Photo Essay - Replacing Front Control Arm Bushes - Version 2.0

[PhilMeUp]

Photo Essay - Replacing Front Control Arm Bushes - version 2.0

I posted a thread back in 2012 about replacing front control arm bushes. I had a mechanic do the job for me, and I took a few photos whenever I could. http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/78764-photo-essay-replacing-front-control-arm-bushes/

Now I'm finally going to have a proper go at it.

When Ford designed the BA Falcon it pursued higher levels of comfort over what was in the AU. As a result of this there were some areas that required increased maintenance attention.

One of these areas was the front suspension and braking system. Ford used some rubber bushes on the suspension arms (ie control arms) and those rubber bushes eventually need replacing.

Even if the car has relatively low km on it, rubber cracks and dry rots over time. So, whether it be from distance driven or time, sooner or later the control arm bushes need to be replaced.

Symptoms of worn control arm bushes:
- Overall sloppy feel in the front end and just a floaty/bad/dangerous feeling.
- Premature tyre wear in the insides of the tyres.
- Premature warping of the brake discs. Get the discs machined, and they’re warped again within a few thousand km.
- Brake shudder.
- Loose steering.
- Clunking sounds from the front suspension.

With my taxi and my girlfriend’s taxi, we’ve been taking them to a suspension workshop and had the bushes replaced there. This has been costing around $600 per car each time, although that does include a wheel alignment. However, there is also the problem of each taxi being off the road for half a day, which costs extra money.

It was time that I learned more about this, including how to do the job at home myself (late at night, so that the car wouldn’t have to off the road during the day).

It turned out that replacing the control arms actually isn’t all that difficult. However, the other challenge is to get the bushes replaced on the control arms. I recently bought a 20 ton hydraulic press secondhand for $100, so in the future I’ll be able to press out the old bushes and press in the new ones. I already have a complete spare set of upper and lower control arms, so I’ll able to get them ready with new bushes before dismantling anything on the car.

Deb’s taxi was urgent though. The insides of her front tyres had gone bald and had to be replaced well before their due time. Knowing that that the new tyres would then wear prematurely, we bought some complete aftermarket control arms. My car currently has a secondhand set of control arms that a mechanic has lent me (ie he fitted them), so the pressure has been on lately to learn how to replace them at home. Both cars needed bushes urgently, and I need to return the borrowed control arms.

I was cleaning under my car in March when I noticed that the rear lower control arms bushes were completely stuffed. These bushes were 12 months and 120,000km old, so I didn’t expect them to be so worn out so early. These arms were replaced by the borrowed ones a few days later.





It was clear that I had to learn a lot more about how to maintain this area.

I didn’t muck around with making sure that the front of the car was going to be stable. I jacked up the front with a trolley jack as far as the jack would go and then lowered it on to the orange stands. I then slid the blue stands into place, tapping them backward with a mallet until they were firmly between the chassis rails and the ground. I left the trolley jack in place, although it was later moved to the engine cross member when the front one had to be lowered.



I’ve started by removing the brake caliper and disc rotor. The front pads were almost finished, so I’ve pushed the caliper pistons back in, in anticipation of fitting new pads later on.



This photo shows some of the various main parts.



A photo of an upper control arm. I’ll be replace those bushes another time (soon). You can also see the pot plant hooks that I use to hold the brake calipers in place. I’m about to disconnect the spindle from the upper control arm by loosening the 18mm nut and removing the bolt.



This came apart easily, and I’ve put the bolt and nut back in place so that I don’t misplace them or confuse them with the other bolts that I’ll be removing later on.



Now that I’ve got the top of the spindle loose, I can move it outward and disconnect it from the lower ball joint. Remove the nut with a 22mm socket and then bang the base of the spindle with a hammer - the vibrations will loosen it from the ball joint.

I actually bought a conventional 22mm socket for this job, but it was too short to fit over the bolt ends. I ended up using a 22mm long impact socket instead.



I’m not particularly delicate when it comes to getting the spindle to separate from the ball joint. I belt the living daylights out of it with a hammer from different angles.



