Removing the control arm looked easy in the video and for me, one of them was (relatively) easy, the other is currently still in place after being strongly sworn at but still removing to budge.
First, locate the nut above the ball joint at the wheel end.
20180119_143546 by
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Loosen this as much as you can but it will soon hit a bit of the suspension. The best way I found to loosen this was drown in WD40 and leave for 20 minutes. Put a spanner on it and then hit the spanned repeatedly to gradually shock it loose. It is a really tight space and you can only locate the spanner against one pair of faces on the nut. The first one I tried by just pushing the spanner has slightly rounded those two faces on the nut so that control arm is currently still in place.
20180119_154039 by
WCA!, on Flickr
Once the nut is as undone as you can make it you need a ball joint splitter. If you don't have one then buy one for about £10 at Halfords or similar. Smack it repeatedly with a hammer until suddenly it pops loose and the control arm drops and you can undo the nut from the rest of the thread. This also has a 16mm flat spot to stop it from just spinning. It is worth remembering this rather than just spinning the nut pointlessly for about 10 minute (yes, I did).
20180119_153954 by
WCA!, on Flickr
Next find the 22m nut above the central ball joint. This is easier to point at than to actually reach with a spanner
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When I did get a spanner on it I couldn't swing the hammer enough to use the shock wrench technique so was reduced to just adding extra leverage. A small socket on the end of a socket extension bar gave just enough extra leverage to loosen the nut. Once the stick was unstuck I could just the spanner on its own to turn the nut but at no point was it finger tight like on some YouTube videos.
20180119_160107 by
WCA!, on Flickr
Beforer trying to break the middle ball joint, locate the rear bush mounting bracket. These bolts are easy to get at and I loosened them both a few turns but left them in place while I tried to break the ball joint. When the ball joint gave up the control arm dropped suddenly but the two loose bolts help it in place just a few centimetres from my face. I was releived I though to leave the bolts in place
20180119_161535 by
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Having moved my face I undid the bolts fully and the control arm fell smoothly to the ground.
Now to compare the old and new swing arms. Well the new one was black and clean instead of silver and dirty which was a start but the surprise came when I wiggled the bolts stick up out of the ball joints. On the old one they wobbled freely whereas with the new one they were absolutely stiff. The old ones were definitely knackered.
I will try to post a link to a video showing the difference. Please can someone click on the picture and see if they get taken to the video and let me know if it has worked.
ControlArms by
WCA!, on Flickr