[Tsp84]

Just spent the day wrestling with the rear end. Ended up taking the rear struts off of knuckle and dropping the whole rear assembly to get at the bolts by the fuel tank. A Dremel with the ezlock cut off disc cut the old arms off. The old arms are straight ball joint sockets instead of bushings (well I guess there were the Teflon/plastic bushings inbetween the ball and socket).

For anyone attempting to do this in the rusty parts of the North, just drop the rear assembly. The 2 nuts and 1 bolt per side (after you drop the stab bar and remove the knuckle from struts) are shockingly easy to crack and remove. It gives you access to put a 6 point on that bolt head and break the nut free on the rear. I just left the nuts with a few turns on one side of the rear assembly and dropped the opposite side to get enough room. Do the same for the other side and things are good! Also don't forget anti seize for where the new control arms bushings contact the bolt so next time it's a breeze.

The challenge I have now is clocking these new control arms because smart me took them out of their boxes and forgot which was which lol.

Just waiting for 2 more quick struts and than I'll be putting new struts on too. Got new summer tires today and will get an alignment this week. Excited to see how she feels as I just did the front inner/outer tie rods and ball joints. Slowly but surely she's getting a refresh.

 

[norm356]

the 4 arms go on pointing forward, like in this photo (forward is to the right)

in this photo, forward is to the left:

I take it your car has ABS? IIRC, ABS has spherical heim joints on both ends, non-ABS has rubber bushings on the inboard ends.

 

[Tsp84]

Awesome thank you! Yes it has ABS and the 2 spherical joints, so do the replacements (mevotech).
Here are some photos of the cut up joints. The only rubber were some dust cups held on with wound up steel wire on each end of the joint.