Control Arms

[JustChill]

Is there some sort of trick to getting the control arms off the sub frame? They are just two 22mm nuts holding that ball joint on the middle of the CA. On the drivers side i got the nut loose but now its just turning the ball joint with each turn and not loosening the nut anymore. And the passengers side i cant even get a nut or wrench or anything on the nut... HELP

[AdamF 88iS]

Apply pressure to the underside of the ball joint to keep it from turning while loosening the nut.

As far as teh other one, you just have to be patient and find an angle to make it work.

[AdironRider]

Drop the subframe, makes the job much easier.

[AdamF 88iS]

Drop the subframe, makes the job much easier.

Chill out with that.

[AdironRider]

Por que, its a true statement, its like 4 bolts.

[Sean]

Por que, its a true statement, its like 4 bolts.

And it only supports the engine.

[Dave]

And it only supports the engine.

Yeah - good idea to put a jack under the engine if you go this route!

[AdironRider]

I figured that was assumed

[Sean]

I figured that was assumed

;)

[AndrewBird]

You probably can't do this with the subframe in the car due to no space, but if you use an impact wrench on the nuts, they will come off. Doesn't matter if the ball joints are spining or not.

If you are replacing the arms/ball joints, you could just grab the the ball joints with a pair of pliers to keep them from spinning.

[BimmerTom]

Having just replaced my control arms, here's what I did.

Soaked the studs with PB blaster for a few days.

Car was sitting on jackstands, so I put a floorjack under the balljoint and applied enough pressure to just life the car off the stand. I had a 1/2" impact swivel joint and (3) 1/2" entensions. Paired it up with a impact wrench.

5 seconds later, they were off. Cake job. If you don't have the impact, you can do it my hand, but you really need the pressure on the balljoint.

Tom