Front Suspension Help Needed!
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Front Suspension Help Needed!
I need to replace my Upper Control Arms on my 07 Expy 4WD EL. While I have the rear air suspension it has standard coil over shocks in the front.I just finished rebuilding my rear and now want to tackle the front due to ball joint on one upper is bad. So at a minimum going to replace both uppers.But while I am at it might as well go for it.Here are my questions for those who have hopefully tackled this before:
1) Will the upper control arms come out without taking out the strut? Seems like the strut will interfere with the control arm bolt removal.
2) Will the lower control arm, complete with its ball joint, come out without having to remove the axle from the hub? Seems like the arm will hit the CV joint before the ball joint stud clears out of its hole.
3) If not replacing the lower control arms do I still have to unbolt them from the frame to drop them down to get out the strut?
Thanks for any insight as I cannot find any info on this!
1) Will the upper control arms come out without taking out the strut? Seems like the strut will interfere with the control arm bolt removal.
2) Will the lower control arm, complete with its ball joint, come out without having to remove the axle from the hub? Seems like the arm will hit the CV joint before the ball joint stud clears out of its hole.
3) If not replacing the lower control arms do I still have to unbolt them from the frame to drop them down to get out the strut?
Thanks for any insight as I cannot find any info on this!
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Same as 150?
Did some more you-tubing and looks like the 150 and Expy are very similar set up in the 4WD front end for this year. So this means have to pull the axle out of the hub to get the lower control arm ball joint out, which does not look too bad. And decided to replace the struts as well so that answers the question about the upper control arm. Still would appreciate advice form someone who's done this 'upper control arm, lower control arm and strut' replacement before....
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Diving In!
Emboldened by the seemingly ease as removing the axle from the hub, I am diving in. All parts on order to include Upper and Lower Control Arms (with ball joints), Strut Assemblies (coil and shock), Tie Rod Ends and Sway Bar Links.I went with the Dorman products for the arms, etc., as I have always had good luck with these products thru the years.Monroe for the strut assembly.A bout six fifty for the works.Next weekend or two, will be back to busting knuckles!
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Competed!
Well I did it. We really, as in a good friend Ray and I. Ray has a garage with a lift and boy did that come in handy!
Here are some lessons learned.
* Spray down with penetrant all the nuts and bolts will be tackling the night before. This really helped in this New England Rust Environment – almost, see below on the sawzall job we had to do. We then added more penetrant as we tackled the job and used a wire brush to clean off the rust.
* The Lower Control Arm ball joint will not clear the knuckle without removing the axle. And unless you are in a rust free zone, you will probably destroy the axle nut caps removing them. So get them in advance.
* After compressing the calipers a little, we removed them, bracket and all, and hung them with wire to the fame. Allowed us to remove the rotor for more access.
While we did not disconnect the speed sensor, in retrospect we should have. We lost control of one of the knuckles and it hung itself on the wire. Fortunately it was still ok. Recommend unplugging it up in the fender well (vs. removing the detector at the hub).
* Be ready with a plastic grocery bag to cover the end of the axle once removed to keep debris from collecting on the grease. And coat the spur gears in the hub and axle with a good helping of grease prior to reassembly.
* While most of the bolts came out ok the lower control arm bolts on one side were frozen solid in their sleeves. They simply would not budge with heat, penetrant or hammer blows. So a little head scratching and certainly others must have experienced this. Did a little you tubing and sawzall came up. Trip to the hardware store to get the ‘heavy metal’ carbide tip blades (not cheap!) and we attacked them. Took four blades: one on either side of front bolt, same for the rear. We cut on the inside of the frame, using the frame as a sort of guide to slice thru the bolt. So if the brackets are the frame and the equal signs are the bolts, we cut at the X. ={X===X}= Be careful when cutting and check to make sure you are not shaving off the frame. We did a little bit as these blades are aggressive. Took less than 1 hr for all four. Some folks will say to cut on the outside of the frame but we were concerned that we would still have the bolt sticking thru the frame and would notbe able to spread it out to have it drop out. While we had to cut thru the fat washers on the inside as well as the bolt it fell apart once thru the material.
