Hey, out of curiosity since I cant find any good videos, how difficult is removing the lower control arm? The thought of having to deal with those torsion bars freaks me out so I really try to avoid them... but my upper and lower control arms are pretty rusty... would be nice to just replace the whole arm rather than just ball joints.

I'm assuming you need to release/remove the torsion bar, yeah?

 

So there's a special tool to release the tension. Or some people use a c clamp. I don't use either.

So, car on jackstands, tires off, tie rod end off the lower arm.

First, I back off the t bar adjusting bolts, counting the turns so you can put them back right afterwards. Pull the cotter key on the lower arm, and run the nut to the bottom of the threaded shaft, but make sure you still have a full nut.

Place a floor jack under the lower arm, leave just a small gap, just to where you see daylight. Proceed to prickle fork/ball joint press/bfh until the lower arm comes free of the ball joint. Carefully, slowly lower the floor jack down. The lower arm will come with it.

At this point, all the tension is off the lower arm, and it should be pointed towards the ground, with some free play in it. Remove the two bolts holding it to the frame, good to go.

Assembly is the reverse of removal. Bolt it up pointing down, and use your floor jack to "compress" the t bar, and get the ball joints attached back.

Now, there is inherent risk. There are powerful forces at work with the t bars. Keep all parts of your body out of any lines of fire, and double check the placements of the jack and stands
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Doesnt the torsion bar run through the lower control arm though? How do you get the arm off if the torsion bar is running through it? Do you just have to knock the LCA loose after removing mounting bolt(s) and slide it out?

 

Yep. Three pound mini sledge works great. Mine came off fairly easily, but I'm not in the rust belt, either.

The t bars are shaped like a big hex on the end, they just slide into a hex shaped hole on the lower arms

 

ok thanks, that doesn't sound so terrible then.

 

Nah, wasn't really, at least for me. Just make sure you got a good sized hammer!