MasterofDisaster
Senior Member
I had a vibration on I-75 near Clarkston, Michigan so bad that I pulled over. I thought I had a flat. I took the car to the local Ford dealer who said the tires were shot and my control arms were shot.
The tires were three-year-old Ohtsu from Discount, and the center tread was in the yellow, so I was expecting to have to replace them. I was a little surprised to look at my notes and see they only had 22k miles on them. Guess I won't buy Ohtsu again.
I ordered the Ford Performance M-3075-E control arms from CJ Pony Part on Friday afternoon, and they arrived before noon on Sunday. I put in 3 1/2 hours yesterday removing the right arm. There was a lot of tension on that arm that made it hard to remove it.
Installation was fairly straightforward. There are two things that are not intuitive.
There is a groove in the ball joint stem. It must align with the hole in the spindle or you won't be able to install the bolt.
[As you can see in the pic, the arms are substantially reinforced.]
To align the groove in the ball joint stem, the stem should protrude about 16mm above the spindle.
The rear control arm bolts have flags on them to hold them in place while tightening. The interior two bolts can be tightened easily enough if the bolt is on the bottom and the nut is on the top. The two exterior bolts are extremely difficult to tighten unless you install them with the flag bolts on top and the nuts on the bottom. Ford manual 204-01-2 notes that inverting the outer bolts will "ease installation."
I finished the job in about four hours on Monday.
Then the car wouldn't start. Nothing I touched was remotely close to the battery or starter. Maybe having the key in the ignition so I could turn the wheels discharged the battery? An hour or two on the charger, and my car started with a roar.
The tires were three-year-old Ohtsu from Discount, and the center tread was in the yellow, so I was expecting to have to replace them. I was a little surprised to look at my notes and see they only had 22k miles on them. Guess I won't buy Ohtsu again.
I ordered the Ford Performance M-3075-E control arms from CJ Pony Part on Friday afternoon, and they arrived before noon on Sunday. I put in 3 1/2 hours yesterday removing the right arm. There was a lot of tension on that arm that made it hard to remove it.
Installation was fairly straightforward. There are two things that are not intuitive.
There is a groove in the ball joint stem. It must align with the hole in the spindle or you won't be able to install the bolt.
To align the groove in the ball joint stem, the stem should protrude about 16mm above the spindle.
I finished the job in about four hours on Monday.
Then the car wouldn't start. Nothing I touched was remotely close to the battery or starter. Maybe having the key in the ignition so I could turn the wheels discharged the battery? An hour or two on the charger, and my car started with a roar.
