Upper Control Arm/Bracket Install Tips

[01slowbra46]

Hey everyone, my upper control arm/mount will be in Thursday and want to install it before the weekend. I tried a google search, along with a search on here and didnt really find a how to on anything but lower control arms, or just the upper arm w/o bracket.

Since room is an issue, can I just remove the rear bolt, and slightly loosen the front bolt that attaches the arm to the bracket, and just remove the three bolts from the bracket and remove as an assembly?

Also, should i just set the length to exactly what stock was since im not lowered yet?

Finally, is it best to jack the car up on the body, or can I jack it up by the diff like i did the lowers?

Thanks!

 

[CobraRed_96_GT]

I just did this last week:

Jack the car up via the diff and then put the car's body on jack stands (on a joint, vertical pinchweld or LCA bracket - not on the floorboard) so that the diff is hanging free. At this point I would remove the PHB and either loosen the sway bar where they attach to the LCA or just keep that in mind as a solution to articulating the diff later.
Place a jack under the diff and raise it up a a good amount.
Get in the car, remove the seat bottoms (really easy) and loosen the upper bolt with a big breaker bar or 500+ ft/lb impact wrench.

Use the impact with an extension to remove the other 2 bolts holding the UCA bracket in the car. Lower the jack. This will loosen the entire bracket and make removing the bolt that holds the UCA to the diff easy without tension on it.

Remove it as an assembly. Likely won't need to use anything off this if u have an aftermarket UCA and bracket.

Match your new UCA length to your OEM one (even if you are about to be lowered) this should be around 9.5".
Grease your god damn UCA! If it's a spherical BMR one like mine above, buy some Amsoil HD Metal Protector and put the bracket in a vise - spray the bearing to hell and work it back and forth into there.

Move the jack in front of the pumpkin. There is a straight flat area in front of the pumpkin, you want the jack halfway down the straight flat area. Situating here helps articulate the diff bushing bolt hole in the correct orientation for installing a UCA.
Install as an assembly. The UCA arm isn't going to want to easy fit over the diff bushing.
Torque the first two bracket bolts into the body, then with your UCA arm laying on the diff bushing housing, jack the diff up with a wooden block situated above the UCA arm so that as the diff raises the the wooden block hits against the floor board and pushes the UCA over the diff. Once the holes line up use a 3/8" extension and a hammer to ram through and line everything up, wiggling the extension back and forth will make sure the holes match up well.

Tap the diff bolt through the UCA and bushing housing and then put on the nut hand tight.
Torque this nut with the full weight of the car on the tires while it's sitting level after you've put the PHB back in. Also re-torque the sway and PHB while its sitting with weight on it.
Make sure you have a closed end 18MM wrench on the bolt head side of the diff bolt, because even though it's a flag bolt/nut it's going to want to rotate.

Torque the bolt inside the car.

Adjust for pinion angle with the car level and full weight, drip loctite on the threads and jam those jam nuts like they killed your family dog.

- No you don't need to loosen or drop the fuel tank. People saying this must have really short jack stands or inadequate tools.

- As a product manager for a quality tool company I usually don't suggest the cheapest Chinese tools, but this cheaper than dirt adjustable wrench has saved me more times than I care to count - and it's way better quality than it should be. Holding in place bolt heads like the UCA to bracket bolt (while you're torquing the nut) and tightening 1.5" jam nuts takes some pretty uncommon wrench sizes. This works fine: http://www.amazon.com/DA84090-inch-...TF8&qid=1436893141&sr=8-1&keywords=DA84090+12 Edit: Looks like they are closed out on Amazon, but google the part number, they're $10 on ebay.

 

[CobraRed_96_GT]

Sounds complicated, but most of that is pointers to make things easier.
I've done it twice.

 

[Riptide]

More than one way to do it. I did mine with the stands under the axle not the body.

The 3v cars require the tank to come down an inch or two but the 5.0 cars do not.

 

[01slowbra46]

My biggest concern is doing it with hand tools since i don't have an impact. Worse case scenario i take it to my buddies shop some other time.

 

[CobraRed_96_GT]

My biggest concern is doing it with hand tools since i don't have an impact. Worse case scenario i take it to my buddies shop some other time.

You dont have an impact or you dont have compressed air?

 

[Riptide]

Done it both times with hand tools and a second set of hands. Worst part was the gigantic bolt and nut for the BMR UCA I had. 200ft lbs. without a vise. Yikes.