Replacing spherical bearing in front lower control arm

[ashyers]

Hi All,

I'm replacing the spherical bearing in the lower control arm of my '03 SV.

 

The threaded portion of the spindle seems to have permanently attached itself to the ID of the bearing and whatever spacer is in there. My '03 uses the special machined lower nut (now obsolete) and a spacer between the top of the bearing's ball and the spindle. I'm guessing that there's also a sleeve of some sort in that is preventing the removal of the control arm from the spindle.

 

Anyone have any tricks, besides anti-seize on reassembly !

 

Thanks,

 

Andy

[CarlB]

The shaft of the spindle gets corroded to the bearing. Use a tie rod puller and they will come apart. You will probably have to find someone with a lathe to machine the nuts.

[ashyers]

CarlB thanks for the help. Here's the magic tool I used. A bit of corrosion on the stud of the spindle bonded that sucker to the bearing quite well. I'm shocked how hard it was to remove. Needless to say it was reassembled with some antiseize.

 

As far as the nuts, I machined some top hat bushings and used some 1/2-20 jet nuts I had on hand to replace the factory's set up. I replaced the factory spherical bearings with some NHBB bearings. These made quite a difference in the steering since they have low breakaway torque. One of my favorite parts of the car is the steering feel and it's now even better .

 

Andy