Tips on replacing upper control arm

[Shehzada]

I'm replacing the passenger side upper control arm with a Dorman model. My car is completely stock.

The UCA came with the pivot bolts quite loose and I know it should be torqued to 22 ft/lbs. Should the bolt be torqued after installing the arm.....or can I do it prior?

Also, my Haynes manual states to align the upper arm anchor bolt with the mark on the upper arm. I cant find any mark on the arm.......

Thanks very much.

[SanJoCaF22DrAcc]

I recommend that you get the Moog version over the dorman. Moog ball joint or Japanese are much more superior, and worth the difference in money.

[so-jdm-cb]

I recommend that you get the Moog version over the dorman. Moog ball joint or Japanese are much more superior, and worth the difference in money.

moog is tha best

[jewelproject]

easier to tighten now before you re install your control arm. unless you have two 3 foot 14mm box wrenches. which i have never seen. as for the anchor marks i have never seen them on my new control arms. i just aligned it with my old one. your control arms will always move up and down on the pivot bolts.

[drewams]

moog is tha best

x2

[Shehzada]

Thanks for those tips. I got Moog endlink bushings since those are bad also. I will stick w/ Moog from now on.

How important is it to torque the castle nut and the 2 nuts around the engine compartment with the tire on (suspension loaded) or can I do it while its in the air?

[jewelproject]

i did mine on jacks with wheel off. more room to work with. its kind of hard working around a wheel against your chest. its four more bolts to take off, whats the harm? i would suggest tightening those nuts properly. you wouldnt want your suspension falling apart when your going 100mph. not good. mine did loosen up once. i felt the major difference when they were loose. really scary!!! my ride jerked around when i hit a bump. so torque them down!

[Shehzada]

Update:

I want to thank everyone for their inputs. I replaced the control arm today and it was a 3 hour hell time (i did the job outside and it was hot in NYC).

First my wheel was siezed on due to rust and no amount of tugging or kicking with my foot helped. After wrestling with the wheel for a long time, it finally came off. The rest of the bolts came out without issue except for the two inside the engine compartment. I had to use a impact on them and I was on my way.

The horror show came when I tried separate the ball joint. It was a real bitch and did not want to separate no matter how hard I hit the knuckle and "shock" the joint. I wanted to just reinstall all the bolts and take it to a shop. I was almost in tears since I fubar'ed the joint and there was no going back. The joint was fused to the knuckle. After bleeding at my cuticles......i finally got it off. Installation was pretty straightforward. You cannot torque the pivot bolts prior. I had to install, tighten the pivot bolts while on the car, then removed the control arm to torque them.

I also got to installing one side of the endlinks. That was very easy in comparison. The links I removed had too many collars (dont know if it was OEM).

The only concern I have is the torque issue. I stopped tightening the endlinks whe I could no longer turn the washers by hand.......but it was below the recommended 16 ft/lbs. The last issue was the torque on the ball joint. When I torqued the castle nut to 35 ft/lbs.......it was so far up on the threads that it was not possible to install the cotter pin properly.

Thanks again.....and let me know what u guys think of the last paragraph.

[accordztech]

Load the suspension by jacking the side you are working on up.

Tighten the endlink just till the bushings get pressed. Thats it.



Thats to tight. ^^



Just about right, but I dont think he compressed the suspension before he did this. ^^



Perfect ^^

[SanJoCaF22DrAcc]

Omg I can't believe no one else added this tip. OTC tool make a special ball joint separator specifically for Honda's. Its like $60 bckz I turns this job into night and day. There are other separators that work as well but this is the one I bought. It makes it so easy that I forgot how much of a headache it can be without it. It one of those tools that is useless until you have the opportunity to use it. I will take a pic of mine and post it when I get a chance.

[accordztech]

yea you can use that as well. But if your replacing the balljoint, just get a normal fork tool for 10 bucks, and stick it in, and beat the balljoint.

An easier way to seperate may be to jack up the suspension a little bit, then hit it with a hammer. If you are trying to save the balljoint and dont want to risk messing up the threads by hitting it with a hammer, you can put the castle nut back on a few threads and wack with no issues.

Usually after a few good hits with a standard hammer I can get it loose. If I had my 4lb sledge it would go much faster.

[SanJoCaF22DrAcc]

With the OTC tool you don't need a hammer at all. You save beating on your spindle, save the ball joint, don't harm the boot either, and most importantly you save the shock to your elbow.

Little trick if you take the castle nut off and install it backwards on the ball joint stud, just enough to be close to flush with the top of the stud, then you prevent damaging the top of the threads.

[Shehzada]

Accordztech: Thank you for those pictures and I will adjust the tension on the endlinks.

SanJoCaF22DrAcc:I knew about that OTC tool before I started the job but everyone said that it takes a few strong blows to "shock" that joint and it comes undone, so I thought I could do without it. Boy what a mistake.

They say that necessity is the mother of inventions. Well I agree with that statement because last night I was bleeding, struggling and then I light went over my head. I saw my scissor jack laying besides my tools and it gave me the idea of using it to push on the ball joint stud. I placed the scissor jack on top of the brake rotor and wedged it on the BJ stud and turned. After a couple of turns......I heard a very loud pop and the joint broke loose.

After completing the job, I test drove it and no more clunks can be heard when going over pot holes. It was pure satisfaction and a smile on my face that I did it on my own for $35 when a shop wanted $200+ estimation for one UCA and both endlinks.

BTW, I placed an order for the OTC tool just in case. I might have to do the other side soon. Thanks again for the tips everyone.