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This weekend was my time for replacing the left front stancion arm on my son's 95 900s. After 110k miles, the bushing at the subframe connection decided to part ways with the arm itself, causing a drop in the arm and lots of scraping on the subframe. After a quick order to todd at eEuroparts and a typically fast delivery (ordered Friday, delivered saturday, he's in CT, I'm in NH), I started the project on Friday evening.
First task was removing the existing bolts. Found that I had everything I needed except an 18mm 6-point socket, so off to HD late at night. Got all the bolts off that evening, and went to bed to figure out why I couldn't get the front attachment bolt up thru and past the CV joint. By the next morning, I figured out that the angle of the stanchion arm was just enough to keep the bolt from moving freely (due to the torqued angle at the other end and the fact it was pretty wedged), I took out the trusty Sawzall and made quick work of the old arm. With the pressure off, the bolt slid up past the CV joint easily, and I was able to persuade the old bushing out of the subframe. The state of the old bar was bad - the bushing had come completey separated from its metal sleeve, and the bar itself had worn about 1/3 of the way thru from rubbing on the subframe.
Putting the new bar in was tricky, but once I figured out the angles and pressures on the subframe, it was easier. Here's the trick. First, attach the arm to the lower control arm, and align the bolt with no pressure on the radius arm. Next, align the sway bar end link into the arm. Then, start alignment of the arm to the subframe. Here's two tricks. You really need 2 floor jacks to do this. First, the car is jacked up at the frame point to get it off the ground. Use the 2nd jack to carefully lift the control arm up to reduce the angle of the radius arm into the subframe (it's pretty deeply angled if just dangling the control arm). Then (and here's the key, turn the front wheels all the way to one side (same direction as the side you're working on) to help improve the angle of the radius arm into the subframe. Without turning the wheel, the arm feels too short. Anyway, the bolt finally went in and I was good to go. Everything tightened up well and things are nice and quiet again.
The other side looks good, but I bought a bushing to replace on that side when I have some time. Based on nickshu's suggestions of how to remove the old bushing and pressing a frozen one in via a vice, it should be not too hard. Also, now that I know how to remove the old arm without cutting it in half, I'll do it quicker next time. Hint on arm removal - remove the subframe attachment point at the bushing first (if you can) which improves the angles on the other parts.
Thanks to nickshu's earlier posts which helped a lot, thanks to Todd at eEuroparts for a good price and fast shipment, and thanks to Milwaukee's Sawzall for letting me have a little fun while replacing this. :-)
andy
posted by 161.114.6...
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