hgray14 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 I had a whole bunch of 12-6 o'clock play in my passenger side front. Was told by some of you it was the control arm, which appears to be the case. I just replaced it and the play is completely gone. But I could see no way to get a torque wrench under the car when it was back on the ground, as instructed for the control arm to frame bolts. My car is lowered, but even looking at my non-lowered 850, I couldn't see how I was going to get it in there. So, instead, I tightened them while the car was still in the air. First, my suspension appears to be so stiff that the control arm is virtually in the same position whether in the air or on the ground under weight. (I guess those HD IPD anti-sway bars really work.) To compensate for what little sagging there was, I simply but a second jack under the control arm at the wheel side and jacked it up a little bit so that it was in the same position as when the car is on the ground. Only time will tell, but it certainly made it easier to get a torque wrench in there to torque the bolts down properly. Also, why do the instructions on here say to pull the whole wheel assembly instead of just pulling the wheel by removing the lugs, like in the manual? When I saw that I was going to have to be careful not to ding/scratch/etc. things, I went with the method where you just remove the wheel and tire, instead of the whole wheel assembly. Seemed simple enough and took me almost no time. Thanks for all the advice - this was much simpler than I had thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keaton85 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 What do you mean remove the wheel vs wheel assy? I've never used a torque wrench on control arms. Just get them tight like any normal nut and bolt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikv11 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Yeah what would that mean, removing the wheel assembly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tightmopedman9 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Support the car on jack stands, take off the wheel and then place a jack under the control arm. Jack up the control arm so it is in the same position as when the car is on the ground, then tighten your bolts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
survolvo Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Ramps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hgray14 Posted March 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 I mean removing the axle nut as opposed to removing the lugs. But I wasn't in front of my computer at the time I was prepping to do the job, otherwise I would have seen that Bay13's instructions are for replacing the bearing AND the control arm. That makes more sense. But those instructions do say to lower the car off the jack and then torque down the bolts to the proper setting. I can see no way that I could have done that, so like Tightmopedman9 says, I just jacked the control arm up into place and tightened everything while it was in the air. There are torque settings for all three bolts for the control arm, which I was trying to adhere to. They are pretty tight when the added 120 degree turn is added, so I'm glad I had my torque wrench because I don't think I would have tightened them down that far. Not sure how ramps would work with a control arm replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-5Bandit Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 It's easier to just get poly control arm bushings. Tighten them up on jack stands and your done, no pre load setting required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hgray14 Posted March 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 I didn't know about poly control arm bushings. It the standard that they don't come with poly bushings? I saw a set of bushings from IPD in my box-o-goodies in my garage but because the control arm came with bushings, I didn't even bother to check what the set in my box were all about. I wonder if I ordered poly bushings back in the day...and then yesterday failed to even use them. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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