Rear blade control arms HELP

[Moo1996]

I have a 2008 FG XR6 and I've got to do both my rear blade bushes to pass a roady. Is this something I can do at home ? I'm  very mechanicaly minded and know what I'm doing. But I've been told the blade arms can be tricky. But I've also looked at some diagrams and they look very bolt on bolt off. I'm gonna be replacing the whole arm. So no pressing or anything is involved. Can anyone give me some tips or some advice. Should I even try this at home ? Or leave it to a mechanic. If it is doable how should I Jack the car up. So that the cradle/axle doesn't sway and make it impossible. Thanks in advance!

[k31th]

it's easy if you're just replacing with no "pressing" required.

[lordbusiness]

I'm interested in doing this as well. I know SuperPro sell a complete arm with the bush which makes it a bit easier to carry out for those of us without a press. Do you need a wheel alignment once you replace them? Are there any tricks to getting them on and off or is it just a case of properly supporting the control arms off the ground to get the blades off? 

[JETURBO]

You can do this in the driveway if you absolutely have to but a hoist is better

you'll need jack stands and a good hydraulic jack 

 

use the jack stands on the jacking points at the rear of the vehicle so the whole rear end is Hanging free and up as high as you can safely get the car 

 

undo the rear shocks via the location bolts 

use the jack at the bottom of this point to take up the slack from the spring 

 

release the shock, release the jack and let the spring push everything down, at it’s lowest point there will be little tension left 

 

undo the x3 13mm bolts holding the blade arm to the rear hub upright assembly 

 

you'll need a deep 18mm socket to get the upper inner nuts off where the blade arm joins the sub floor (x2 nuts) 

 

release the blade arm and remove out 

 

make sure you disconnect the rear ABS pick up sensor cable locator clip on the blade arm beforehand 

 

repeat the process for the new arm to go in but be careful locating the shock lower fixing back into the hub assembly upright as it will be needing the Hydraulic jack to take up the tension with the spring on the upright assembly 

 

All nuts and bolts on the control blade require loctite liquid thread locker red 263 ( iirc ) 

 

Handy tip is fix the middle of the x3 bolts first so you can rock the blade to locate the upper and lower bolt in after the middle is fixed in 

 

these x3 bolts are in tight and stay tight coming out till the very last thread 

 

no this doesn’t affect wheel alignment 

 

if you don't want to fight the coil spring tension in this process just use spring compressors to take up the tension and it will all be loose enough to manually move

[lordbusiness]

Thanks very much JETURBO that is a great write up. I'll give it a crack once I get some jack stands. So you reckon spring compressors are the go to make life easier when dealing with the shocks?

[JETURBO]

No worries buddy 

 

Yes in short and have ample time to dilly around but when I do this on the hoist I just release the lower shock bolt, knock it inwards with a hammer and release it that way but it’s a “tiny” bit of a drop quickly of the rear assembly...

 

when putting it back up I just a floor standing spinning jack and just place it fully under the rear wheel to jack everything up and locate the shock in position and replace the bolt  

 

Ive done it a billion times so know how to do it quicker that’s all and obviously have a steady raised hoist to use not jack stands