upper control arm help

AVEY10

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Alright im workin on the mark and tryin to get these damn things off.

Im still workin on the.drivers side and the flag on the bolt is backwards so i cant break it off and its way to damn hard to get under the master cylinder.

Any sugestions or advice??
 
When I changed mine out, I used a small open-end wrench (12mm or 14mm???? Can't remember exactly). It's a PITA. You have to turn the bolt just a teeny bit, turn the wrench over, turn it a teensy bit more, flip the wrench over, etc. It takes forever. The only other way I could see that it could be made easier is with a ratcheting wrench.
 
Remove the master cylinder for Fu(k sake! Just pull it loose from the booster, don't disconnect the lines, and bend it up out of the way, yes you can BEND the lines, just not such as to kink them

And yes, a set of metric ratcheting wrenches will ALWAYS be worth the money

And don't remove the little "flag", just remove the nut from the engine side, and push the bolt out. That's there to act as a wrench, you'll only need to turn one side instead of having to hold the other..unless you got really long monkey arms
 
I pulled all of my little locking tabs off. Then used a ratchet on the bolt side, and an 18mm wrench on the nut side. No problem.
 
Remove the master cylinder for Fu(k sake! Just pull it loose from the booster, don't disconnect the lines, and bend it up out of the way, yes you can BEND the lines, just not such as to kink them

And yes, a set of metric ratcheting wrenches will ALWAYS be worth the money

And don't remove the little "flag", just remove the nut from the engine side, and push the bolt out. That's there to act as a wrench, you'll only need to turn one side instead of having to hold the other..unless you got really long monkey arms

I just ended up doing that. Had several people tell me not to but i got the damn thing done.
 
A way to do it

Try this way courtesy of Mad1stgen

IMG-20110531-00469%20(Large).jpg
 
Damn im havin all sorts of problems with this car. Went to go change the driver side outer tie rod and the joint came out of the socket, then i finally got the nut or whatever it is called next to the outer tie rod lose but the damn tie rod aint. Tried heating it up to get it off but that didnt work, maybe bp blaster will.
 
If you're doing the INNER tie rod, the one that's closest to the Rack, DO NOT start turning it loose until you've checked and REMOVED the safety pin that's in it... Most MarkVIIIs have a tiny pin in their inner tie rods, if you fail to remove that pin you WILL destroy the threads on the Rack and you'll have to replace the Rack

You also don't need to drill any holes in the strut tower to remove the UCA.. WTF Frankenstein!
The LCA is WAAAAAY more difficult than the UCA (not really all the hard to do a LCA, but it's harder than a UCA) I think I had Jacksons UCAs done in about 10 minutes, both sides

You -could- drill an access hole like Hunter suggested, but it's more work than what's necessary. I do this stuff on a daily basis, KISS
 
Sapper, I am not sure but I think that access hole is already there in the car. As I said I am not sure, the picture is from Mad1stGen the Northern Guru of Marks. I do not think he woud drill a hole in a car to get to a nut just to make it easier.
 
if you plan on replacing your uca and lca, do them both at once and then get an alignment, don't waste your time digging into your car over and over
 
18mm gear wrench will be with its weight in gold when doing UCA's.

Get 2 they are small ...

After reading through this I am NOT looking forward to my upper control arm swap. DAMN! I guess I'll start with the lower control arms & wait a few months for the uppers!

It's not that bad once you know this trick of braking off that flag.
 
Who's piece of crap minivan is that in your signature picture? :shifty::p

Idk took that pic while i was at my cousins

if you plan on replacing your uca and lca, do them both at once and then get an alignment, don't waste your time digging into your car over and over

Already has new lowers. Thank god.

Get 2 they are small ...



It's not that bad once you know this trick of braking off that flag.

Those flags are a complete pain in the ass, didnt get either one broke. I just pulled the bag and got em out that way.
 
Omg, how is that Little flag causing you guys so many proplems, wedge it in to keep the bolt from Turning while you turn the nut, once the nut is off, unwedge the flag and push the bolt out...simple
 
Omg, how is that Little flag causing you guys so many proplems, wedge it in to keep the bolt from Turning while you turn the nut, once the nut is off, unwedge the flag and push the bolt out...simple

That's how I did mine. I just thought that's what the flag was for in the first place. To keep the bolt from turning so you would only have to use one wrench??
 
That's how I did mine. I just thought that's what the flag was for in the first place. To keep the bolt from turning so you would only have to use one wrench??

That's exactly what it's for

It's there because of the way those nuts are supposed to be torqued
You put the bolts in the frame mounts and thread on the nut a bit, place the ball joint in the spindles receiver, tighten the ball joint bolt, place wheels on hub and tighten, lower the car, then torque the nuts on the UCA frame bushings, this method prevents the bushings from being tweaked, since the load is already applied before you tighten the nuts....then replace the master cylinder and bend the fuse box back into position
 
The access hole on the drivers side is put in there for the cable on the cruise control, and provides access to the upper bolt. It already exists. Take a look next time you are working under the hood. There is no need to mess with the MC. This hole does not cut into the Tower at all.
 
I tried Sapperfire's way yesterday and it took maybe 10-15 minutes to get it off including the master cylinder. Pretty easy.
 

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