Replacing rear upper arm process

[simonr23]

Today I tried replacing the rear upper arm.
Old one came out fine.

I can’t get the new one to line up though. I checked and it’s the correct dimensions.
I either get one of the bushing bolts (not both at same time) or the ball joint to locate.

Is there something I need to do that might not be obvious (and not documented in the workshop manual)

Thanks.

[glend]

A couple of things to note. You need to have a jack under the front of the diff to prevent it from rotating down and away from the Rear Upper Control arm - this makes seating the ball joint pin much easier.
Secondly, be very careful with the bolts that go into the body (through the rear upper control arm ends). There are nuts encased in pockets inside the body, if you knock one of those nuts loose, you will likely never get a bolt on to it. There was a guy on AJOR from WA who had to cut his rear floor open to acess those hidden nuts. Install the outter end bolts in the body cavity nuts before you try to align the ball joint pin with the diff.

I think I still have a "How to" thread on here about Rrear Upper Control Arm replacement, I will try to find it.

[indiedog]

As Glen said be super careful with those encapsulated nuts. It was probably me he was referring to as I had to cut through my floor to get to one after it started spinning. Don't be me!

First up, put the body bolts in first. Just make sure you push get the arm up close to ride height/angle to get the bolts lined up with the nuts. Don't over tighten as yet. Next raise the diff to suit and then a bottle jack or similar under the front of the diff to tilt it up to get the ball joint lined up. Bit of finessing but you'll do it.

I just did this a week ago on my WG. I now have the SuperPro bushes on both and hope I don't have to do either again in the foreseeable future!

[simonr23]

Cheers for the replies.
I did my research before attempting- aware of the captive nuts and the Jack usage.

I’m wondering if it’s possible that my cars body isn’t perfect in some hidden fashion.
It seems as though the two bushing holes are too far apart vs the boomerang hole locations.
When either side can receive its bolt, the other side then won’t line up to suit. I only have a ‘crescent moon’ of hole overlap. Same result whichever one I do first.

[indiedog]

Are you sure you got the right upper arm? I doubt you could "stretch" the body of the car that much so I would think it is the arm that is the issue. Any visible evidence that the car has been in a collision and then repaired?

Have you lined up the new arm with the old to make sure the holes are at the same spacing?

[simonr23]

I had another crack this morning. Arm definitely wouldn’t fit.
Took it out and remeasured a few times vs the original. One new bushing was installed cocked and it screwed up the lower side hole dimensions.

Old arm is still fine, so reinstalled it- went to plan.
I’m annoyed, as I wanted to know everything in the suspension/steering was new. Now I have to either send this one back for a replacement- postage will be a killer, or just buy another one elsewhere.

[indiedog]

Originally Posted by simonr23

I had another crack this morning. Arm definitely wouldn’t fit.
Took it out and remeasured a few times vs the original. One new bushing was installed cocked and it screwed up the lower side hole dimensions.

Old arm is still fine, so reinstalled it- went to plan.
I’m annoyed, as I wanted to know everything in the suspension/steering was new. Now I have to either send this one back for a replacement- postage will be a killer, or just buy another one elsewhere.

Buy the Superpro bushes for the upper control arm, about $120, and fit them after knocking out the bushes. What did you do with the ball joint?

Re' postage, contact the seller and see if they will the return. Or did you get it from overseas?