1998 V70 AWD Four Bolt Control Arm Replacement with Photos

[deepsouth]

Hey all--
This last weekend I replaced the front right lower control arm on my 1998 V70 AWD. It's the four-bolt control arm. I've replaced a handful of two-bolt control arms but found the four-bolt version to be a different animal. Here's what I did:

1) Two days prior sprayed the ball joint pin and four frame thru-bolts with Deep Creep, PB Blaster, and hit with a wire brush.

2) The two front bolts on the control arm are blocked by the engine oil pan so you'll have to pull the fender skirt, remove the two bolts from the front right motor mount and jack up the engine about three inches--this provides ample room for a breaker bar and extension.

3) The arm is under tension so I undid the ball joint pin and gently pried the joint downward--it popped off very easily. From there the four frame bolts were very easy to remove.

4) Now comes that hard part. Installed this arm is under tension so it's not possible to put the ball joint in first and line up the thru-bolts. It simply won't work. After much tinkering and a few choice words, I ended up removing the sway bar link and pulling the front axle out of the hub assembly. This allowed me to line up the four thru-bolt holds and attach the control arm to the frame. Once done, I then maneuvered the ball joint under the steering knuckle by having a friend step on the control arm in order to lower it (thus applying the necessary tension). Once done, reassemble the axle and sway bar link. Don't forget to put the two bolts back into the front right motor mount.

All told, it took me about two and a half hours. A large chunk of time was spent trying to line up the frame thru-bolts. There's probably an easier way to do but the tension the installed arm is under makes it difficult to line everything up. Photos Below.

Eric
Athens, GA

[rmmagow]

You're a better man than I Gunga Din I gave up and had my indy do the job for $150. Damn near pulled the car off the stands trying to get the bolts out.

[mtd240]

I just used a combo wrench and reused the bolts, to avoid having to jack up the engine.

It was easy to align the new control arm, because I was replacing the struts at the same time, and the strut assembly was out

I have pondered (a little) about why Volvo had those 4 bolt control arms instead of the two-bolt design. It seems like having the twist motion "fixed" with the axial rod (attached to the square nuts) prevents you from having to preload the bushings like you would need to do with the 2 bolt design. The 4-bolt design comes with the bushings already pre-loaded, or, "pre-pre-loaded".

I also found the ball joint very easy to remove. Every other car I have replaced ball joints on has been a major pain.

Nice writeup and pictures.

[socompsp]

it is possible to put in the ball joint pin first. i did this job on my 98 c70 a month ago. after installing bj into knuckle, you can use the open end of an 18mm box wrench to twist the 4 bolt mounts to the right angle to start threading the bolts thru, but you need a buddy to thread them.

[tidewater21]

Thanks for this great post on the control arm/ball joint replacement. I would like to add the way I aligned the control arm to the frame bolts as the tension was pretty strong making it very difficult to thread the bolts as discussed in other posts. This is for the 4 bolt control arm system.
I used a large crescent wrench about 12+ inches long as a lever. The wrench was placed on the flat area next to forward bolt hole on the control arm. A similar flat area is on the rear part of the control arm. With the long handle of the crescent wrench I was able to very easily align the bolt holes on the control arm with the end of the bolt protruding from the frame. I only replaced one of the bolts as I didn't want to undo the engine mount etc. to raise the motor enough to extract the others. They were good condition anyway. An box end long handled wrench loosened and tightened the bolts fine. I was amazed how easily bolt alignment was with this method. The ball joint was already in place.
I've attached some photos showing the location for the crescent wrench.

Front of Control Arm showing flat area

Front of Control Arm with Crescent Wrench on flat spot for leverage

Rear of Control Arm showing flat area

Rear of Control Arm with Crescent Wrench on flat spot for leverage.

Thanks for all the help this site provides in keeping my '98 V70XC going!

[Redneck]

Is that a heavy rust on the subframe (passenger side) at the jack stand support in one of the above pics (the pic. with the blue jack)? Shouldn't you worry about that?

[drudolf17]

Thanks for this, I'm about to attempt on my 2000 V70. I gave it a go yesterday but no luck getting the pinch bolt out. I sprayed it down with some penetrating oil going to try again soon. Not sure about those motor mount bolts either hopefully I can get them loose.

[drudolf17]

Done! I put the balljoint in first, then threw some vice grips next to the bolt holes on the control arm. This let me turn it while I caught the threads on the two outer bolts.

[dew0500]

This crescent wrench technique looks like a life saver! I am going to tackle this in the next couple weeks. I do have a couple questions though. I am doing this on a 1998 v70XC. If I plan on skipping the engine lift and re-using the bolts, do I need to have a "deep offset" 17mm box end wrench to get the bolts loose?

Also, are there torque specs I need to be aware of? It sounds like there is no "loading" of the control arms, which is different from the 2 bolt control arms, correct?

Thanks!

[jenkinskg]

The biggest issue in my c70 was second bolt on right side is so close to engine, motor mount 2 bolts need to be removed to get to it.
On 3ed order of parts since everyone lists 2 bolt control arm for 04 c70