Control Arm Pictures

Supplied by Jay Stewart

Jay writes:

I replaced the suspension arm because the rear bushing was bad. That caused the alignment to constantly change, creating a  changing toe on the left front wheel. The install was fairly straightforward. After the necessary jack car, place on stands, etc. I loosened the bolt that holds the ball joint into place and used a ball joint separator to pull it from the hub. A standard ball joint separator can be found at pep boys or wherever, but it *will* tear the boot. In my particular case, this didn't matter, since I was simply replacing it. Then I used a 14 mm socket to undo the sway bar end-link on that side. After that, you need a 22mm (I think) socket and wrench to remove the inside bolt that holds the control arm in place, this one's a mean one, so I used an electric impact wrench along with a can of wd40 and a breaker bar, just be patient, and it will eventually break loose. Lastly, you have to remove the rear part of the sway bar mount, and the plate that covers the rear control arm bushing. The sway bar mount is 14mm, and the control arm bushing plate ones were 17 mm I believe. After that, the whole arm will fall into your hands after a bit of wiggling. Install is simply the reverse. This was a pretty simple procedure, it took about an hour, and IMO, didn't require an alignment afterwards b/c I didn't actually change any suspension settings, except for any play in the old rubber bushings. Afterwards, the car handles like new, and feels like it .. umm... has less play in the bushings.

	pic of an old control arm VS a new one
	a pic of a new control arm bushing
	pic of the old control arm bushing that was replaced
	pic of the new control arm in the car
	pic of the new control arm in the car
	another pic (different angle) of the new control arm