This is for those of you who have changed your own pillow ball bushigs and at least installed the control arms yourself:

I'm putting the lower control and trailing arms back on the car. I've changed out all of the pillow ball bushings and I'm having trouble getting the lower control arm to fit back into the lower wheel linkage. I'm not sure if the temperature has anything to do with it or not since I unbolted all those parts a couple months ago. But the problem is that it seems like the bushing is too wide fit between the bolt tabs and the angle of the pillow ball isn't the easiest thing to control when trying to jack it in. Has anyone had these same problems? I'm letting the LC arms sit in the garage and hoping they'll fit after they've cooled down to the same temps as the rest of the car. I'm thinking about heating the area in between the bolt tabs on the LC linkage to see if I can force some expansion. Anybody have any ideas/solutions for this?

 

I think there might be a sleeve that can be moved out to widen the gap. It will squeeze back down when you tighten the bolt. However, I'm not ecactly sure that one has a sleeve or not. There is definitely one where the toe link meets the upright (wheel side) if you want to see what it looks like.

You can move the pillow ball center around with a bolt -- stick it in and move it around.

-Max

 

Had the same problem when I installed them yesterday. Like Mr. Cooper suggested, just re-align the bushing by twisting it a little with your choice of tool (small screwdriver or a bolt, ect, ect.) until it slides into the lower Hub. Just mess with it a little and it will match-up and go in.

 

Well, as far as aligning the bushing, I figured that one out on my own. I'll check around the bottom for a sleeve. Hopefully it was just tight from differences in thermal expansion with the LC arms and new bushings sitting inside until this afternooon. I'll check them now. If its still tight, should I just try to knock it in with a mallet? I tried that earlier, but it was too tight to really lay a significant impulse into it.

 

This is normal...not due to thermal expansion or any of the sort. Just takes some patience and it has to go in straight because of the tollerance. It is difficult because the pin moves around in the pillow bushing. Take a small screwdriver and get each side of the pin started evening...then pull the screwdriver out carefully and tap it into place. Takes some trial and error...but it will go.

 

Crap... I was hoping there was an easier way. My patience has worn out for the hour. I tried to compress the bolt sleeves in a little, but they didn't move enough to make it easier. I'll have to look at it again and probably take the brake caliper and disc off to lighten up the wheel and free up some more room to see around the pieces. I can probably work out some sort of contraption to thread a string through the bushing pins and pull each end through the bolt tabs.

Please don't hesitate to post if there is anyone here who has a magic technique.

Thanks for the help.
-Dave

 

Also,....You know you can move the entire aluminum hub for better position. Try that in conjunction with the Arm movement/position.

 

To move the sleeve, you can usually rig something up with a bolt and then put a nut on in the middle. For instance, you could put a bolt in, put a nut in the middle so that some threads hang over the end of the bolt, and then slide the bolt over so that the nut is pressing on the sleeve and tap the bolt head to push the sleeve out. If that doesn't work, you could put the bolt through the other way and "tug" on the bolt, perhaps with a claw hammer, or by slipping a wrench under the bolt head and tapping the wrench body outward with a hammer while holding the other end (hit the wrench near the bolt side). Or you could carefully pry the sleeve out from the middle with something.

When I did mine, I don't think I messed with the sleeves. It was a pain to get the pillow ball to slide back in there, but I was able to get it in after a few tries. I would have been very frustrated if it took more that a few minutes, though.

-Max

 

Max,

I did try those techniques after looking at the sleeve layout on the linkage. I put the bolt through one side, screwed on the nut in the middle, pressed it against the sleeve from the inside and got on the bolt head with a mallet a few times. I did this both ways and I think it did open the sleeves up a little but didn't get it enough to make it easy. I think I need to take some of the weight off the wheel or get some additional help because its too hard to see what I'm doing and hold the weight of the wheel, brake, disc, etc all up at the same time.
Thanks,
-Dave

 

Why hold anything up?
Did you disconnect the top too? The shock/spring should support your hub.
And you can just jack up the lower arm into that hub, thus using the car weight to get it slide in.
Use screwdriver to line up the pillow ball. if its hard to line up, use mallet on top of the screwdriver.

 

This is not the lower arm, but I hope you get the idea using the bottle jack.
Oh yea..on the lower arm, put in the inner first, then the trailing arm, but don't tighten the trailing arm/inner bushing bolt, leave some play in them about 1/4 inch or or so.
Then put jack below the lower arm to get it into the hub.

 

If you have an uninstalled (new) bushing , just try sliding it in just to see if it will go in. If it does, then the issue/problem is just with the position of the Arm and the Hub. If the new or even an old bushing does not want to slide in, then the problem is with the sleeves located in the Hub. Just my .02 worth. Good Luck. Don't give up!!!

 

You suspension guys are so reliable. I love it!

Reza- I hadn't disconnected the upper control arm from the wheel. I had the LC arm installed in the way you had suggested with the trailing arm connected but not tight. I will try to run through that procedure after class.

I think most of the problem was patience last night but hopefully I'll tap it in right with a screwdriver.

Thanks for the help guys,
-Dave

 

Alright, I finally got the right side LC arm all bolted up tonight. I think it was a huge matter of depth perception. Once I got it in, I slid it in and out a couple of times without believing that it was really in there and luckily I ran the bolt through real quick so I didn't do anything stupid before I missed my chance. I messed around with the alignment a little bit since the car's being lowered and the toe links and trailing arms have been switched with the Rotary Extreme parts. I decided to leave the left side parts until tomorrow just incase I went crosseyed and became frustrated again. I believe this is one of those simple jobs that works best with two people and a lift.