TomP

Well, the passenger side control arm is off!! First, I undid the spring compressor. I looped a chain around the spring just in case; when I put the compressor on, the spring was still under a bit of pressure from being sandwiched between the crossmember and control arm. The spring popped a bit when the compressor was removed, no big deal. Glad I bought a spring compressor; no way could i have gotten to the bolt if I didn't.

Then I got down & dirty with my cut off tool and 4" electric angle grinder. Ground the head right off the bolt. Then I hooked up the air grinder with a cone-shaped stone, and used the tip of the stone to grind the edge of the bolt away so it'd fall out of the crossmember. I only nicked the crossmember with the grinders minorly.

Used a pry bar between the control arm "leg" and crossmember to pop the control arm out. Then, it hung on the threaded end of the bolt. Used my air chisel to beat the hell out of the rubber bushing, to separate the inner sleeve from the bushing. Finally that sucker gave up, and I yanked the control arm out.

(I then promptly ran out of my garage like a lunatic with the control arm raised over my head like a trophy, shouting incoherently. I bet the neighbors are even more scared of me now! )

Used the ball joint press on the control arm- sweet tool. The sucker popped right out! Took a picture of the tool on the control arm. Once the joint was out, I used brake cleaner to degrease the control arm- man was it nasty. I might POR-15 it; I might not. Depends on how frisky I feel tomorrow.

Then I removed the bushings. The rear leg's bushing came out easy as hell! Remember this is the one where I removed the center sleeve to get the rusted bolt out of. I read a message where a guy drilled holes in the rubber bushing, which helped it collapse, and then he just pushed out the bushing. Got the drill, stuck it in the side, and pulled the trigger. The drill bit in immediately, and started walking the bit around the outside of the bushing. Oh crap, I thought. Right before I let up on the drill, I noticed it was working my bushing out!!! The drill bit was spinning all around the edge of the bushing shell, and this pried the rubber right out. Sweet! Did the same thing on the front leg's bushing- this bushing still had the metal sleeve in it. This didn't pop out as easily. Drilled a few holes in the rubber; the last hole made the drill bit act as before, and the center and rubber all popped out.

Then I hit the bushing's metal shells with some more power. I used the cut off tool to slice the bushing shells even with the inside edge of the control arm. Then I angled the wheel to cut a "V" in the center, and knocked the V in with a hammer. Then I collapsed one half of the bushing sleeve on each side with a hammer and a cold chisel. When the bushing was reduced to "half" it's normal diameter, a few whacks of the hammer ejected it from the control arm. Very easy.

Then I started to work on the driver's side. Guess what; same f'ing bolt is rusted- the rear leg. Started grinding away the bolt head, and ran out of energy. I'll finish grinding it away tomorrow. I'm just using the angle grinder, not using the cut off wheel, so I'm doing less damage to the crossmember this time.

Man those control arms are nasty after 250,000 miles of lube jobs. Tons of old grease everywhere. The garage floor is now black. When I'm done with the job, I'll need a few cans of brake cleaner to get it all off the floor.

TomP

Just realized; when I destroy the bushings and shells on the driver's side control arm, I'll try to take more pics so you guys can see what I'm talking about.

What's left: 1, remove that damned driver's side LCA. 2, remove the balljoint. 3, degrease the LCA. 4, remove the bushings and destroy the shells out. 5, paint both LCA's with por-15 if I feel like it. I won't do all three steps (cleaner, zinc wash, por-15), I'll just do the por-15 to 'em.

6, remove idler arm and center link from car. 7, set up new tie rods to new center link, install new linkage to chassis. 8, hopefully por-15 will be dry, I'll install the new balljoints. 9, install LCA's with new lowering springs and new upper insulators. 10, connect spindles to balljoints and new tie rod ends. 11, install the new struts and strut mounts. 12, change the driver's side brake hose (noticed it's cracked at the caliper)! 13, check for leftover parts. 14, put wheel assembly back together (dust shields, rotors, calipers). 15, go for a drive.

Someone remind me to get an 18mm wrench!!

F585

OK, get an 18mm wrench!

TomP

Thanks! The nut on the rear leg of the driver's side control arm is very close to the frame rail. I originally had a socket on there with a breaker bar; and couldn't get the socket off. I had to re-tighten the nut, then loosen it with an open ended adjustable wrench- what a pain. Figures my Craftsman wrench set goes from 7mm to 17mm... I only needed 1 more millimeter, dammit!

Since it's raining, we'll have to see if I can get to the POR-15. That stuff chemically hardens when exposed to heat and moisture. It's not very hot out but it's very wet; stuff might dry poorly.

