I hear replacing the upper front control arms are a bit of a pain. I’ve already done the lowers. Any tips/tricks or advice? I’m not seeing any videos on YouTube....
140k on the truck. V6

 

Yes.

For the most part, it is straight forward. It may seem more work than required, but following the service manual in order does make the job a lot easier. especially if you forget to remove something like the ride height sensor. Take special care to not lose the 10 mm nuts that hold the heat shield in in place, it turns out you WILL need them to re-assemble at the end. Don't ask. Take your time and use plenty of penetrating spray to disassemble and plenty of anti-seize paste to re-assemble.

Make sure you have at least one extra bolt and retainer nut for each side, depending on the miles on your Rover one or more "may" be seized requiring you to use a cut off saw (Sawzall) to cut the bolt next to the control arm bushing inside the mounting bracket on the frame. And a blade for each bolt that the right number of teeth for steel as they wear out fast.

The left front will be the worst. might want to try coming up from under the bumper between the power steering hoses and the frame to pull it out to dis-assemble / push it back in re-assemble.

I did mine last July, but with the Hurricane and all, it seems like a life time ago and I am sure I forgot something important. I will leave it to the VAST wealth of knowledge of the forum from here to correct/add to my 2 cents worth.

Hope this gets you started.

Jeff

 

Much appreciated. I hope that you have recovered from Harvey.
I recall the heat shields being a pain when I was looking to change the starter.

Even though it’s a SoCal car, I did need to use an air chisel to push out the lower bolts. So, I imagine the top ones will be a bit corroded as well. I’m pretty confident the ball joints will be easier than the lower ones!

Do you recall needing to remove the shocks?

I don’t have a copy of the service manual. Can anyone point me to a link that works?

 

For the front upper bolt you will need a combo of Universal joint/Wobble extension with a 18mm socket. I use some tape to capture the socket on the u joint at an angle. Use a pry tool to peel back the heat shield covering the bolt. Place a 21mm Box wrench on the nut and start turning the bolt head.

Once new arm is in, use a steel punch/lady finger to line up the front bolt hole with the punch tip sticking out. Then, line up bolt tip with punch end and push though, the lady finger acts as a guide for the bolt tip and keeps the arm/hole lined up.

 

Some tips in this post:

https://landroverforums.com/forum/lr...acement-79093/

 

Very helpful, thanks! I’ll try to do it without removing the wheel well liners. Those plastic push rivets are a pain to remove.

 

Tech section under urethane bushings, i may have put in some tips, i remember i was able to force my arm in there, tore up mu arm like road rash but saved me time, will need a second person i think

 

Just ordered both OEM with bolts/nuts for $209 shipped!

I considered urethane bushings, but saw a post where the arm broke at the weld (twice). Plus, I don’t really want to mess with getting everything pressed in/out. At $68 per side for the whole arm, it’s a slam. Hopefully, this will get rid of the last suspension clunk! Otherwise, I’ll need to do the rear arms.

 

We have run those urethane for some time now with no issues , i remember that thread and am not sure how he was able to break the arms

 

Sorry I don't have detailed advice for you, unlike the more helpful folks who have responded, but I'll just mention that I changed mine on my 'midwest' vehicle a year or so ago, with about 110,000 miles, and my bolts were not seized or rusted in place - I had spare nuts and bolts, but did not need to use them. I do recall that it wasn't really 'difficult' to remove the shields, (3 of them maybe?), but I did need to remember how to put them back. I took photos probably. The thing that I most remember is how difficult it was to get to the 'front' Nut/Bolt. I remember that it was very tight getting either my hand or a suitable wrench or socket in there, so any specific advice that you get from others on this topic is definitely worth following! Again, sorry for not being specific, good luck, Simon. P.S. You might as well have some spare Tie Rods and Sway Bar links available, in case these need to be replaced now or soon - Cheap, and you might as well do it at the same time, when the wheel is already off.