Now that the spindle has been removed you can see the ball joint and shock absorber strut. I bought a 24mm spanner for this job, but the only time that I used it where the strut bolts to the control arm. You could easily get away with using a crescent (ie adjustable spanner) instead if you haven’t got a 24mm spanner.

You can also see why the normal 22mm socket was too short, requiring the long impact socket instead - the bolt was too long for the normal socket to fit over.



I’ve now removed the shock absorber bolt.



Now we start to see how the lower control arm works. It levers up and down, the movement of which is controlled by the shock absorber. There are two large bushes in the control arm where it connects to the car. When these bushes are worn then problems will develop (ie any of the symptoms described at the start).



This photo shows the rear part of the control arm, and the bolt that will be removed next. I’ve also relocated the jack from the front crossmember to the engine one. Although I had four axle stands in place, I still kept the trolley back in place for extra safety.



Another angle of the rear area of the control arm. The bolt slid out the back easily.



This photo shows the front area of the control arm, including the front lower control arm bush. This is the one that causes most of the trouble when it is worn. When the car is braking then a lot of weight is transferred on to this. If this bush is worn then the result will be the premature wearing of the insides of the front tyres.



To get to the front of the control arms I need to remove this plastic pan that attaches to the front bumper. This means removing a bunch of screws with a 7mm head each. I used a cordless electric drill and 1/4” drive socket for this.



I’ve only ever had to replace an indicator globe once, and that was done by removing the plastic on the inside of the wheel arch to get to the globe. Removing the plastic pan is another way of accessing the indicator globes.

Edited 27/05/14 08:50 PM by PhilMeUp

[PhilMeUp]

Now that the plastic pan is out of the way I’ve got access to the front bolt for the control arm. The end of this bolt was frustrating as it wasn’t a conventional bolt end. A 17mm ring spanner was too small to fit over it and an 18mm ring spanner was too big. I ended up using the open end of the 18mm spanner to stop this from rotating when I undid the nut on the other side. I’ll try using some vice grips next time.



This is the nut that has to be removed, and you can see the 18mm spanner in the background that I’m trying to use to stop the bolt rotating with the nut.



I’ve now got both of the control arm bolts out.



Here are the two control arm bolts. They have arrow-shaped ends on them. The front one had some corrosion on it and was difficult to remove. The rear one slid out easily.



At the front, one of the crossmember bolts is in the way and blocks the control arm from sliding out.



The rear of the control arm slid out quite easily.



At the front I’ve loosened the nuts that hold the crossmember up. This creates enough space for the control arm to slide out, although on this side it was still quite a wrestling match. I was concerned that if I removed the nuts entirely then the crossmember would drop right down and I wouldn’t be able to get the nuts back on, but that concern was unfounded. I’ll go straight to removing the nuts next time so that I can get maximum access to get the old control arm out and the new control arm in quicker.



Here’s a photo of the rear lower control arm bush, and it’s clearly very worn.



Another photo of the rear lower control arm bush.



And, just case you haven’t had enough of control arm bushes yet then here’s a sexy close-up.



The front bush was also stuffed. This was causing the premature front tyre wear on this car.



This is what it looks like once the control arm has been removed.



If you’ve ever laid awake in bed late at night pondering where the other end of the front ABS sensors go then this photo will allow you to sleep peacefully in the future.



I bought a tub of this stuff from the local SuperPro distributor. The part number is WPTUBSIL. A quick Google search shows it to be selling from places for around $80. Shop around - I paid a lot less than that.



This stuff is quite gooey. I wore a disposable rubber glove when dealing with this stuff so that I could tear off the glove when I needed to and not have slippery grease all over my hands.

[PhilMeUp]

I put a bunch of the bushing grease in where the control arm bushes sit.



And where the rear control arm bush will go.



Now it was time to put the replacement control arm in. Easier said than done - removing the old one was relatively easy thanks to gravity, but gravity then made it harder to get the arm in on the right angle. As mentioned before, next time I’ll remove the crossmember nuts so that I can get the crossmember as low as possible to get the most access.



