replacing the front lateral control arm in the rear is a pain

[ghettosled]

it took me 3.5 hours to replace the lateral arms on the driver's side. i cheated and bought bolts from the salvage yard for the connection at the center of the subframe so mine could be cut off. glad i did, at the salvage yard dropping the tank was a bit of a pain because the exhaust had to be removed, the filler neck, the support straps and a fuel line broke. at my house removing the bolt that holds the arms to the knuckle(?) was my biggest problem. the rear lateral arm was fused in place from rust and had to be chiseled off, and it took two hours of hitting the end of the bolt with a 5lb mallet, pb blaster, small torch, 24" breaker bar to finally get the bolt out.

i have yet to attempt this on the passenger's side. anyone have any suggestions on how to remove that long bolt? i almost got to the point of removing the knuckle with the bolt and arm in place and bring it to a shop to press out.

[99camryWV]

We never did get mine out.. We tried an impact gun on one side a torch heating up the knuckle and a 5 lb sledge hitting the end of the bolt.. It didn't budge.. Basically going to have to get new bolts and junk yard knuckles and replace it.. Also if you have the car jacked up its pretty easy to drop that sub frame and get those bolts out..

[ghettosled]

i love the rust belt. i dont think i could remove the forward-facing control arm or drop the sub frame without stripping or snapping bolts and nuts. i tried a couple of times in the local salvage yard to trip all of the bolts for the lateral arms from a donor car but i couldnt get any on the knuckle bolts to budge. oh well, now i have a project to do in a couple of weeks.

[Rowdyrod]

Why are you guys replacing the control arms?

[ghettosled]

the bushings are bad causing a thunking noise and wheel wobble. noise was only getting worse and was starting the cause the back end to feel loose when going around curves on the highway.