Just changed my control arm

sibir · Post by **sibir** » 08 Oct 2007, 21:18

To be exact the right front lower control arm. One of the bushings got loose in a strange way and the other bushing also looked bad, the ball joint was fine however. Since the bushings are press fitted and cost $18 I opted to get the whole arm which is $65 from FCP Groton and also includes the three bolts you are supposed to replace. A Volvo arm would have been $105, but for my 1994 850 Wagon aftermarket is good enough at this age.
Note that the garage wanted $193 for the arm and $84 of labor (1h). Only 3 bolts and relatively accessible I figured even if I spend 4 hours instead of the 30 minutes it probably takes a skilled mechanic, it comes to more than $50/h for me, which I consider a good return.
Well, in the end I spent about 3 hours, because things did not fit right. Not sure if it was aftermarket dimensions or my mounts being bent some (I suspect the latter). Anyway, I am writing this let any interested party know what I learned: The only way I could get the ball joint shank into the steering knuckle was to do it without the arm's inner mountings (where the bushings are) attached and mount those after the ball joint shank.
When I tried to do it the other way around (as the Haynes manual suggests) I was not able to align the ball joint shank with the hole in the steering knuckle. Doing the ball joint shank first was easy in contrast.
This knowledge would have saved me about an hour.
In addition to the wrenches a pry bar and a hammer were necessary to get things out and later aligned. Difficulty of this repair is about the same as changing pads and rotors an the 850.
Although I did not take pictures, I hope somebody will find this helpful!

gjz30075 · Post by **gjz30075** » 09 Oct 2007, 11:36

Yes, quite helpful. I'll be doing mine soon. Thanks.

RoadDawg · Post by **RoadDawg** » 12 Oct 2007, 17:04

I just replaced mine. It took about 45 min for the first side the 15 for the next. I put the bushing end on forst then the ball joint. The ticket to the ball joint was to move the ball joint to the proper angle then use a punch to align the joint so the bolt would go through. I used the same $65 dollar arms from Hamburg Technic

sibir · Post by **sibir** » 12 Oct 2007, 19:44

and probably better set up. I did move the shaft over as far as possible but it was not enough. I could have compressed the spring a little bit which would have changed the angle, but instead I just reversed the order of mounting.

I have to change my front left axle next. I hope that is as easy, I bought the whole assembly. For $75 that seemed a no-brainer.

RoadDawg · Post by **RoadDawg** » 12 Oct 2007, 21:46

why are you replacing the whole axel?? Is it just the boot that is bad??

sibir · Post by **sibir** » 12 Oct 2007, 21:58

The boot was bad and I did not catch it. Now it is clicking when I turn.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 13 Oct 2007, 07:10

boot on the new axle?

sibir · Post by **sibir** » 13 Oct 2007, 08:52

NO, on the original axle. That is the usual failure mode: outer boot cracks, dirt gets in, outer CV joint goes bad and clicks.