Tie rod ends + control arm question

[Therian]

I've started my quest on upgrading the suspension. So far I've got the front brakes off, new rear shocks in, old front struts out, tie rod ends disconnected from knuckle/spindle, and the sway bar end links disconnected from the control arm.

How do I get the old outer tie rod ends off of the steering rack? they don't seem to want to budge at all.

I'm going to do some more searching on the following, but what else needs to be done to take off the control arms? I can see the two big bolts holding it on, but the haynes manual said something about taking off the steering gear bolts or something?

Thanks guys

 

[HISSIN50]

Duncan, if you hold the intermediate shaft, the tie rod should come off. For lack of a better tool, sliding jaw pliers work well for this.

For the LCA's, the two big pairs of bolts and nuts are the biggies. PB the crap out of them. The rack interferance is hit or miss IIRC. Or I'm having a brain fart and thinking of the fox (the last LCA swap I did was on that. Aero foxes dont normally have interference issues but 4 eyes do. And I might be getting this stuff all confused now). Look at the steering rack bellows and where the bolt would come out to see if there will be interference. You might get lucky.
Then of course the spindle and LCA need to come apart (BJ).

That's about all I can think of. The Miracerros page has some good diagrams and such if needed. Good luck Duncan.

 

[Therian]

Thanks a lot JT, I knew you would come through...from what I can recall, I didn't notice any interference with the rack and the control arm. I just bought some new PB yesterday, so I'll give the bolts a rather healthy soaking.

I'll let you know how far I get later tomorrow.

While I'm thinking about it, when I have the control arm dropped, the springs should pop right out with a pry bar, correct?

 

[HISSIN50]

Thanks a lot JT, I knew you would come through...from what I can recall, I didn't notice any interference with the rack and the control arm. I just bought some new PB yesterday, so I'll give the bolts a rather healthy soaking.

I'll let you know how far I get later tomorrow.

While I'm thinking about it, when I have the control arm dropped, the springs should pop right out with a pry bar, correct?

You will want to be careful with the spring and LCA. I've dropped springs by popping the Ball joint loose and removing the springs that way (probably the easier route on an SN95. Mustang World has a write-up on that method IIRC).

And I have also removed springs by leaving the BJ attached and putting my monster jack under the inside edge of the LCA. I remove the big LCA bolts and use the jack to drop the arm (my pivot is the strut). This way might be a bit more 'puckery' if you havent done it before, but it works quite well if you're careful (this is the only way I do fox III springs because the other method doesnt work for chit on fox III's). The springs fall out the inside with ease, no matter how tall or short the springs.

That makes it a lot easier if you don't think there's an issue with the LCA bolts coming out (they wont hit the rack). I didnt think there was an issue but anomalies can happen. If that does occur, I'd undo the rack fasteners and slide the rack forward or even off the mounts. That should free up room. With all your renewing, fresh bushings on the rack might be cool anyhow.

If you're lucky, the LCA bolts and sleeves wont be seized. If they are, prepare to start cutting. Hence the recommendation with massive PBing or perhaps careful heating if necessary.

Good luck my friend.

 

[Therian]

well...I got at it for a couple hours today

It started off well, and I got the first LCA bolt out. The one near the rack was another story. I broke two 21mm sockets on that sucker, it wouldn't budge.

I imagine I will be cutting the arm out, but how should it be done? torch? a grinder doesn't seem like it will fit. I imagine at this point I'll have to be removing the rack.

The other problem is that before taking off the strut, I didn't loosen the bolt holding the spindle to the ball joint. I now have no way of getting it loose because there is no suitable way of restricting its movement. Is there a way to pop it out from below? or should I just hack it off with a torch also?

Compounding the spindle issue, is the fact that the damn ABS sensor will not unseat itself. I'm thinking if I can get the balljoint out one way or another I can just tie the spindle out of the way while I deal with the LCA.

frustrations....

 

[HISSIN50]

Ok, so you have undone the 'outside' of the suspension (strut is disconnected at the spindle, end links are undone, tie rods, etc) but you have the BJ and spindle still connected, and one POS LCA bolt is holding you up.................. I think.

I'd almost bolt the Strut in real quick and half-arsed just to give you something hold the LCA and spindle kinda rigid so you can remove the BJ nut. A box wrench and a 4 pound hammer are likely your best bet for getting that nut loose. I've gotten lucky before and beaten the nut off with the assembly all floppy, but I doubt you would have such luck.

For the LCA situation.............I don't have near the experience that others do with a seized fastener there. Some have heated the thing and had luck. A guy by the name of Stang&2Birds comes to mind - he had to sawzall the bolts off on his 86 (and has talked about it in detail. It sounded miserable).

I'm sorry to not be of much help Duncan. It's just been a pretty long time since I dealt with really corroded fasteners, and they were not on a Mustang. Bumpity for ya.