It took a bit of mucking around, but I got the new control arm into place.



I then put the front bolt back in. In hindsight, I did this the wrong way because it was then difficult to get the rear bush to slide back into its place because the front bush was limiting movement of the control arm. When I did the control arm replacement on the other side of the car, I put the rear bush and bolt into place first before the front one. This was a lot quicker and easier.



Getting the bolt to line up to go through the rear bush was much harder than it was for the front one. Again, that was because I should have done the rear bolt first. I also couldn’t look up and visually line up the bush with the holes in the cross member. I had to poke around with fingertips to feel when the bush and holes were lined up so that the bolt would fit through.



I finally got the two bolts back into place, meaning that I could put the shock absorber bolt back in. If you’re really sharp then you’ll spot the stuff up that I’ve made here. I made the same mistake on both sides of the car.



Now that the control arm was back in place it was time to get the torque wrench out to tighten the nuts up to the manufacturer’s specifications. I bought this Snap-On TECH2FR100 on eBay a couple of years ago but haven’t really used it yet. I also have it’s bigger brother, the TECH2FR250, which gets used whenever I need a torque wrench.

However, the TECH2FR250 was too long to use here, so the TECH2FR100 finally got to become useful.

I tightened the two control arm bolts to 115Nm.

Spotted the stuff-up yet?



From the Ford service manual: “With the vehicle weight on it’s wheels, torque the shock absorber lower mounting hardware and the three nuts on the suspension tower, to specification.”

In other words, the control arms must be under load when tightening the bolts. I’ve simulated this by using a trolley back and a brick (as a spacer between the jack and control arm).



When it came to putting the replacement control arm back in on the other side of the car, I removed the nuts completely so that the crossmember could drop down more. This worked, and sliding the control arm back in on this side was much easier.



And here’s the stuff up that I mentioned earlier. I did this on both sides of the car - forgot to have the ABS sensor cable going between the shock absorber strut and control arm when I put the bolt back in. Which meant unbolting it, putting the cable back in place and then putting the bolt back in place. I tried, but the ABS sensor was too big to fit through the gap at the bottom of the shock absorber.



Another photo showing an upper control arm and its bolts. I’ll be replacing those bushes as soon as I can figure out how to press them out and in with the hydraulic press that I recently bought.



As covered in previous threads, it is important for the various metal surfaces to be clear of corrosion. Such corrosion can push the disc rotor out of alignment and result in brake shudder. I use a cordless electric drill and wire brush to ensure that the surfaces are clean.



These are the brake pads that came out of the passenger side caliper. As you can see, they have worn very, very unevenly. One end of each pad is almost new and the other end is almost down to the backing plate. Another symptom of worn control arm bushes.



By now the finish line was in sight, and I was being extra careful to make sure that I didn’t forget anything. Except for putting the ABS sensor cables in their correct places.

[PhilMeUp]

Yes, I even put the spindle back on before I realised that the ABS cable wasn’t in its correct place. By now it was too late at night to remove the spindle (ie the hammer noise and neighbours) so I had to work around the spindle to remove and re-fit the shock absorber bolt.



Here’s a photo of the disc rotor and bearing hub on the driver’s side, before cleaning them up with the drill and wire brush. This amount of corrosion is quite minor, but I had everything apart so it was a suitable time to get everything perfect.



The brake pad wear on the driver’s side was as it should be.



The finished job. A new lower control arm, new brake pads and even some new wheel nuts. I bought a box of Gorilla 91188XL wheel nuts recently.
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Automotive-91188XL-AcornBulge-Thread/dp/B003ICXH70/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398981482&sr=8-2&keywords=91188XL
Gorilla link: http://www.gorilla-auto.com/

Don’t forget to pump the brake pedal before going anywhere.



Both taxis had the lower control arm bushes replaced at Wilkinson Suspension just over a year before I did this job. They use Roadsafe bushes, but for me they have worn out too early.

