Thread: 2002 TD6 upper and lower control arms.

Originally Posted by BRUMMY

Hi All.
Just about to change both control arms tomorrow, looks straightforward enough.The only thing I think could be a problem is seperating the ball joints.
I have a G shaped splitter that I have used before but not on a Range Rover.
Can anyone give me any tips.
RSW solutions have a good video on Youtube, do I need to change the bolt at the chassis end, ? he seems to think not.

Cheers Paul.

Hi Paul

I changed my control arms recently on my 07 model. The ball joints were a little tough to remove and came out with a bang. It was my first time removing ball joints and luckily I had read about the bang when they let go although it still made me jump.

I have added photos of the cheap tool that I used below. Note that I ground the inside of the fork to make it fit around the larger ball joints. The tool did end up with a damaged thread and probably is a throw away now. For ~US$15 on Amazon, it did everything I wanted.

The manual says to replace all suspension bolts. I went to the local LR dealer (San Jose) to order them and found that they needed to add the part numbers to their ordering system. That is, they had never ordered them before and obviously have never replaced them. I believe the bolts are fine to reuse if there’s no damage to the threads or signs of corrosion.

I did replace all the cross member mounting bolts since I found that one had a damaged thread and another snapped on the way out. The cross member needs to be dropped to replace the sway bar, but this is another story.

Best of luck,
Robert

I prefer the 2 hammer method, i have found tools can damages the balls and rubbers to easy.

Basically, put one hammer on the opposite side of the taper and give her a good old smack, one or 2 should make it pop. just leave the nut on just a little to prevent it shooting off.

Originally Posted by chaybra

I prefer the 2 hammer method, i have found tools can damages the balls and rubbers to easy.

Basically, put one hammer on the opposite side of the taper and give her a good old smack, one or 2 should make it pop. just leave the nut on just a little to prevent it shooting off.

And to prevent damage to the thread.

Originally Posted by BRUMMY

Hi All.
Just about to change both control arms tomorrow, looks straightforward enough.The only thing I think could be a problem is seperating the ball joints.
I have a G shaped splitter that I have used before but not on a Range Rover.
Can anyone give me any tips.
RSW solutions have a good video on Youtube, do I need to change the bolt at the chassis end, ? he seems to think not.

Cheers Paul.

If you get around to replacing the upper and lower bushings on rear outer I have some special tools that allow you to do the job without removing hub so get in touch.
These bushings were the cause of both rattles and squeaks on my car at 178K and any lubricant that might have been there once was dried up.
Best of luck with your job.