riotburn

I'm replacing the control arms and putting in my Bilstein/Vogtlands on Wednesday night. Any advice or things to look out for when doing this? I'm gonna spray all the bolts with kroil the day before.

Joby

Liquid lube is good. Get a mapp gas torch, too. The first time I did control arms,(uppers) the only way to get the pinch bolts out was with heat. I don't think it'll be a problem heating the bearing carrier at the pinch bolt; I've had no problems 40k miles later, though I hear heat is bad for suspension parts. Be judicious. Also, a pneumatic hammer might be helpful if avail. Oh, also lots of antisieze on assembly; it'll be easier the next time. I coat all suspension bolts/ball-joints and they come apart easy every time. WARNING... DO NOT burn your fender liner!!!! Also, when you swing the great and mighty hammer, DON"T hit the fender! Good luck!

TimO'Brien

No heat required on mine. I replaced uppers and lowers at 150k miles. Used PB Blaster and two different sized joint pullers. Rubber mallet came in handy too. Lowers were more difficult but I had replaced the uppers at 80k with anti-seize which helped. Good luck.

riotburn

I have a small pickle fork and at the shop they have uber and uber jr. A 6-ft and 4-ft pickle fork. Should do the job.

dorsal900

Unfortunately, the pickle forks will not help you with the pinch bolt.

riotburn

Kris Hansen

That, and a good hammer, or very good drilling skills =)

riotburn

SOoo I actually did the suspension last night. I have to say the rear was probably the easiest work I've ever done. No complications whatsoever. The front.....well yea my car was left on my friends dads lift at his shop because 9hrs went by and it was 6am. One pinch bolt came out with no problem at all. The other was 100% seized and required making area red hot and lots of hammering. Removing other bolts required some time too. The pinch bolt on one tie rod would not go when installing the new one. Had to take a punch that fit the hole, attach it to a drill, and clear the hole out.
THE PROBLEMS I ACTUALLY NEED SOME ADVICE WITH
How the hell do you fit the upper control arms back in to the knuckle? We got one arm in but couldn't get the second in. And out of no where one pinch area got widened a lot.

You can see below that my rear springs were both broken!