Technical Lower Arms

[Hellcat]

Woohoo! Just found out my nearside lower arm has about 6mm play in the front bush.. No wonder I've been fighting the car at motorway speed

So far I've found lower arms from £73 (fiat) to £46 (shop4parts). Have heard its a pig of a job but I was really needing the car for Friday. Anyone done the job on a driveway and have any hints? Anything to avoid? I'll produce something for the guides section if I can get the help of my assistant with the camera

 

[custard]

shouldnt be that bad.never done a marea but there much of a muchness in design.
biggest problem i had on doing both on the turbo was other parts.
eg a mis-threaded chassis bolt :bang:
arb mount bolts shearing requiring newbrackets

 

[Hellcat]

ARB attaches to the strut rather than to the lower arm. Got a QH replacement arm for £35+vat and will start attempting fitting as soon as it arrives.

Hopefully the rest of the bolts will be fine.

 

[jug]

QH may cost 30% more than the no namers but it'll last twice as long so worth every penny.

getting the old one off is the hard part, rusty nuts and bolts never want to come off

 

[bulldog5046]

yeah was gunna say hellcat, what do you expect? its gunna be solidly rusted bolts that need cutting off and lots of cuts and bruises what more can you ask from a fiat?

 

[Hellcat]

QH may cost 30% more than the no namers but it'll last twice as long so worth every penny.

getting the old one off is the hard part, rusty nuts and bolts never want to come off

Nope. Getting the old one off was easy. The new one was a swine to get into place then I couldn't for the life of me get the bolts in. After 2 hours I'm a broken man. My undertray is broken too where I couldn't remove it due to a captive nut breaking off so I went a bit insane and ripped it off. Regretting that now to the tune of £75 for a new tray. In the end had to put the old one back on. Sooooo pi$$ed off right now. Needed the car for Friday night and there is no way I'll manage it.

 

[jug]

thats bad news mate. sounds like many days of my life. did you try attaching the ball joint last? thats what i do, get the arm on then pop the ball joint in place, a jack under the disc can be useful to raise the hub a few inches. a long bar is good for levering the arm down too. good luck

 

[Hellcat]

Is it possible to get the arm into the correct position with the strut still in place, or should I undo the 3 bolts at the top mount allowing some movement?

 

[jug]

i think it will be harder if you loosen the 3 strut bolts at the top because the strut will hang lower, you need to get the arm in place then raise the hub with a jack as you lower the arm with a bar to allow the ball joint to pop in place. the hub will be able to move away from the car, if it moves too much you will have trouble getting the ball joint in place, and you may pull the driveshaft out which isnt a problem but gearbox fluid may leak out. try raising the hub with the jack while making sure it is pushed into the wheelarch towards the engine as far as you can. then the ball joint should be directly below the point where it need to slot in, allowing the arm to raise into posiiton by relesing pressure on the bar holding it down will make the ball joint move up into the hub. for a bar you can try using the jack's lever bar. once the ball joint is in position get the ball joint bolt in place then you lower the hub and tighten the ball joint bolt and nut.

 

[Hellcat]

Ok its done. And I didn't need to jack up the arm or the strut which can be dangerous.

Removed the full strut leaving only the hub carrier in the way which lifts out of the way easily. Then got the arm in and bolted. Then attached the hub carrier to the ball joint. Then put the strut back into the tower and attached it to the hub carrier. Time taken 1 hour. Don't forget to loosen all bolts and oil them before taking any parts off.

Car feels a lot newer now, will aim to do the other side in the near future, along with track rod ends and drop links.