Rusted and frozen Lower control arm help

[Runnr]

It has been a nightmare with this truck. Just finished changing the power steering lines and rack from rust and breakage. Front rotors also seized and repaired by me. Now I went to install a rancho quick lift, I discovered my Lcas are frozen and won't budge for me to place the struct and shock combo. The front bolts came off but the back camber bolts won't budge. What are my options? I want to cut the bolt and sleeve it sits in but that's a lot of metal to cut through. Should I keep hammering the bolt till it comes out then cut the sleeve? I was going to trade the truck I originally but now I have spent some cash and gonna keep it. It has 136 miles, 2005 4wd sr5. Thanks

 

[yotaguy674]

Heat and an air hammer would take care of those no problem.

 

[Runnr]

How long should I heat it? The whole assembly or where the bolt meets the metal?

 

[Mike07SE]

Me personally speaking from experience, just sawzall it out. If they're frozen and not budging, then that's the only way to go. I've tackled mine with heat & air hammer, BFH, etc. and had no luck.

 

[Billynath1988]

very common, probably the biggest PIA with these trucks. go to home depot, get a few diablo blades and cut it.. torch out everything else. buy all new OEM hardware and LCAs and dont think about it again for 100k miles. Use obnoxious amounts of anti seize.

 

[alia176]

Sawzall sucks balls, takes way too long to cut through. I used a 6" cut off wheel on a 4.5" angle grinder. Yes, this is SUPER unsafe but it took a whopping 2 min to cut those f'ing things off. Wear your PPE, have a cooler full of ice if you chop your finger off and need to take it to the hospital!!

Since nobody asked, why is this rig on a floor jack when there's a 2 post hoist available?

 

[blackfc3s]

Sawzall sucks balls, takes way too long to cut through. I used a 6" cut off wheel on a 4.5" angle grinder. Yes, this is SUPER unsafe but it took a whopping 2 min to cut those f'ing things off. Wear your PPE, have a cooler full of ice if you chop your finger off and need to take it to the hospital!!

Since nobody asked, why is this rig on a floor jack when there's a 2 post hoist available?

What is wrong with you?


Just use the sawzall and get some quality blades. Those bolts are hardened steel and tough to cut through.

 

[keakar]

Me personally speaking from experience, just sawzall it out. If they're frozen and not budging, then that's the only way to go. I've tackled mine with heat & air hammer, BFH, etc. and had no luck.

this ^^^^^^

sawzall will have it all done and on the floor in 10 minutes, then buy new bolts for it

 

[paraordnance]

Another vote for cut off wheel, much quicker than sawzal. Much harder to get a good angle though

 

[victhewanderer]

It has been a nightmare with this truck. Just finished changing the power steering lines and rack from rust and breakage. Front rotors also seized and repaired by me. Now I went to install a rancho quick lift, I discovered my Lcas are frozen and won't budge for me to place the struct and shock combo. The front bolts came off but the back camber bolts won't budge. What are my options? I want to cut the bolt and sleeve it sits in but that's a lot of metal to cut through. Should I keep hammering the bolt till it comes out then cut the sleeve? I was going to trade the truck I originally but now I have spent some cash and gonna keep it. It has 136 miles, 2005 4wd sr5. Thanks

I just did this today. I used a reciprocating saw with IRWIN 6-in 14-TPI Bi-Metal (needed 4 of them). Mine were so badly rusted that on one end, it was very hard to even fit the blade in between. I used a pry bar with a hammer to get a bit of a wedge to fit. Be patient and it will cut off. Once I had the LCA off, I managed to remove the bushings using a 12Ton bottle neck jack and a torch. You can find this method on you tube. However, I was able to remove the smaller bushing completely, but on the larger one the "bushing metal housing" (not sure if that is the right term here) remained stuck on the LCA. See pictures.

