I hope..but those damm nuts, this is getting outa hand, Bill has messed up this order twice..

lol believe it or not, we did the passenger side, WITHOUT dropping subframe, and without cutting..just had to lift the axle and move as far as we can till the bolt with a nice hit from the bottom popped out..getting the new LCA in was cake..however getting the joint in the knuckle is where everything went wrong..it just was lining up and when it finally dude, the knuckle slipped and slit the rubber boot on the ball joint..this thing was brand new so this kinda sucked..it took a while whit A LOT of banging to get it in..is funny how swapping the LCA's was nothing and took like an hour but getting the joint in the knuckle just took forever..tommorow will be the driver side where we know we will have some cutting to do..

you should have stopped there and replaced the boot.
now that ball joint will wear prematurely.

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:
I didnt reall dissconnect the tie rods and all that, just the calipers and rotors,

the only thing I disconnected was the end link

Originally posted by Count Blah:
you should have stopped there and replaced the boot.
now that ball joint will wear prematurely.

well when it does my friends who were doing it with me will pay for it..it wont happend anytime soon though hopefully..

Originally posted by Goonz SVT:
lol believe it or not, we did the passenger side, WITHOUT dropping subframe, and without cutting..just had to lift the axle and move as far as we can till the bolt with a nice hit from the bottom popped out..getting the new LCA in was cake..however getting the joint in the knuckle is where everything went wrong..it just was lining up and when it finally dude, the knuckle slipped and slit the rubber boot on the ball joint..this thing was brand new so this kinda sucked..it took a while whit A LOT of banging to get it in..is funny how swapping the LCA's was nothing and took like an hour but getting the joint in the knuckle just took forever..tommorow will be the driver side where we know we will have some cutting to do..

If you leave all the bolts out in the LCA to sub frame except the bolt that is right under the cv axle, it gives you just the right amount of movement to get the ball joint into place with out tearing up the new boot on the ball joint. I have done it this way and other ways. this is easist that i have found. I can put the passenger side back togather now in about 45 mins.

I just read through this thread for any new ideas for when I replace my LCA's this weekend (Thanks again Nima

)
Though, I have a new Koni/H&R combo going in along with other misc. goodies.

I'm not looking forward to getting the damn knuckel on without ripping the ball joint boot. I ripped one side on my old ones when I did my 3L swap

Originally posted by TC'd Swazo:
I just read through this thread for any new ideas for when I replace my LCA's this weekend (Thanks again Nima )
Though, I have a new Koni/H&R combo going in along with other misc. goodies. I'm not looking forward to getting the damn knuckel on without ripping the ball joint boot. I ripped one side on my old ones when I did my 3L swap

yea you hafta be very very carefull..I just finished mine so we'll see tommorow how the car feels..

Just an idea I'm going to try, but I think my spring compressors are compact enough to be able to install my strut/spring with them inplace, and then remove them after the ball joint is in the knuckel. A little extra space inbetween the knuckel and the ball joint could make all the difference in the world on NOT tearing them up

Originally posted by TC'd Swazo:
Just an idea I'm going to try, but I think my spring compressors are compact enough to be able to install my strut/spring with them inplace, and then remove them after the ball joint is in the knuckel. A little extra space inbetween the knuckel and the ball joint could make all the difference in the world on NOT tearing them up

GOOD IDEA..the force of the springs made it very hard to move the strut around..on the other side we used spring compressors and it was money