Trouble tightening down the control arms...

martz010185 · Post by **martz010185** » 18 Mar 2009, 15:26

I'm working on my 98 S70 and I'm trying to tighten down the control arms. I took MadeInJapan's advice about lowering the car on two jacks. The side where I have the jack under the control arm won't go down entirely, I guess that strut spring is giving too much pressure. I tried using two smaller jackstands (because I don't feel comfortable working only on jacks) and putting the height of the jack under the control arm the same as the stands, which leaves one side of the car higher than the other when I try to lower it onto the stands, not even touching the jackstand underneath the side nearest to the jacked-up control arm. What can I do about this? I'm afraid the car's going to teeter-off the other side if I try to tighten the bolts down. Does anyone have any suggestions about this? Also, does anyone suggest how to properly torque the bolts down in such an awkward place (considering the Haynes manual suggests torquing them down with the car lowered with the wheels on)?

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 18 Mar 2009, 16:25

The way I do mine is to put jackstands under the subframe and then use floor jacks under the outer portion of the control arms - under the ball joints - and then jack the control arms up to a point where it the hub is more or less centered on the bottom door seam line. The sway bar can restict the ability to jack them up if you try to do them one at a time.

I hope that makes sense.

...Lee

martz010185 · Post by **martz010185** » 18 Mar 2009, 16:29

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. All along it didn't make any sense why the strut wouldn't go up any further. I'll definitely try that.