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Thanks for your reply. The shock mount bolt is in, but not tightened. The stabilizer bar link is not installed. So, you think I need to remove the upper control arm ball joint nut and free the ball joint from the top of the knuckle assembly, thus allowing that assembly to pivot so that the bolt can be inserted attaching the knuckle to the lower control arm?
Last edited by Patrick Wong; 12-27-2022 at 01:51 PM.
Hi Patrick. I would first try removing the shock bolt first as that is the order in the manual for install > Install the lower arm at the two inner points first, then at the hub, then the shock, then stabilizer link, height sensor, disk, caliper. There's no mention of the upper arm coming into play when doing the lower arm as a stand alone install. The shock is feisty to get in after the hub so I'm betting that's the issue as you have the bolt in. I used a floor jack with a wood block to raise and lower the hub too so that might help you. I also used the floor jack to raise the shock. It's fiddly and a bit of a pain. In any event if that doesn't work and it should, I would only loosen the ball joint to give a little more play. removing the upper ball joint would just add another layer of complexity.
Patrick, there's a lot of pressure pushing upwards on the lower control arm. Try greasing the faces of the bushing to allow them to slide onto the knucle easier. You also have to get down there to ensure that the two "faces" of the bushings are paralleled to the opening on the knuckle.
Once the holes somewhat line up, put a flathead screwdriver in there and use it as leverage to move the two assemblies until they're aligned.
Also, have you tried using a floor jack to push up on the control arm?
Thanks for the responses. I removed the upper control arm ball joint nut and also removed the toe link from the knuckle, then I had plenty of play to mate the bottom of the knuckle assembly to the lower control arm. Then I replaced the ball joint nut and the toe link.
Throughout that process I kept the shock absorber attached to the lower control arm, figuring that since the control arm was attached with two bolts to the body and pivoting on the axis provided by the two bolts, the only contribution the shock absorber was making was to retard upwards movement of the lower control arm which was not an issue since I could use a floor jack to jack up the knuckle and lower control arm as needed.
Anyway, here are a few photos to show the completed left side. The ball joint rubber is torn at the top of the sway bar link (aftermarket part installed in 2017) so I have a Jaguar part on order which should arrive around January 3.
Overall view of left rear suspension Lower control arm Bottom of lower control arm with shock absorber and sway bar link attached Lower control arm attached to spindle at left; bottom of sway bar link in foreground.
Last edited by Patrick Wong; 12-28-2022 at 11:56 PM.
With the lower arm you have to take the brake caliper off. Why? That’s what I asked too. Cuz it looks like the arm would come right out. Unfortunately the long bolt at the knuckle is put in at an angle and won’t come out all the way because it hits the rotor. You have to remove the caliper to remove the rotor. Not only that, the parking brake caliper has to come off too. So make sure your parking brake is off first. If your rotor is worn like mine, then it will have a ridge on the very outside that the pads won’t clear unless they’re retracted a bit. I actually (May the Queen forgive me) filed my ridge down a little on both sides so both calipers could be tapped off once the bolts were undone. The rotor has these two silly one-way clips around the wheel studs. I used a couple of picks to pry them off as a screwdriver didn’t work very well.
It may be a fair few months since the last time this thread was active, but thought I’d share my experience on the brake calliper and rotor step.
I too was hoping I could get away without having to removed them, and even after reading your post I didn’t want to believe it.
Turns out I was foolish to not believe any of it, as indeed the calliper/rotor is in the way and the knuckle bolt won’t clear.
However, I’ve found out there’s no need to remove the whole brake calliper and rotor. You can get away with just removing the calliper bracket bolts. You can then move the whole calliper and rotor together forward enough along the wheel studs to clear that knuckle bolt just enough on the lower control arm.
Hope this might help anyone that wants to get this done 👍
12-27-2022, 01:46 PM
