This is probably a silly question, but I just cut out my frozen lower control arms and as I'm putting the alignment bolts back in, I realize that I'm not sure of the proper orientation of the cams. Do the lobes on each end of the bolt face the same way (which makes sense to me) or do they face in opposite directions (ie. does the bottom caster lobe point to the front of the car while the upper lobe points to the rear?) I can't really tell from the shop manual.

 

They face the same direction. You'll need an alignment ASAP once it's back together.

 

There is a groove in the bolt and the washer cam end only goes on one way

 

Pendleton,

Please share the method for cutting out the control arm. I can see how to get to the bottom, with the cross member pulled, but I do not see how to get to the top bolt. Please share. I already cut out one rear one, that was not bad. But I cannot figure the front ones out.

Thanks,

 

Sawzall looks to be the only way to cut it out. I personally used a torch and hammer and it popped loose.

 

I have cut off tools, did not think of saws all. What I cannot figure out is how to get to the top half of the rear bolts. My guess is from the bottom of the car, but not sure how.

For the rear one I cut out I had to cut off both ends. I am trying to prepare for that here.

 

I was lucky and didn't have to cut the rear (caster) bolts out. I was able to take the nuts off and then give the bolts a whack with a hammer to pop them out. If they were frozen, I was planning to use a sawsall. The fronts were easy for me. I was replacing the control arms anyway and didn't care about saving the arms, so I used a 4" cut-off wheel and literally cut the control arm in half up near the bushing. I was then able to pull the control arm out and have easy access to the camber bolts to cut them out with the cut-off wheel. Had I wanted to reuse the arms, I'm pretty sure I could have used a thin cut-off wheel without damaging the control arms to badly.

 

So, you use the saws all inside the cradle, between the arm and the top and bottom of the cradle?

 

Exactly what I did. The front (camber bolt) was easy to cut out due to the angle. The rear had to get the BFH treatment along with being cooked.

The rear is a headache, the nut came off with an impact but the bolt was seized solid. It looks like you can use a sawzall. I believe dannobre mentioned he used a sawzall/reciprocating saw in the other thread.