* I had previously gotten the aftermarket Camber Bolts (Moog) that are used on the lower control arms so cutting off the old ones not an issue. However, in this kit (Moog K100010 Cam Bolt Kit, one kit per side) both the bolts are the same length. And the rear bolt needs to be shorter to keep from interfering with the sway bar mounting studs that stick down excessively. While we were able to use the Moog bolt in the rear location it was obvious that adjusting the camber would cause interference with the sway bar mounting bolt. While we could have cut either off, I elected to have my front end alignment done at my local Ford dealer and requested they replace the hardware in the rear during the process. The Moog kit per side is about forty and the OEM at my dealer was one twenty five! Ouch. But I do recommend getting the OEM hardware.
* So for about a thousand that included the added OEM bolt kit and front end alignment I got the entire front end rebuilt. Not too bad. And did I mention I had just completed the rebuilding the rear? Mine is an EL with the rear air springs. Did all the rear brakes as well (rebuilt calipers, new rotors, etc.). If interested I can post the part numbers and where I got the material and costs.
Stay safe and keep busting knuckles!
Here are some lessons learned.
* Spray down with penetrant all the nuts and bolts will be tackling the night before. This really helped in this New England Rust Environment – almost, see below on the sawzall job we had to do. We then added more penetrant as we tackled the job and used a wire brush to clean off the rust.
* The Lower Control Arm ball joint will not clear the knuckle without removing the axle. And unless you are in a rust free zone, you will probably destroy the axle nut caps removing them. So get them in advance.
* After compressing the calipers a little, we removed them, bracket and all, and hung them with wire to the fame. Allowed us to remove the rotor for more access.
While we did not disconnect the speed sensor, in retrospect we should have. We lost control of one of the knuckles and it hung itself on the wire. Fortunately it was still ok. Recommend unplugging it up in the fender well (vs. removing the detector at the hub).
* Be ready with a plastic grocery bag to cover the end of the axle once removed to keep debris from collecting on the grease. And coat the spur gears in the hub and axle with a good helping of grease prior to reassembly.
* While most of the bolts came out ok the lower control arm bolts on one side were frozen solid in their sleeves. They simply would not budge with heat, penetrant or hammer blows. So a little head scratching and certainly others must have experienced this. Did a little you tubing and sawzall came up. Trip to the hardware store to get the ‘heavy metal’ carbide tip blades (not cheap!) and we attacked them. Took four blades: one on either side of front bolt, same for the rear. We cut on the inside of the frame, using the frame as a sort of guide to slice thru the bolt. So if the brackets are the frame and the equal signs are the bolts, we cut at the X. ={X===X}= Be careful when cutting and check to make sure you are not shaving off the frame. We did a little bit as these blades are aggressive. Took less than 1 hr for all four. Some folks will say to cut on the outside of the frame but we were concerned that we would still have the bolt sticking thru the frame and would notbe able to spread it out to have it drop out. While we had to cut thru the fat washers on the inside as well as the bolt it fell apart once thru the material.
* I had previously gotten the aftermarket Camber Bolts (Moog) that are used on the lower control arms so cutting off the old ones not an issue. However, in this kit (Moog K100010 Cam Bolt Kit, one kit per side) both the bolts are the same length. And the rear bolt needs to be shorter to keep from interfering with the sway bar mounting studs that stick down excessively. While we were able to use the Moog bolt in the rear location it was obvious that adjusting the camber would cause interference with the sway bar mounting bolt. While we could have cut either off, I elected to have my front end alignment done at my local Ford dealer and requested they replace the hardware in the rear during the process. The Moog kit per side is about forty and the OEM at my dealer was one twenty five! Ouch. But I do recommend getting the OEM hardware.
* So for about a thousand that included the added OEM bolt kit and front end alignment I got the entire front end rebuilt. Not too bad. And did I mention I had just completed the rebuilding the rear? Mine is an EL with the rear air springs. Did all the rear brakes as well (rebuilt calipers, new rotors, etc.). If interested I can post the part numbers and where I got the material and costs.
Stay safe and keep busting knuckles!
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