[gmhndg]

Ball joint is fine. Just the bushing is cracked. Bad enough to replace or not worth it yet? And easier just to replace the whole LCA? $30 on sale on rockauto.

 

[2001spyderct]

Those bushings aren’t quite shot yet but are on their way out. I have seen them worse though. If you still have the oem Toyota lower control arms they are probably of better quality then aftermarket ones. If your ball joints have no play in them then I would recommend replacing both the front and rear lower control arm bushings. Super pro makes the bushings you would need. You will need a shop press to do this. If you don’t have one or don’t want to buy one (harbor freight 20 ton is a great deal for the money) then a competent shop could press the bushings in and out for you. I was just looking on rockauto. If you dont want the hassle of pressing in the bushings and are just looking for an oem replacement the moog control arms would probably work just fine. Just keep in mind that the rubber will eventually wear out again and need replacement again in 5-10 years. The polyurethane bushings will probably last the life of the car.

 

[sacklunch]

As said above, they are fine for now. Just buy new ones from Rockauto now if on sale and you will have em ready when the time comes. Don't bother pressing them out unless you want poly replacements.

 

[gmhndg]

Thanks. Yeah, not interested in pressing new ones. Unsure if it's OEM; I suspect not.

Is an alignment needed afterwards? I see conflicting viewpoints, and I'm sure some people just reflexively say it's needed since you touched anything suspension related.

 

[sacklunch]

Depends how much you care/how much you drive. If it’s a daily I would align it, if not I wouldn’t worry about it. If it’s a track car def align.

 

[beachbum]

We used lower control arms from Mevotech that seem to be very nice quality. The alignment did change when the arms were replaced, and I would recommend getting an alignment anytime anything in the suspension is disassembled. The alignment may or may not change, but why take a chance? You should also get new bolts for that rear mount as they often are badly corroded where they pass though the bushing

90119-12333

 

[rmeller]

...Is an alignment needed afterwards? I see conflicting viewpoints...

It depends on whether or not anything changes when you do the work. If you want the car to be right, then do the alignment. If it comes out the same, you can say "I didn't need an alignment, after all," but that is irrelevant. Good luck is not a substitute for risk management.

You could say that if you are putting in new parts, everything should come out right. The reason this does not work is because you are replacing parts that were worn, and hence the last alignment was done with parts that were worn and likely out of spec. For this sort of car, small changes really matter. If you care about the car, approximate adjustments are only acceptable on a temporary basis.

 

[gmhndg]

thanks all.

 

[RedstoneGarage]

I can almost guarantee that replacing them will make a good improvement to NVH. I replaced mine with SuprePros pretty easily with an O'Reilly's ball joint removal tool. But, it sounds like the best solution is getting the new arms that have new bushings already installed as mentioned above.

 

[gmhndg]

We used lower control arms from Mevotech that seem to be very nice quality. The alignment did change when the arms were replaced, and I would recommend getting an alignment anytime anything in the suspension is disassembled. The alignment may or may not change, but why take a chance? You should also get new bolts for that rear mount as they often are badly corroded where they pass though the bushing

90119-12333

Ordered the part and starting to attempt this. That rear bolt just spins and spins. Feels like I should be putting a wrench on something else, but as far as I can tell, there isn't anything else. It's all bushing. I haven't popped the ball joint yet, should I do that first?

What am I doing wrong?

 

[2001spyderct]

The bolt on the rear of the control arm that bolts it to the chassis? If I remember correctly some people have had difficulty removing this bolt in the past due to a tendency of the nut that this bolt threads into breaking loose from where it’s welded to the chassis. I would try using a pry bar to push the control arm down putting pressure on the nut against the chassis while trying to unthread the bolt (preferably with an impact gun if you have one). Im sure others who have run into this before will chime in here soon.

 

[ToolUser]

I did this last winter and one of the bolts was rusted solidly into the bushing - eventually it snapped & started spinning inside the bushing, but still didn't want to come out. I used a crow bar to pry the arm off the rusted nub of bolt and eventually the whole thing popped off. Fortunately the bolt had snapped with a good 1/2 inch or so sticking out from the body of the car. I didn't want it to start spinning the captured nut when I tried to remove it so I used lots of penetrating oil over a few days, banging on it with a hammer a few times here & there. Then I heated the stub up to red hot with a propane torch, clamped a vice grip to it as tight as it would go, and... after all that it eased right out. I actually think all the corrosion was inside the bushing and the nut wasn't corroded at all, or at least very little.

Weirdly enough the other side came right out with no issue & didn't have even a trace of corrosion. No idea why the two sides were so different.

Anyways, best of luck - I remember it being very stressful contemplating how/where I was going to have to cut a hole in the frame to get access to the captured nut. Fortunately it never came to that, and hopefully you have a similar outcome.

 

[ToolUser]

And here's two reference threads for you, just so you know you're not alone in your hour of darkness...

Need Help! Front Lower Control Arm Bolt Broken

So as the title says I was installing coilovers and also replacing sway bars with whitelines, new endlinks, new lower control arms, SS brake lines, calipers, etc. Basically trying to restore the car starting with suspension, but I’m now at a full stop because of a broken bolt on the front...

www.spyderchat.com

Suspension Refresh / Winter Project

I’ve finally assembled the parts to get started on a suspension refresh for my ’03 Spyder. It’s got under 80k on the clock but things are obviously getting soft and the shocks are, well, almost 20 years old. Here’s what I’ve got so far… A Quickjack! I splurged for the holidays and am looking...

www.spyderchat.com

 

[gmhndg]

sigh.

will try prying tomorrow (I do have an impact). On the positive, the bolt isn't broken, so at least I got that going for me right now.

 

[gmhndg]

well, its going about as well as y'all expected. pry bar worked, but bolt is snapped. had to rotate the whole LCA out to get it free. now to get his mofo out. it's wobbly, not sure if I broke the weld on the nut. kinda feels like it.

edit: from the other threads, i see the nut is in a captive housing, not welded, and normally has some play. So, I think that's good. Now it's just normal wd40 and heat I think. I hope...

 

[gmhndg]

I win! With tools of choice. Regular vise grips kept on slipping off. It's amazing how the right tools can make an impossible job easy.

Thanks for reading my blog.