Upper A-arm Question

In the process of install upper SLR A-arms and I cannot get the two
alignment bolts out. They are the 22mm bolts with alignment
washers. After removing the nuts, the bolts do not budge. Has
anyone had this problem? Want to make sure they are frozen before I
started cutting and replacing them. Does anyone know if the parts
department at Nissan is open on Sundays? At home so e-mail access is
limited. Will check the board later on tonight. Thanks in advance.

Derek

Hmmmm...wasn't a problem when I did mine. Some liquid wrench and off they came. Do you have anything like a torque wrench to help give you some leverage? I would hate to have to cut those things out. That would be a bitch considering their location and size.

Are you backing off the nut, or working on the bolt/adjuster side? You want to back off the nut and use a wrench to hold the adjuster/bolt in place.

Good luck.

Make sure the balljoint is out of the knuckle first too as it will bind the arm a bit. Then turn the bolt with a wrench, it should spin freely.
Then tap them with a hammer.

XOC,

Bolt does not spin freely. I can whack it with a hammer to no avail. It is rusted and bound together. The ball joint popped out of the knuckle easy. The upper arm barely moves. It takes a lot of effort to just push it a 1/2 inch upper or down. I am going to try to install the opposite side a-arm and see if I run into the same problem. While I the bastard side soaks in penetrating oil. Are these bolts easily replaced. I am going to call and check. Hope so:( Thanks for the input.

Did you release all the tension from the torsion bar? I was just thinking of something else that would cause binding like that?

Originally posted by rrdstarr
Did you release all the tension from the torsion bar?

Wrong control arm silly :D

These stuck control arms are interesting. Mine just swung up and down when I loosened the bolts and I pulled the bolts out by hand. It must be based on a lot of factors like dirt and crap and humidity building up a nice adhesive bond in there.

Sorry you're having a tough time with it. :(

Tried the other side. Big difference. Bolts came right off. Going to order some new bolts and break out the sawzall as soon as the rain stops. Thanks for the input. Just wanted to check and see if I was doing something wrong.

Well, 10 days later and the lift is installed. I would highly recommend buying the upper A arm alignment bolts and washers before replacing your stock upper A arms. Or at least have them handy, if you are doing the lift install yourself. A few minor and preliminary comments for SLR:

-provide the tools the instructions say are provided (mainly the press)
-check leaf spring packs for proper center bolt arrangement (one nut facing up and one nut facing down; had to ream axle mount hole for proper install)
-check drill hole location on upper A arms for ABS line mount ( one drill hole was on the wrong side of the A arm and forced me to relocation ABS line mount)
-provide 90 degree grease fittings for high angle ball joints (bought my own)

All and all the install had a few bumps, but satisfied with results.

did they send you 2 left arms? or did they fail to build them correctly? Not too familiar with the SLR A arms...

No, Spencer said there is no difference between left and right a-arms. The drill hole was in the wrong place.

Originally posted by 4wheelinX
...-check leaf spring packs for proper center bolt arrangement (one nut facing up and one nut facing down; had to ream axle mount hole for proper install)...


???
what ?

Oleg,

Have you seen the SLR 10 leaf spring? If not then my comment probably doesn't make any sense. There is a bolt that runs through the center of all 10 leafs and clamps them together. Well, one side of this bolt has a smooth, round cap and the opposite side has a nut. For installation, the smooth side gets inserted into a hole on the underside of the leaf spring axle mount. The nut side, which is on the bottom gets inserted into the mounting plate along with the u-bolts.

In my situation, and after talking with Spencer, the spring pack was manufactured wrong. The bolt was reversed. I now had to fit the larger nut into the smaller diameter axle mount. I simply reamed out the whole to get it to fit. Hope that explains my comment. BTW, Spencer was more than willing to send me a new spring pack. I didn't think that was necessary and worth the wait..

So wait! The a arms are the same for both sides from SLR but not from factory. That seems kind of cheap to not drill the hole in the correct place on each side and force the installer to rig up a mount for the ABS line. Maybe I read the description worng but that's the way it sounds to me.

Bayou Boy,

It was a simple error when they packaged the lift for shipping. Just took me a few minutes to realize the hole was in the wrong place. Spencer offered to send a new A-arm with the correct hole location. But it is minor and can be worked around. The quality and design of the new A-arm is top notch and the drill hole location was not a top priority.

Originally posted by 4wheelinX
Oleg,

Have you seen the SLR 10 leaf spring? If not then my comment probably doesn't make any sense. There is a bolt that runs through the center of all 10 leafs and clamps them together. Well, one side of this bolt has a smooth, round cap and the opposite side has a nut. For installation, the smooth side gets inserted into a hole on the underside of the leaf spring axle mount. The nut side, which is on the bottom gets inserted into the mounting plate along with the u-bolts.

In my situation, and after talking with Spencer, the spring pack was manufactured wrong. The bolt was reversed. I now had to fit the larger nut into the smaller diameter axle mount. I simply reamed out the whole to get it to fit. Hope that explains my comment. BTW, Spencer was more than willing to send me a new spring pack. I didn't think that was necessary and worth the wait..

No i did not see how SLR spring look like not installed on the truck
but i know exactly what you are talking about
because it the same in stock spring packs

would it be pocible to put couple c clamps on the spring pack , and take that bolt out, and reinsert it in the corect position?

Originally posted by Olegkha
would it be pocible to put couple c clamps on the spring pack , and take that bolt out, and reinsert it in the corect position?

That should remedy the problem. You would just need a set of BIG C-clamps. When we installed Schluds nationals we removed the two load leafs before installing. we used C-clamps to hold it together while removing the center bolt nut.