The time has come, I need new tires and new front upper control arms and outer tie rods (arms and rods according to Belle Tire). I plan on purchasing 275/65/R18 Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs and using the GAP tool for a 1.5”-2” lift for some easy very light forest road off roading.

i am going to replace uppers and lowers in the front and just wait for the rears to fail until I replace them.

when I use the gap tool to recalibrate for a 2” lift I assume I only need to loosen (hand tighten) just the bolts where there are bushings on all the control arms (front and rear). Any other bolts to loosen?

I’ll be getting an alignment after I do the control arm and tie rod work. I assume it’s safe drive the 2 miles to Belle Tire for the alignment with my suspension components hand tightened.

 

I run 1.5" lift with 32". And yes, you really need to loosen ALL bushing bolts where the bushings flex or you end up with bushing twist that messes with ride quality and will cause bushing failure prematurely. So just front upper and lower at frame (4 bolts per side) and the strut at lower control arm. And for the rear, same, just the four per side will be fine and again the strut. The ones at the rear knuckle are rose joints, so nothing there besides during alignment. Your rear lateral links will need nothing also. Should be fine to drive as long as you are close to spec but no, you can no hand tighten anything. You need to torque to spec if you want to drive it or things will really move way out.

On an LR3/4, the fender to axle height is 465mm (18.3”) front, 485mm (19.09”)rear per factory. So just add to that for your desired height before you torque things down. You can set the height with the truck on stands and use a jack under the lower arms to get the hub to fender distance. You do not need to have it on the ground.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/lr...o-3-lt-110827/

 

Thanks for the advice, my parts are coming on Friday I’ll keep spraying all the bolts with PB blaster in the morning and night.

did you replace any of the bolts are were you able to reuse all the original.

good advice on the setting the height while the vehicle is on jack stands with wheels off. Torquing to spec this way seems way easier.

 

You should be fine to re-use them. But odds are you will run into issues if they are old or original, the bond to the metal bushing sleeve. This actually creates a couple issues because they can not be properly turned for alignment, they end up twisting the bushings to do so. For you tho, since you are not actually removing them you are probably going to be okay getting the nuts backed off enough to let the bushings freely rotate with the arm to set them to their new location. But if you have to remove teh arms, replace the bushings..... there are tons of write-ups and stories on how much of a pain the front lower and rear uppers can be to replace. Usually involves a sawzall. But again, for what you are doing backing the nut off a lot should be okay and I dont think you will have an issue. For what I did, well I replaced everything front and rear with new arms and every bit of hardware when I did my height change since that was my plan all along. I needed new bushings all over the place. So all new, set new height, torqued it down and got an alignment.

 

I’m replacing the front upper and lowers. I had it aligned last year, and went in yesterday for this year’s alignment (before diagnosing my bad bushings)…seems likely the shop just twisted the bushings when doing the alignment procedure.

ive read all the posts requiring a sawzall, finger crossed i dont need to.

suggestions on where to locate hardware?

what tires are you rolling?

 

The will not be centered as they are centric washers that sit between two small metal bumps. So when the bolt head is rotated, the arm changes position relative to the frame. That is how the alignments are done. You will not find those on the uppers, just the lowers. All my bolts and nuts came from the UK, from LR direct. But Atlantic British can hook you up with what you need. I bet you will have to cut the bolts. Will not be fun. If you have to, you want really good metal blades like Diablo or such. And you want an electric sawzall, not battery. An electric one will do the job 10x faster, trust me.

Funny story on tires. I wanted Toyo AT3 really bad, but this was shortly after COVID and the size I wanted was not available at all. I even called Toyo directly and they said they were months from going back into production. So I wend with Bridgestone Dueler Revo 3 and well two sets cracked back, now I have Firestone Destination X/T and they have not cracked one bit and they are 100X better in snow and even road.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/ti...cracks-113837/

 

you live in Michigan? has the rover been there its entire life? have the saw and big fking hammer and pry bars ready...

 

I do live in Michigan, the truck spent all of its life in Virginia and Tennessee before I bought it 3 years ago.

seems like no one has much hope on reusing the bolts

 

well then if its only been 3 years of salt you might be good. i did mine this spring on an 08 that lived in Alabama its whole life. came right out no rust whatsoever!

 

I’ve been spraying with PB blaster for the last 2 days, parts come tomorrow. Hopefully it penetrates whatever rust I’ve got built up on the bolt threads and shoulder