2004 IQC Lower Control Arm replacement

[dcjredline]

A week ago I ordered the Drivers side LCA to replace because I found the rear bushing was bad. I PB blastered everything and left it over night to soak. Went out the next day to replace it. Front 2 bolts loosened easy, ball joint bolt too. The rear bolt was a whole other story. It would come out about 1/4 inch and not turn, I would switch the impact to tighten and try again, no luck. I tried that 2 or 3 times and gave up. Soaked it in PB again over night. Next day tried the impact again to loosen and as I was trying to tighten it again it started spinning. Caged nut above was spinning. Decided to stop and set an appointment with my buddy who has a lift.

Today, a week later I brought it to his house to remove. I wanted to post here to hopefully help some others cause I found a lot of threads about if the bolt sticks in the bushing but mine wasnt stuck there just the cage nut had broken loose and was spinning. On the drivers side there is NO room to reach in there at all.

1. We took off both tires
2. Remove ball joint bolts *15mm and 5/8 on the other side*
3. Remove tie rod bolts and take them from the spindles *18mm i think or 15mm*
4. Remove sway bar end links (I removed the bottom end from the bar) *15 or 18mm and an allen)
5. Remove the 3 rear engine mount bolts (under the car at the rear of the subframe *18mm*
6. Remove 2 mounting bolts for the steering "rack" which is basically just a link to connect the steering wheel to the tires, not really a traditional rack. *18mm*
7. Remove the bottom knuckle of the steering shaft to "rack" bolt to split them. *14mm*
8. Take the steering rack out of the drivers side wheel well.
9. Remove the pass rear CAB / subframe bolt (lucky for me this one came out without stripping the cage bolt) *21mm*
10. With the rack and all the other bolts loose we jacked the subframe up to cut the head off the drivers CAB/subframe bolt.
11. Pry the subframe down and put a block of wood to hold it down out of the way.
12. This gave us MUCH more access to the nut ( but it was still fairly tight but way better)
13. Pry the cage off of the frame (Its just tacked on there so it shouldnt be hard)
14. Cut the bolt off at the frame just above the CAB (the bolt is too long to push up with just the head cut off). A sawzall or hack saw could do this probably but we used his torch
15. Take all the pieces out of the CAB and remove that control arm FINALLY
16. Then we installed the DR Control Arm starting with the new rear bolt (and a new non GM plain old 14mm nut) first so we had room to hold the nut with a wrench. *21mm*
17. Install everything else in reverse order.


Hope (without pictures, and my horrible memory of the wrench / socket sizes) this helps everyone if their caged nut breaks loose above the control arm rear mount like mine did.

[PopCornTigger]

Originally Posted by dcjredline

A week ago I ordered the Drivers side LCA to replace because I found the rear bushing was bad. I PB blastered everything and left it over night to soak. Went out the next day to replace it. Front 2 bolts loosened easy, ball joint bolt too. The rear bolt was a whole other story. It would come out about 1/4 inch and not turn, I would switch the impact to tighten and try again, no luck. I tried that 2 or 3 times and gave up. Soaked it in PB again over night. Next day tried the impact again to loosen and as I was trying to tighten it again it started spinning. Caged nut above was spinning. Decided to stop and set an appointment with my buddy who has a lift.

Today, a week later I brought it to his house to remove. I wanted to post here to hopefully help some others cause I found a lot of threads about if the bolt sticks in the bushing but mine wasnt stuck there just the cage nut had broken loose and was spinning. On the drivers side there is NO room to reach in there at all.

1. We took off both tires
2. Remove ball joint bolts *15mm and 5/8 on the other side*
3. Remove tie rod bolts and take them from the spindles *18mm i think or 15mm*
4. Remove sway bar end links (I removed the bottom end from the bar) *15 or 18mm and an allen)
5. Remove the 3 rear engine mount bolts (under the car at the rear of the subframe *18mm*
6. Remove 2 mounting bolts for the steering "rack" which is basically just a link to connect the steering wheel to the tires, not really a traditional rack. *18mm*
7. Remove the bottom knuckle of the steering shaft to "rack" bolt to split them. *14mm*
8. Take the steering rack out of the drivers side wheel well.
9. Remove the pass rear CAB / subframe bolt (lucky for me this one came out without stripping the cage bolt) *21mm*
10. With the rack and all the other bolts loose we jacked the subframe up to cut the head off the drivers CAB/subframe bolt.
11. Pry the subframe down and put a block of wood to hold it down out of the way.
12. This gave us MUCH more access to the nut ( but it was still fairly tight but way better)
13. Pry the cage off of the frame (Its just tacked on there so it shouldnt be hard)
14. Cut the bolt off at the frame just above the CAB (the bolt is too long to push up with just the head cut off). A sawzall or hack saw could do this probably but we used his torch
15. Take all the pieces out of the CAB and remove that control arm FINALLY
16. Then we installed the DR Control Arm starting with the new rear bolt (and a new non GM plain old 14mm nut) first so we had room to hold the nut with a wrench. *21mm*
17. Install everything else in reverse order.


Hope (without pictures, and my horrible memory of the wrench / socket sizes) this helps everyone if their caged nut breaks loose above the control arm rear mount like mine did.

Hey, the control Arm 21mm what are the dimensions to this bolt?