Rear Lower Control Arm Problems

[datdude407]

Here's the deal, I brought a 90 NA. It had It's problems, but I got it for a steal. Long story short the car was a previously a drift car & apparently the car hit a curb on the drivers side. The lower control arm is bent as a result of that. I have searched & even posted on other threads. The install seems pretty straight forward. the only part I am getting stuck on is removing thee 22mm bolt that holds the control arm to the hub assembly. The bolt is blocked by the axle on the top & was blocked by the strut, but i removed it. My question is: do I have to remove the axle as well? I'm kind of trying to avoid that until I can get differential bushings & subframe collars, but the control arm needs to be replaced asap because It's bent & now rusted pretty bad. Any info would be great.

[PAintballa45]

I smacked mine in the exact same spot last summer drifting in the rain (doh!)...my lca was completley trashed too and I managed to get the new one in without removing anything major...it just takes ALOT of patience. Have you removed the two mounting bolts to the subframe? The rear bolt (adjustable one with a dial on it on the rear side of the subframe, parallel to the driveshaft, left of the rear diff) came out with no problem.

The car was originally put together from the factory with the subframe first, then bolted up to the car....when they did this it is impossible to get the front bolt out without dropping the subframe if you dont cut it in half with a wiz wheel or dremel. this was the most time consuming but beats dropping the whole assembly, you just have to buy a new bolt and replace it in reversed order. Be extremely conscious that it is in close proximity to the gas neck / tank. Try to get the alignment bolt as close as possible to how it was before when replacing it, but get a full alignment regardless.

There is VERY little room to get the ball joint out, but again, be patient with it and it will come out. I highly reccomend replacing your upper control arm, traction rod and torsion bar. Any of those links were most likely damaged in the crash and if even bent slightly (you wont be able to eye it out), the center rotating mass will be thrown off. You can find all of the used OEM links on ebay for pretty cheap. The entire repair cost >$100

[es.biggs]

+1 A lot of bent components I've replaced don't have visible bends. A lot of times I've had guess which parts are bent based on alignment numbers