Driver Side LCA with "bushing metal housing" stuck (front of image)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/w5wQVnSdBWg1f8hg1

Close up
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1O7nJC4eRXzM8suy1

Smaller bushing completely removed
https://photos.app.goo.gl/5oiFQD4B97gHLs5v1

I don't mean to take over your post, but if anyone has any suggestion on how to remove this housing, please let me know. I'm out of ideas.

Thanks,

 

[BackOff]

Generally it is a frozen ajustment cam that requires you to remove that lca bolt. When you get the alignment done.

For the shocks you can pull the 2 bolts at the hub side, lca.
Support the upper control arm so it doesn't hang by the brake lines.
Be careful not to damage the abs lines.

 

[RonJR]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned in this process. When you cut the bolts with a Sawzall, use plenty of oil while you're cutting. There are specific oils made for cutting, but 20 weight motor oil works way better than nothing. No one in industry does any serious drilling or cutting without drowning the cut in a continuous flow of oil. Cools the tool and keeps it cutting, rather than heating up and getting dull.

 

[feralcomprehension]

if anyone has any suggestion on how to remove this housing, please let me know.

One of my other cars is notorious for this problem and the typical approach is to use a hacksaw with the blade assembled thru the tube to carefully cut the bushing sleeve and then use a chisel to carefully pry it loose from the LCA.

I'll see if I can find some pictures.

ETA: Check out these instructions.

 

[victhewanderer]

One of my other cars is notorious for this problem and the typical approach is to use a hacksaw with the blade assembled thru the tube to carefully cut the bushing sleeve and then use a chisel to carefully pry it loose from the LCA.

I'll see if I can find some pictures.

ETA: Check out these instructions.

Thanks feralcomprehension for the advice and detail instructions. I'll give this a try tomorrow. I'll assume it might take half my day.

 

[radlynx]

When i did mine, i ended up cutting the lower control arm closest to the bushing and then cutting the bolts, easier this way with the hack saw. i could not move the arm vertically, its fused in there.

i replaced pretty much everything so i dont have to tackle it again.

i replaced these. lower ball joint, lower control arm, all bolts, the axle (leaking grease), the seal in the differential (no leak but for peace of mind).

one year later, it's still good. i cleaned it up real good and painted it too.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

 

[alia176]

What is wrong with you?


Just use the sawzall and get some quality blades. Those bolts are hardened steel and tough to cut through.

So many things are wrong with me, where to start......:cry2:

sawzall is the safer choice but not necessarily the faster choice. Either way, this is a PITA project with a high degree of getting hurt. Mine is a NM rig and for the life of me, can't figure out why they were so badly corroded.

 

[Iluvboost]

So many things are wrong with me, where to start......:cry2:

sawzall is the safer choice but not necessarily the faster choice. Either way, this is a PITA project with a high degree of getting hurt. Mine is a NM rig and for the life of me, can't figure out why they were so badly corroded.

Water getting trapped inbetween the steel bushing and bolt causing it to seize. I've been suprised sometimes how much little rust can seize a bolt.

 

[RonJR]

One can also take the approach I took, which was just to install SPC adjustable UCA's, use them to get caster and camber where they need to be, and leave the seized up LCA bolts alone. Not ideal for all situations, but it has worked well for me. My truck drives really nicely now, and there's no uneven tire wear at all.

 

[Billynath1988]

One can also take the approach I took, which was just to install SPC adjustable UCA's, use them to get caster and camber where they need to be, and leave the seized up LCA bolts alone. Not ideal for all situations, but it has worked well for me. My truck drives really nicely now, and there's no uneven tire wear at all.

thats only temporary until the lca bushings/ lower ball joint wear out. either way at some point you will have to touch them again.

 

[RonJR]

I realize that, but I needed the aftermarket UCA's anyway to get my caster correct after the Daystar lift, so it was a workable way to defer the LCA problem. At some point I'll dive in and just replace the LCA's completely, probably when I replace the Daystar/XREAS with adjustable shocks and redo the whole front suspension.