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Dean these are relatively easy to change, if you have a press (or have access to one?). You don’t need to mess with the brake caliper/rotor, struts, driveshafts, ABS sensor, or anything like that.
Here's what I did:
ng900 Control Arm Bushing Replacement (firsthand from 1998 900SET)
Lift front end (jackstands, safety, blah blah blah) and remove wheels.
Disconnect front sway bar links: Unbolt the sway bar links from the control arms.
Disconnect outer/lower ball joint: Here's a trick - I noticed that as you jack up the suspension (from under the ball joint) that the distance between the control arm and the spindle gets bigger. Loosen the nut from the ball joint 3-5 threads, then jack up the susp as far as it will go w/o lifting the car off the jackstands, and insert the body of a crow bar (approx 3/4" hex) into the gap, then slowly let the susp. down. As the susp droops, the control arm/crowbar/spindle will hard stack in a "sandwich" and the ball joint will pop. Remove the nut the rest of the way.
Disconnect control arms from each other: Remove the single bolt through both arms and the outboard bushing. This is easiest *before* you disconnect the other bolts control arm bolts.
Remove control arms: Each control arm is held in place by one bolt at the chassis. The rear arm has a vertical easy-access bolt. Watch out though because mine had a failure/breakage of the inner steel cylinder (of the rear bushing), which made removing the bolt difficult, but it eventually was wiggled out.
The front control arm has a horizontal bolt that is accessed from the front of the car. I may have had to remove a plastic underbody panel or two, I don't remember that part clearly. I didn't replace this bushing (front control arm, body mount) because it wasn't available in PU at the time.
With the control arms free you walk over to your hydraulic press (shame on you if you don't have one, they cost under $100!) and pop those old OEM suckas' out of there. The new spherical rear control arm bearing must be pressed into place, but the PU split bushing can be fit by hand.
Re-attach control arms, ball joint, sway bar (maybe plastic panels too) and wheel for each side and you are done.
posted by 63.207.93...
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