KILLER deal on Lower control arms

I've seen it a few times myself The t-stat housings are also prone to cracking. GM has had water pump issues dating back to the late 90s in the 3.1,3.4 and 3.8 engines. They also had major issues with manifold gaskets on those motors too. I could go on and on and on I'd have to be paid really well before I'd consider driving an "American" car.

My wife had a Sunbird back in the day that liked to blow head gaskets. A 3.1 of course. It was a convertible too, so that meant you had rain pissing on you and you couldn't see a dang thing out of the plexiglass rear window. My mother has an 05 Impala with a 3.4. She has spent thousands on that car and hardly even drives it.

SFerrell recently installed the ones he bought from me

They were very easy to install. I cleaned out the hub ball joint knuckle with a steel brush, some 400 grit sandpaper, and some brake cleaner. A little synthetic grease and 2-3 taps with a dead blow mallet and the ball joint seated. The machining is pretty nice, bushings are stiffer than stock, and the rear bushing isn't the split design like the oem. I took pictures and was planning on posting my install, but my micro sd card committed suicide. Only time will tell how well they wear, but I have no doubts. Oh!.. and if anyone was wondering, I did take measurements on the set I installed and they were very close to the factory control arms. As long as you clean up any corrosion and make everything relatively clean, then these should be an easy install for you as well. If nothing else you are removing the weakest link in our suspensions and getting rid of some slop and added weight in the process. Also, the passenger side pinch bolt broke on me like most people, but the driver side did not. I soaked the driver side down with PB Blaster once a day for three days and it zinged right off with an impact. These control arms did come with replacement pinch bolts. I drilled out the broken bolt and replaced with a grade 8 bolt, two washers, a lock washer, and a nut. Screw oem! Dear Subaru Engineers, If you are reading this, lick me where I $#!t! That is all.

Good to hear, hopefully mine goes semi ok. Sway bar end links came off and back on better with wheel under load or hanging freely?

I was under the impression that sway bar links had to be connected with the suspension under load...

I was under the impression that sway bar links had to be connected with the suspension under load...

Makes it a lot easier! If the suspension isn't compressed enough, it can be quite a stretch. Also best to have it bolted together without any pre-load.

Good to hear, hopefully mine goes semi ok. Sway bar end links came off and back on better with wheel under load or hanging freely?

I had the car on jack stands and put a bottle jack right under the balljoint castle nut on the lower control arm. Otherwise the endlink is under too much tension and it can pull the threads right out of the endlink mounting bolt. I have crossthreaded these in the past with no load on the suspension. With the bottle jack you can level everything out before you tighten your hardware down. Same goes for any suspension component. Otherwise you can cause premature wear and component failure. Remember, PB Blaster is your friend, but keep it off of any rubber you don't want to melt. I also use Anti-Seize. Keeps hardware from corroding and allows for an easy disassembly. Good Luck!

You bring a great point SFerrell, if you ever loosen any suspension bolts that has bushings, do night tighten them without full weight being on them.

I will usually replace the parts and slightly tighten them, after I'm done I will put the wheels on and drive onto drive on ramps. Then loosen those bolts and torque them down with full weight on them.

I do the jack method on my cars.

Also to note, the rule about putting weight on bushings before tightening down is specifically for rubber bushings (where the inner sleeve is physically attached to the outer sleeve). Since you are clamping down on the inner sleeve, it will twist and try to tear the rubber once you finally compress it. This isn't much of a factor with poly bushings, where the inner sleeve is allowed to rotate inside the bushing.

Unless endlinks are adjustable, just mount them up however works. Full droop on both sides or full compression on both sides. You do generally have to push one side up or down to make them line up. With adjustables, you remove preload while both sides are compressed. I just use 2 jacks for that. Most of my stuff is too low to do it on ramps.

Probably going to get a pair of these arms for my OBXT. Ive got some feathering on one tire and feel the need to just rebuild the entire front end.

Valid point on oem bushings, though I do find that a lot of poly bushings are oversized (needed to prevent), which cases the bushings to bind still.

Also, With LCA bushings like Whitelines, you couldn't even get the upper and lower sleeves in until the arm was straight.

I bought a set from RockAuto yesterday for $104/pc + S&H

Google rock auto discount codes and enter them in at checkout.

Has anyone used this? Just trying to figure out what would make my life easier since it's all looking bad.

http://www.company23.com/subarutools/532

Woah that's pretty awesome! Though not $80 awesome. Looks like the design is very simple, the center part screws onto the ball joint rod, then you use that to pull it out while the housing holds the knuckle in place.

Last time I did ball joints was on my FXT, I left the knuckles in place bolted up, removed the ball joint bolt (which didn't break!) and was able to use a prybar between the control arm and knuckle and it popped them right out. Will try this technique again on Outback and Legacy (if I have to replace again).

Has anyone used this? Just trying to figure out what would make my life easier since it's all looking bad.

 

http://www.company23.com/subarutools/532

I've never tried it before. That seems like quite a bit of money for what it is. Curious if it makes removal significantly easier. I had to take an air hammer to the lower control arm to get my ball joint out. Passenger side ball joint had to be cut with a grinder wheel before I could get it out. It's by far the hardest part of the job.

All I had to do was unbolt the control arm from the body in 2 places, swing it left, beat the control arm down with a mallet, swing right, beat it down with a mallet. Took me 10 minutes.

Edit: after loosening the pinch bolt of course. That took a little more work.

All I had to do was unbolt the control arm from the body in 2 places, swing it left, beat the control arm down with a mallet, swing right, beat it down with a mallet. Took me 10 minutes.

 

Edit: after loosening the pinch bolt of course. That took a little more work.

Your car wasn't continuously sprayed with calcium chloride road salt for 5 months out of the year in a Chicago suburb.

Your car wasn't continuously sprayed with calcium chloride road salt for 5 months out of the year in a Chicago suburb.

Mine looks like it sat at the bottom of Lake Erie when I got mad halfway though the build thread and pushed it in.

I been wanted to move to the south!

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k280/merc6/LGT/6DCDD4EA-1091-4050-BD76-17EFBB3D3CA4_zpsjuovdpcb.jpg

that's the second time i've seen that from you, and it still hurts my insides.

you need to move and then replace half your car...

...or just push it back into lake erie (or simplify and just burn it to the ground).