Ugh; $10.29 for a single 18mm wrench. Sears didn't have any sets for me... I would've rather paid $50 for a set with, oh I dunno, 18mm to 24mm wrenches in it. They didn't have any 6 point 18mm's, either, so I had to get a 12 point. Oh well. Also bought two little saber saw blades for metal; maybe I can use that on the bolt after I grind the head off.

TomP

I'm ignoring that Day 3 existed. Fought the same problem yesterday; that damn rusted bolt. After what seemed like hours, I ground the head off the bolt with my angle grinder, then used the cone-shaped stone to grind the bolt so it recessed into the hole in the crossmember. Then I pried that end out. Tried to destroy the bushing like I did on the other side, but it didn't help. Can't seem to wiggle the leg down enough to pull it free of the bolt. I went out at 10:00, came back at 12:00 midnight, and worked 'til 2:00am on it. Started to hacksaw the threaded end of the bolt off. Just need an extra 1/8 inch ground off, but the angle grinder (electric 4 1/2 inch) won't fit. I didn't want to wake the neighborhood up by starting the air compressor up, so I'll do that today.

Hopefully I'll have a hell of an update for you guys tomorrow.

I can't take this rented Malibu anymore. Caught myself doing 50 in a residential area; it didn't feel like 50 at all. It does have a nice new car smell to it though, and I coulda sworn the girl behind the counter was flirting with me. So hey, no worries.

NHRATA01

Ugh, hang in there man! 250k miles, I can't imagine how rusted those bolts are. I recently replaced the LCAs and PHR on my '01 T/A, but fortunately since the car is only 2 years old with 25k miles the bolts were not too hard to get off. I found an 18mm deep socket to be of help too in addition to an 18mm wrench. Also if memory serves me, the bolt heads were 22mm (i think?) and the nuts were 18. But thats a 4th gen, might be different for a 3rd. Have you given thought to replacing the LCA's with a good set of aftermarket tubular or boxed ones? Should help the rear hold alot better. Definitely noticed a handling improvement with the PHR, the LCA's were mainly to cure my wheelhop issues.

Hmm, also makes me wonder if I can swap my 4th gens LCA's and PHR onto my '89?

TomP

Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, on my 3rd gen, the bolt heads and nuts are all 18mm's. Plus too, I'm just doing the front right now... I can do the rear in a few hours. (I've had that rear apart many times before! Nothing should be too rusted back there- and even if it is, I know all my high-powered tools can fit back there!)

I wouldn't put tubular front LCA's on the car, no way, those things are too damned expensive. But eventually I'll box the rear LCA's and panhard rod myself (weld a plate over the open end of the U-channel design).

And actually, yeah, your 4th gen rear lca's and panhard rod will fit on your 3rd gen. Those parts are interchangable! They actually list them as for 82-2000 f-bodies. How good were the rear LCA's for the wheelhop problem?

Side note; my front spring insulators: I'm glad I bought replacements. My current ones were well-squished, to the point of deforming! It would've been hell to try to tape them to the new springs.

Countdown; probably an hour before I can get home. Just got handed an error report at work that I have to fix before I can leave with a good conscious.

NHRATA01

Shoot, I really should learn to read a little better! I saw control arms and immediately thought rear. Should've dawned on me that the ball joints are on the front suspension.

Yeah the control arms worked great, tires stay planted now and car hooks way better. Price wasn't too bad, tubular chromoly with poly bushings and it was 120 bucks for a pair, another 90 bucks for the PHR. But you've inspired me, I think I will go replace those suspension components on the 3rd gen with the 4th gen parts. 14 years and quite a few winters worth of driving, so I'm sure the bushings are all beat to hell. The parts off my '01 are practically new and I've got nothing else to do with them. Welding them up to form a boxed piece is a great cost effective idea.

One more question for you Tom, as you seem to know your Third gens very well. I will be putting a 12 bolt rear in my T/A soon, and unless the unexpected happens before then, I should have a good condition (less than 30k miles) stock 10 bolt with a torsen posi in it with the stock 3.42 gears. Do you know per chance if a forth gen rear will bolt right up to a 3rd gen? I think the chasis are close enough that it should, but I'm not positive. I beleive the rear gear on my '89 V6 A4 is 3.42 also, so it would be nice to swap out the tired, whining, leaking open rear on my '89 for a pretty fresh posi rear from my '01, since I've got no other use for it. If its a pretty easy bolt in swap, may make that a weekend project.

Oh and good luck with the rest of the rebuild - sorry for interrupting the thread!