I had the original Ford bushes replaced on my taxi at 247,000km. 120,000km later the front tyres had gone bald on the insides, indicating that the bushes were worn. Both ball joints had to be replaced a couple of months ago. For me, it would be logical to conclude that the Roadsafe stuff is good for 100,000km, but I need more than that for taxi use.

At this stage I am inclined to believe that the Roadsafe bushes would be fine for a personal-use car, but I won’t be using them on a taxi again. However, the Roadsafe bushes are much cheaper than the genuine Ford ones.

If you want to replace your control arm bushes as cheaply as possible, and have the mechanical skills and tools, then see if you can find a low km wreck and get the control arms from it.

It took me five hours to do this job. I’ll be doing the same on my taxi in the near future, so will try to get it down to four hours or less (three hours would be ideal). Taking photos, my stuff ups with the ABS sensor cable and cleaning the disc rotor and bearing surfaces all took extra time. I also lost time trying to get the first control arm out and the replacement back in, due to not lowering the crossmember enough (hence I’ll be removing the nuts next time).

Although this job required quite a range of tools, it wasn’t particularly difficult. It was the first time that I’ve done this, and I’m looking forward to doing it on my own taxi as soon as I can get some Ford bushes pressed into a spare set of control arms that I have here. At this stage, my intention is to use the Ford bushes and replace them every 12 months to ensure that the taxis don’t suffer the premature tyre wear and worn ball joints that they have both had recently. I’ll be timing this so that each taxi has new suspension bushes, new ball joints and repainted control arms just before each annual Department of Transport inspection.

Some part numbers - search on eBay for some competitive pricing:

Genuine Ford parts:
Lower Ball Joint: BA3395A
Upper Ball Joint: BA3263A

Front Lower Control Arm Bush: ER3069A
Rear Lower Control Arm Bush: 8R2Z3A262AA
Lower Control Arm - Suspension Bush: AU18174B

Upper Arm Control Bush: BA3068A
Upper Arm Control Bush: BA3A086A

Roadsafe parts:
Front Lower Ball Joint: BJ426
Front Upper Ball Joint: BJ425

Front Lower Control Arm Bush: S1937R
Rear Lower Control Arm Bush: S1938R
Lower Control Arm - Suspension Bush: S0398R

Complete Roadsafe control arms (ie bushes fitted, bolt out/bolt in):
Front Lower Control Arm - Left: BJ426L+ARM
Front Lower Control Arm - Right: BJ426R+ARM

Front Upper Control Arm - Left: FFU7
Front Upper Control Arm - Right: FFU6

There are other companies that make bushes, including out of other materials (eg polyurethane). Such bushes last a lot longer, but also convey more noise and bumps through to the car interior. This is why Ford chose to use bushes that minimise noises and bumps.

[PhilMeUp]

I bought this 20 ton press a few weeks ago for $100 secondhand via Gumtree. It’s fairly tall, which is what I need for doing rear axle bearings on my BFIII station wagon taxi. And it’s easy to move the cross beam by moving the metal rods that hold it up.



It came with this box of various spacers and other bits and pieces.



To push the existing bushes out of the control arm, I removed the hydraulic jack from the press. It took some balancing to get everything to line up but eventually I managed to get the jack pushing the spacer upward instead of pushing it out sideways. An extra pair of hands would be useful for this part.

At the top of the jack is one of the metal spacers from the box. It turned out to be the perfect diameter to fit on the outer edge of the bush (ie where the metal exterior is).



A close-up photo of the front lower control arm bush being pushed out by the hydraulic jack and spacer. Once I got it all lined up it was simply a matter of pumping the jack and watching the bush slide out.



Another advantage of using the hydraulic jack was that the base of it also partly pushed out the rear lower control arm bush. In theory, I could have had the correct sized spacers at both ends of the jack and but this stuff is heavy and balancing it all was a challenge.



The hole in the control arm where the front bush was.



Then it was time to get the rear bush out. I had a head start thanks to the hydraulic jack.



