lightangel

I am in the process of changing lower control arms for my 97 A6Q. There are a few nice write ups gave me some idea about what to buy and what to expect. However, I feel I am stuck at where people might feel as a piece of cake.... I got the pinch bolts and nuts completely removed. The nut holding the sway bar to the control arm is removed. The bolt holding the control arm to the chassis is also removed. But I just cannot get the control arm out. It feels like if I can manage to push down the control arm a bit further, I should be able to get that end of the control arm completely loose. Or if I can move the sway bar toward the front of the car 1.5 inch, I should be able to clear the hole and get the ball joint end loose too. However, I wasn't able to go down either route. So I completely loosened one nut that hold the sway bar bracket to the chassis, but it didn't do my any good either. The other nut seems to be a lot harder to deal with, since I cannot find out how to access the top of that bolt... Please see the pictures attached, and you will know what I am talking about. Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.

The_Hamster

If you are struggling getting the ball joint out of the steering knuckle, use either a very long pry bar and pry against the subframe, or a large hammer. I leave the sway bar fully attached, with my legs I can push it back into the control arm and then get the rest of the hardware on. It's not enjoyable, but doable.

lightangel

I used a Y shaped ball joint tool to get the ball joint part loose. But I just could not push it down enough to clear it out of that knuckle. As you can see in the picture, it's dropped down a bit, but not enough at all... I guess my question is, for the 3 constraints (ball joint, sway bar, chassis bushing) which one did you guys tackle first?

andri86

I used a long 2 by 4, a pry bar and car jack to lift the strut.