A-arm removal

[KeppelmanJ]

Guys, i want to pull the A-arms from my coupe to deal with rust and repaint. It looks like I can unscrew three nuts under the outboard end to drop the arm away from the ball joint w/o removing the joint from the hub. Is that right?

[davidb]

Oh Johnny this is Keller territory here. Dropping out that rusty
"A'" arm entails glass beading, priming & painting. You may be
disappointed how thin the "A" arm metal has become. New
ball joints & bushings are in order, if not a priority. Most new
ball joint threaded shafts are too long, they'll scrub the C.V.
joint rubber or clamp. Cut off the appropriate amt. of shaft
heigth. Then there's the idea of dropping the entire halfshaft
out for cleaning all the ball bearings in the C.V. joints proper
& re-greasing same to ensure longevity. I dislike being a daily
poster/pain-in-the-ass. Load the front suspension as you tighten
those 19MM thru bolts, just a tiny bit slack, allow movement for
the bushing sleeve ends. Enough . . .

[KeppelmanJ]

Thanks, David. I answered my own question re the ball joint nuts. They were easy. Now I am struggling with those very flat 17 mm nuts which anchor the anti-roll bar. I've rounded the corners on both on the left side and quit for lunch. They are at an odd angle and my socket just doesn't get decent purchase. These A-arms are cheesy indeed, as you suggest, but mine are only slightly rusty and the car is very low mileage and those miles mostly highway so I don't expect wear on the ball joints or bushings. We'll see. I may weld a piece of tubing or flat bar across the rear flanges of the A-arms for strength. I've heard of these just folding up when auto-crossed with very sticky tires. Mostly I just want to halt the rust. If I was a wealthy, idle man with nothing but time on my hands I'd fabricate a pair of nice tubing A's like the early Fulvias had, maybe with rose joints for camber adjustment. But the older I get the less time I have for such play, it seems, hence my frustration with the rounded 18 mm nuts!

[SubGothius]

I think the trick with the antiroll bar bolts is to just soak the hell out of them with a really good penetrant like Free-All or Kroil (or at least PB B'laster if that's the best you can get), let that sit for a while and hammer around it a bit occasionally to help with penetration/loosening. Then when you're ready to unbolt them, secure your wrench and tap it with the hammer to get things started. Since yours are already rounded by now, you'll prolly have to try Visegrips or similar, but try the hammer-tap approach with that. Maybe also try applying a propane torch to see if thermal expansion helps any?

[KeppelmanJ]

Thanks, Tyson. There had been Kriol on them for a few hours. I'll try the hammer tapping and the torch. Problem is it's so easy to rock the socket off those skinny nuts and bugger the edges. If all else fails I'll cut the nuts in two with a die grinder and replace the bolts. A lift would be nice about now. Those suckers are upside down!

[1,6 HF]

At this point, splitting the nuts and replacing the bolts sounds like the best course of action. If the heads and nuts are rounded, as you describe, you're not going to re-use them anyway.

[SubGothius]

Ah, now I see you're talking about the inner bushing clamps, held together with nuts'n'bolts, where the ARB attaches to the subframe rail. Be much more careful with the outer-bushing clamps where the ARB ends attach to the A-arms; those bolts screw directly into threaded bosses on the A-arms themselves, so there's no nuts to split off there!

[KeppelmanJ]

Tye, on mine, the outer clamps of the A-arm, are the ones at issue. They're held down with bolts from above and nuts on the underside in a recess on the A-arm tray. I'm going to put the wheels back on and drive the car to a pal with a lift where I can see what I'm doing loosening those nuts. Or parting them with a die grinder as appropriate.

[SubGothius]

Aha, I think I see your problem now. IIRC, the "nuts" you're trying to loosen are actually permanently affixed to the A-arm, so those won't ever budge. The clamp around the bushing at the tip of the ARB is held to the A-arm by bolts going into the A-arm itself from above, so it's those bolt heads you actually need to be working on.

[KeppelmanJ]

Brilliant, Tye. What good news that is. I'm glad I didn't take a die grinder to them as planned. Boy, would I have felt stupid. Now, how did you ever discover that?

[SubGothius]

Actually, I got a couple spare A-arms on eBay intending to rebush them at my leisure and then simply swap for my existing arms, so I noticed that on the spares.