Another few minutes of trying to balance and line things up before the jack’s piston pushed out far enough to hold the jack in place.



The same as the front bush - the rear bush pushed out easily.



Time for a problem - the spacer that I had just used on the rear bush was about the same diameter, meaning that it was then stuck in the control arm. I had a quick go with a hammer but it wasn’t going to tap out. I put the hydraulic jack back in the press and pushed the spacer out easily enough. Being able to move the cross beam around so easily made this a simple job.



Then it was time to push out the suspension strut bush. I used the press to start pushing the bush out.



Then it was time to get a spacer from the box.



It didn’t take particularly long to have all three bushes pushed out. I was pretty pleased by now.



The end result - a front lower control arm with all three bushes pushed out. That ball joint is only a few weeks old so will be staying there.



Now all I need to do is go buy a bunch of new bushes and learn how to press them in.

I’ve also used the press to push out the two bushes on each upper control arm - that was easy.

[PhilMeUp]

Pushing out the upper control arm bushes properly was easy enough (ie so that there is no risk of bending the arm). Using a sharp knife, I cut away the sides of each bush so that I could push them out with the press.



I’ve pushed the other side of the bush through with a spacer on top. The spacer was narrower than the bush, thus allowing the outer rubber part to curve upwards as the bush gets pushed through.



I’ve added another spacer when required, and the bush slid out easily.



I could have used the press to push out the ball joint, but decided to give my G & G Technics GGT-400 something to do.

[PhilMeUp]

Although I had a bunch of various size metal offcuts to use as spacers, it was still frustrating trying to find something the right diameter for each task. I ended up buying a Shop Press Accessory Kit from Supercheap Auto. This retails for $39.99.

Looking for a cheap bottle jack solely for pushing bushes out, I then went to another car accessory shop and noticed a display bottle jack that was looking pretty terrible. I put it to one of the staff that I buy this jack, and that they put a new one on display. This worked, and I ended up paying $10 for it.



I needed to get the right sized spacers to help with pushing the old bushes out and the new ones in. Ford Australia recommend that dealers get a special tools kit for this (part number 204-230), which is shown on page 99 of the Falcon BA Service Manual PDF that can be found on the internet. This kit is made by SPX, but I haven’t been able to find out if it’s still available.

I went to a couple of Ford dealers to see such a kit and measure it so that I could get it duplicated. Neither of the two dealers that I went to had such a kit, but one of them said that I could have some bearing shells that were on the floor. I grabbed three shell rings and an old bearing hub.



They all had grease in them, so I cleaned them up with some kerosene and an old toothbrush.



Pushing in the new front lower control arm bush was easy enough, thanks to these bearing shells. One was of a suitable diameter for pushing the bush in and another was large enough to allow the bush to slide through the arm.



I was just finishing pushing the new bush in when the bearing shell cracked in half. I didn’t realise that where the shells decrease in diameter in the middle is too narrow for the bush, so the bush has pushed the shell apart.



Pushing in the rear lower control arm bush was a lot more difficult. It doesn’t have the space around it that the front bush has, so is very difficult to access with a press. I tried the obvious way but there was no way that was going to work.



I ended up getting creative with a plate and some spacers. This was fiddly and hard to co-ordinate with two hands, but I got the job done. The bush is on the wrong angle in this photo but was lined up properly before pushing it in (ie I’ve got one hand on the camera and the other hand holding the control arm).



This worked, although I had to juggle spacers around to keep the upper plate at the correct angle.



Once the bush was pushed in enough, I then had to put a spacer under the control arm so that the bush could push through properly. This meant more lining it all up with spacers.



Now that I had the rear bush in, it was time to push in the suspension mount bush. This was much easier. As with the other bushes, I didn’t use any lubricant to help the bushes slide in, but will do so next time.



As with the rear control arm bush, I put a spacer under the control arm when it came to finish pushing the bush into place.



Finally, I had a completed control arm. Getting somewhere!



