Lower control arms

pepito6SC

Registered User
I am going to replace the lower control arms for my 92 SC> The ones I have on are shot. Any recomendations/special tools for the job.? I got the whole arms from ford. Any shortcuts or things to watch out for would be apreciated. Thanks!
 
Here is a clip from a previous post discussing the bushings.

Andy 94Sc
Re: Moog bushings
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I bought all of that at a local parts store near Flint MI; Burton Auto. I have everything installed. (I have also bought solid rubber motor mounts there for $21 a side)

Charles Markman helped with pressed in parts and let me know I was a dummy, since I could have bought new lower control arms already assembled for about $10 more. He also said that while I was pressing bushings that Poly IS available for the lower control arms, but possibly only from SuperCoupePerformance, or MN12Performance, and at a higher price than I paid for stock parts.

I also changed the upper control arms as an assembly for the same reason. I got TRW upper's from Murrays for $50 a side. The cost of ball joints and bushings for those would likely be near that.

So if you are going the stock route, buy the whole lower arm and skip the pressing. If you want the ultimate parts, pay more for the poly kits from the above suppliers and do your own pressing. And watch out, My ball joints came out with a bang while pressing, crap was flying all over the garage when they came out.

After these were installed, and a Front end alignment was done the handling was much improved, the steering is much more responsive. Less like a limo, more like the Guided missle feel I have been missing. But that is to be expected. My stock rubber strut rod bushings were quite worn. The metal backing plates were nearly non-existant, all that was left were rusty metal rins hanging on the rod.

All in all, the strut rod bushings were a definate must do. The other bushings in the lower control arm still looked great, they probably didn't need to be replaced, but I did need new ball joints, so I did them anyway.

Some tools that helped are a 30mm wrench (that is the size of the nut on the front of the strut rod) a wire brush to clean the threads before disassembly (these nuts are TIGHT, so the cleaner the threads the better) and a helper to hold the strut rod while you are loosening the nuts. Do the 30mm first so the rear nut will help hold the strut rod.

5-speed - The ONLY way to fly
 
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