Thrust Arm Replacement

[winfred]

some goober must of had the front end apart and didn't use brain power to put it back together if those bolts were in backwards, they put it completely together on the ground and then attached it to the car

[Ross]

the box end of most wrenches fit in there i find, if not you can unbolt the rear cross member partially and get the room you need, as for pretensioning the arm with the suspension unloaded i tighten the through bolt with the ball joint end sitting on the steering arm instead of down in it's hole, that's about the right position

Why didn't I ever think of that?

[calibra]

some goober must of had the front end apart and didn't use brain power to put it back together if those bolts were in backwards, they put it completely together on the ground and then attached it to the car

Yep what i thought wasnt untill i looked on epc and see they go the other way i thought about getting the other one off i mean its a safer way the bolt is need going to fall off as you cant even get it out but my god what a job lol

[MBXB]

I found that dropping the crossmember made it easier to do the R&R especially when torquing the arms down under load.
It was just easier to get the tools in there.
Still had a ground down wrench though.

[Ross]

I think a lot of problems occur here because of the kind of wrenches some folks have.
Good quality tools are expensive, large good quality tools are really expensive. The temptation to buy that set of big wrenches from India is great when comparing prices. The problem is those el cheapos get their "strength" from bulk rather than good alloy and accurate machining. These might work just fine on an oil rig but are often bulky enough to be worthless for automotive work.
One more reason not to use crappy tools.