One thing that I was initially concerned about was how to line up the bush on the correct angle, but this turned out to be pretty easy. I had lined up the points on the bush with the line on the control arm and tapped the bush in with a rubber mallet so that it was lined up correctly.



I saw this advert a few days ago - Repco is selling a 12 ton hydraulic shop press this week for $149 (it’s in their current catalogue). That makes it an affordable addition to anyones workshop. The Repco stock number is MPSP.



Here in Perth, there was a car accessory company called Malz which went broke in February of this year. It was bought by Autopro, which is now selling off a bunch of old Malz stock. I remember seeing a press heavily discounted a few weeks ago, after I had already bought mine. I figured I’d go and have a look to see what they have. They had one of these left - I like the idea of having the pressure gauge. We haggled, and I ended up buying a new 18 ton press for $210. I’ve been pretty pissed off at myself for bending the cross beam on the first one, so this also sorts that out.

[PhilMeUp]

This press is heaps better than the old one. It’s wide, meaning that a control arm can fit in it sideways. But what really makes this one better is that the hydraulic ram can be moved sideways. Although my messing around with spacers to push in the rear bush was ultimately successful, it was also clumsy and time consuming. With this press, the ram can be easily moved from side to side. This gives the hydraulic ram direct access to the rear bush.

Just after I bought my 20 ton press for $100 there was another advert on Gumtree for a 12 ton press for $250. I figured he was dreaming, and that it would never sell. However, the advert was gone after a couple of days. Once I had the new press assembled and working, I figured I’d advertise the old one for a stupidly high price, knowing that I could drop the price a week later. At 8pm I advertised the old press on Gumtree for $200, which I thought was overpriced. I got an SMS from someone at 1am and at 2am he was at my place and paying me $200 cash for it. I was stunned, and kept quiet about Radum selling new 20 ton presses for $190. However, I did also deliver it to his house for him - he had no way of transporting it. This also meant that my new toy now had a total net cost of $110. Not bad.

This press is also sold by Fiora Machinery as a Hafco PP-20 - http://fioramachinery.com.au/workshop-equipment/presses/hydraulic-presses/workshop-hydraulic-press-4375.html

And yes, it actually does weigh 103kg. It’s not an easy thing to move.



A few nights later, I had a go at pushing out the old bushes on another control arm. I had been stuffing around with this for a few weeks, and it was time to get two complete arms ready and fit them to my taxi. I had a quick go with the bottle jack, but the bushes wouldn’t budge. I got a propane burner, heated up the ends of the control arms and kept trying.

Eventually the rear bush popped out, but I couldn’t get any movement with the front bush. I kept persisting with the bottle jack, but was seeing the control arm actually flex near the front bush. I didn’t want to wreck the control arm by bending it (then it wouldn’t go back into the car) so gave up on the bottle jack.



This was causing huge amounts of frustration - when I tried pushing the front and rear bushes out of a lower control arm previously, both of them came out very easily. It was now too late at night to use power tools at home, so I got my battery powered Ryobi angle grinder, went to a nearby carpark and ground away the sides of the bush. I ground down the outer metal ring of the bush so that it was paper thin. Once back at home, I then tapped back the remainder with a hammer and flat blade screwdriver. This was all about not grinding away any of the actual control arm.



This meant that I could use the press with some plates to try and push the bush out. It was impossible to get it to line up properly, because of the other end of the control arm. By now I was getting rather miffed - it had been a couple of hours and I was supposed to have the two completed arms fitted to the car that night. Failing miserably at this point in time.



I finally managed to get the bush to start moving, but it took a lot of pressure from the press. Because I couldn’t get everything lined up properly, the bottom of the bush was pushed outward. Upon review of the night’s progress, I made the excellent decision to give up for the night and sulk in the office with cheesecake and TV. I’ll have another go at it later, and will probably end up cutting the top of the bush off and pushing it out the other way.

[JETURBO]

Brilliant write up mate thanks for the effort you have put in

[Wenier]

As a note to add, the crossmember bolt that gets in the way can have the non-threaded portion cut off this makes it much easier.

Nice write up, very detailed. Nice press.