Having trouble fitting new control arms. Help!

[LilPocketRocket]

I am a newbie when it comes to working on cars. Since I got my coilovers done, I have wanted to put in the Superpro bushings in my control arms. While I feel that I was successful pressing out the old bushings and pushing the new ones in, I cannot for the life of me put the control arms back in their home. I have removed the brake rotor and caliper to give me more room to work with, but it just doesn't have much wiggle room. I've tried jacking up the front inner bushing into place, but that has no room, either.

Overall, I'm stuck on where to go from here. This is my last day off, and I don't know if I just didn't press the bushings in far enough, or if I need to heat up an area to help it bend, or if I need to pry up on a particular area. Hoping someone with mechanical knowledge can help me here.

 

[LilPocketRocket]

Welp, tore the ball joint boot in the process, too. I'm at a loss.

 

[SteveS]

You need to have the ball joint disconnected to do that. Then you have freedom to push the bushing back into place. If it's tight because the bushing is too wide, spread the arms wider with a big screwdriver. Push it up with your floor jack (take off the rubber puck). This video they just used a rubber mallet, but it looks like your bushing was made too big.

View: https://youtu.be/h17X_g91Do0

 

[Sam4]

F^cked this all up a year ago, took out the CV shaft too. Sorry brother.

 

[LilPocketRocket]

Well, it seems that i was able to make them fit with a little bit of finagling. Seems that these pry bars do the trick to help the holes line up.



Additionally, the aluminum sleeves for the front inner bushings had to be ground down to help the whole control arm slide into place. Once these two things were done, it went in like cake!

I greatly appreciated any response while I was throwing tools around trying to make it work. You'll be delighted to know that the car drives completely different on SuperPro bushings with a corner balance.

Lastly, before I completely bolted the pinch bolt down on the ball joint, I noticed that I cross-threaded one of the bolts. Took both bolts put and replaced them with Ford part no. W709618-S439. Before throwing them in, I compared the old bolts side-by-side, and, well, I'm glad I replaced them.