Any trick to remove front drivers upper control arm rear nut???

Stangman

Stangman

Project car a.d.d.
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Ok so I am changing out the control arms on my '93.... passengers side is done. How in the world is it possible to remove the front upper control arm nut on the back side of the shock tower????? I can't get any swing w/ a wrench!!! I moved all the wires!

Experienced Mark guys please help!
 
Ratchet wrench...

Or pull the air shock out and break the ear off of the head of the bolt and loosen it from that bolt side...

Or, there's a hole in the inner fender that will grant access to the nut wih an extension and a swivel joint...
 
i laugh when i see people have trouble with this. its just as easy as removing the lug nuts. put an 18 mm wrench on the nut, and break the flag off the head of the bolt inside the wheel well, it pry;s off with a flathead, then use a ratchet and 15 mm 6 point socket to break it loose, couldnt be any easier.
 
98lincmk7lsc said:
Ratchet wrench...

break the ear off of the head of the bolt and loosen it from that bolt side...

Or, there's a hole in the inner fender that will grant access to the nut wih an extension and a swivel joint...
Click to expand...

BAD97LSC said:
break the flag off the head of the bolt inside the wheel well, it pry;s off with a flathead, then use a ratchet and 15 mm 6 point socket to break it loose, couldnt be any easier.
Click to expand...

Yup ... it's that easy ...
 
seriously it really is, and its been covered sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many times on here anyone should know how to do it by now. maybe if it was made a sticky, it wouldnt be asked twice a month!
 
Problem is..... once you knock the tabs off the bolt heads, you can't keep a wrench or socket on it.... when they mash the metal to hold the tab on, it rounds the head off!!!!!! Even if you didn't knock the tab off the heads are still rounded!!

Those instructions are :q:q:q:q.

I ended up getting the nut off.... had to actually move the connector pack for the engine harness. Took two wrenches and broke it loose.

Anyone who replaced their uppers.... I highly recommend buying new bolts. Went to the hardware store and picked up 4 metric 12x1.75 bolts 70mm long or something like that. Worked like a charm.

Power steering rack is next to do
 
the flags only mess the head of the bolt up half way down the head, if you take your 15 mm socket and tap it on with a hammer, it will go all the way onto the head and then the socket works like it should, i have replace 30 million upper control arms, i have never once, never once had a socket slip off the head of the bolt even with them partially rounded from the flag. i'm not trying to give ya a hard time, just take the extra second and pay closer attention to what you are doing, no one wants to ever take the time to watch what they are doing, everyone is always is a rush to get no where. if the instructions were :q:q:q:q, why has it worked for me and so many others for so many years??????? its the easiest way and quickest way to remove the bolt, but some of you guys insist on re-inventing the wheel by taking apart half the car to get a :q:q:q:qing bolt out lol!!! why?
 
Believe me, I was taking my time. And because I read the instructions, I did try making the socket go on further.... no dice :( maybe its because of the rust... I don't know. But it didn't work. I found a work around.
 
well i can see rust causing issues i tend to forget working on them down here is far nicer than you poor bastards in the rust belt!
 
Lmao! I bet!! And that's what really surprised me because everything on this car has been fairly easy to remove. Except those upper control arms, and the lower ball joints. But now they're done. Steering rack is going on tomorrow, alignment Saturday.... and hopefully to the inspection facility and back on the road just in time for it to sit for winter :(
 
Pull the master forward and theres more than enough room to get it off.

no reason to half ass it and break things. That just pisses those of us off that do things properly that end up working on it next.
 
i hope you arent reffering to my method as " breaking things" removing the flag off the head of the bolt is far from breaking thinks. screwing with the master cylinder and brake booster is a far great chance for the do it yourself back yard mechanic to cause serious damage or an accident than removing a flag off a bolt!!
 
Yeah there was no way I was doing that. I agree w/ Jamie... Waaayyyyy too involved, and too much potential for things to go wrong. Screw those little flags/tabs. I popped all of them off. Replaced the bolts with better, non-stripped bolts anyway. I just needed to take a fresh look to see how to gain access to the nut. I don't half-ass anything. Hope you're not referring to me either. And if you are, I don't give a :q:q:q:q anyway. My car, I'll do what I like.
 
I don't understand why you would need to break the "flag" off the bolt. It's there to keep the bolt from turning while you loosen the nut. I found it very helpful when replacing the UCA's on my '97. I only had to use one wrench instead of two. The only annoying part for me was the D/S rear bolt. It took a while, but I didn't have to break anything off or remove anything or drill any holes or move anything out of the way to get it out. I just loosened the nut, took it off, pushed the bolt out through the fender well and reversed the process to get it back together. I really, REALLY wish I'd had an ratcheting wrench at the time, but it worked fine with a plain old open-end. It was just a little tedius.
 
I've done a few and tried different was to get them off and by far the fastest way is to remove the flag and hit the bolt with an impact to remove it. I did the ones on my 98 in under an hour that way.
 
thaywood the difference between doing it with only one wrench and doing it by popping off the flag is about 15 minutes difference, 1 minute to do it this way, 16 minutes to do it your way, who wants to sit there and turn one nut in the same time it takes to pop off the flags and have the entire control arm out of the car, i'll park a mark next to yours, and we'll remove both upper control arms at the same time our ways, and i'll have both out and both new ones in before you get your driverside off. is it really that important to you guys who dont want to remove the flag???? its the fastest way, the easiest way, and in no shape or form breaks or jeopardizes any part of the car what so ever so whats the big deal i dont get it?
 
BAD97LSC said:
thaywood the difference between doing it with only one wrench and doing it by popping off the flag is about 15 minutes difference, 1 minute to do it this way, 16 minutes to do it your way, who wants to sit there and turn one nut in the same time it takes to pop off the flags and have the entire control arm out of the car, i'll park a mark next to yours, and we'll remove both upper control arms at the same time our ways, and i'll have both out and both new ones in before you get your driverside off. is it really that important to you guys who dont want to remove the flag???? its the fastest way, the easiest way, and in no shape or form breaks or jeopardizes any part of the car what so ever so whats the big deal i dont get it?
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter. Everybody has their own way of doing things. If I had a ratcheting wrench, I could have gotten that nut off in no time. I did it the hard way? Oh well. It just seemed logical to me to leave the flag on there to serve its intended purpose. If ya wanna break it off, do it. I just didn't.
 
i have sk gearwrenches , it doesnt make taking the nut off any easier, you still have no room to swing the wrench, it doesnt matter if you have magical wrenches made from moon rock there is no room to get a decent swing with a wrench, thats why its easier to just back the damn bolt out, lol this is why so many of us stop giving advice on here because no one :q:q:q:qing listens all they do is bitch about people trying to help others speed things up.
 
Oooookay. If you say so. I'm just sayin' it worked fine for me. It was just time consuming. There's no need to get so defensive and bitchy about it.:p

Calm down and go have a drink or something...
 
not getting defensive or bitchy, just stating that people come on here all the time begging to be spoon fed and cry for help, then you put it out there, and then the others come out of the wood work and re-invent the wheel. then people like myself as many other members here who have an enormous wealth of knowledge on these cars get sick and tired of trying to help people who dont want to listen, or just want to sit and argue or take the threads somewhere out into left field, then we stop posting help, and then everyone cries that all the knowledgable guys are ass holes because they wont help anymore, its a downward spiral. one i have given up on in this forum. i just like to come here and be a total dick now since half the people here have gone that route as well, its kind of fun. and i dont drink, dont need booze to calm me down. being a dick on here works good enough!!!
 
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