How difficult is it to replace Front wishbones

[Norfolk-Boy]

Sad to say I had a touch on the kerb with all the snow I took it to get tracked as it pulled to the right and closer inspection the front OS wheel is approx 20 mm further back than it should be.

It looks like the wishbone arms could be bent, I so hope it is not the subframe. I cannot get it in to the garage for over a week, due to all the accidents. So can anyone let me know how difficult it is to replace the wishbones. I do understand it needs a full geo set up as well after this. Any ideas or help appreciated.

[bez101]

last time i did that it was the hub carrier
aswell there not cheap and made from ally
to change the bottom arm is a pita if its only on a jack

[Norfolk-Boy]

Hi Thanks for the reply. I sure hope it is not the carrier maybe get a secondhand one if I am lucky. I assume you meant pig to do on the Jack? That is all I have and it snowing again not good. Oh well time to go and have a look.

[iwaters]

Are both the control arms bent? At the bottom there is a bannana shaped one and a straight one which the strut bolts too. Neither are particluarly hard to change.

The worse thing I found when doing is was the separting the ball joints. They are tappered and can be a git to seperate. Particular as bez101 says the wheel bearing housing is aluminum and so is thicker. I tried a number of ball joint seperators but none would fit. Used a hammer in the end. Make sure you tap on the wall of the tapper and don't just hit the threaded end.

When you replace the arms the bolts that secure the ends with the bonded rubber bushes must be tighted with the weight of the vehicle on the suspenion. Some people jack the suspension up to about ride hide, I drove it up some ramps. Either way it is tricky to swing a torque wrench under there. Oh and the bolts need to be very tight.

If just changing the control arms then an aligment is not strictly necessary although because it was due to accident damage it is probably worth doing.

There are a few guides on how to replace control arms on the net so do a search on there, otherwise PM me your email and I will send you the info.