Replacing front upper A-arms

[AaronP85]

Battery out - some blood and sweat but no tears yet. A few cuss words though

 

[Plasmid_Boy]

Looking good! Gtech’s suggestion of torquing at ride height is important, I think. What I did was tighten everything loosely, then jack the wheel hub carrier up until the car just start lifting off of the jack supporting the car (the weight of the car transferred to the suspension I was working on) and then torqued everything up.

 

[AaronP85]

Stuck. Bolt is jammed and has plenty of fight in her. Thinking of torching outside around the bolt. Any good ideas here?

 

[AaronP85]

Got that sucker free - used some map gas, left it alone, then hit it on both sides with a little persuasion

 

[AaronP85]

New arm in place. Bolts still loose

 

[AaronP85]

Both arms out

 

[AaronP85]

Second arm in, loose

 

[AaronP85]

This is where I have to stop for now, I'll post more later

 

[Plasmid_Boy]

I brushed the bolts with some anti-seize, hoping that they will come out easier in the future.

 

[AaronP85]

Ok, torqued it up at ride hight, put the wheels back on, went for a test ride, amazing. Special thanks to @scottm for the writeup I used to finish the job.

 

[AaronP85]

Few more things
1. J screw on the battery is really frustrating. I tied a sting onto that J screw and guided it through the battery strap. Then I pulled taught the string and the screw slipped right into the strap. I tightened the bolt quickly and ripped the string and pulled out both half of the string when finished
2. I had to use a 1 inch pvc pipe to lever the arms into place. That really sped things up. You'll notice when you insert the arms there's a slot for the inner side. They don't easily drop into place. Might be easier to start with the bolt on the easiest side of the arm so one will be in place first.
3. I had to use a roughly 1 foot section of 2x4 so I could hammer against the arm for the pinch connector of the knuckle. I went through the trouble of adding enamel to the arms and I didn't want to scuff up the paint. Worked nicely

 

[rjcampeau]

Is it mandatory to replace the bolts on this job? The service manual usually says "remove and discard" for parts that can't be re-used, but not in this case.
Thx

 

[Plasmid_Boy]

I replaced the bolts, but I think they can be reused if needed.

 

[AaronP85]

I was worried about them so I purchased them and replaced anyways. I payed about $25 for bolts but I sleep better at night.

 

[Plasmid_Boy]

The new arms have sharp edges and splattered weld slags on them. The paint was already missing from some areas, which might explain why they look so rusty in the car. To help reduce rust, I sanded and painted them before installing.

A quick update. After nearly two years and ~30k miles and still no rust, so the sanding and painting worked.