Trailing Arms

[FordandPolaris]

I am looking for lower control arms for the rear end of my 1997. Just wondering if anyone can throw me a brand that has a solid tube design. Any help would be great!

 

[rburch]

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...dkw=pmt&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

 

[walnuts4x4]

yup thats about it...lol... unless you can make your own

 

[FordandPolaris]

Thanks a lot, much appreciation!

 

[Apassionplay]

Hi!

And what do you think about this kit? I know that it is not tube design. I am just wondering your comment about the quality?

Thanks.

 

[FordandPolaris]

Well I am sure they would be just fine. I live in MN, and the snow/road salt gets up in the opening of the stock trailing arm design and rots them away. Those look to be a solid design, so they would be fine for any application in my opinion.

 

[98EXPY 5-0]

Can the lower and/or upper arms be replaced on the ground, one side at a time? I don't have access to a lift and I'd rather not pay a mechanic to remove 8 bolts.

 

[FordandPolaris]

I think they can be, I have still not gotten around to doing them yet, but I am sure they have been done on the ground before. Anyways thats the way I am doing mine when I get the chance! I am sure someone else with more knowledge than myself will answer the question better than me.

 

[elprice]

I installed these same parts some time ago and was lucky enough to be able to use a lift. I think you can do it one side at a time without a lift if you can safely lift the truck high enough so that the axle is supported by the shock stop (arm low). Passenger's side will be much easier than the driver's side. Due to the vehicle assembly sequence one of the bolts will not be able to be extracted because of interference with the fuel tank. I removed the nut and drove the bolt inward as much as I could then used a sawzall with a new long metal cutting blade to cut through the bolt body close to the arm. Don't remember if it was the upper or lower arm. Note: the lower arms are a bit longer than OEM which will change (correct) the axle angle ever so slightly. I had no problem with this because I was successful in completing both sides. I don't know what that would do to the drive if someone was to complete one side and drive to seek help with the other side

Ed

 

[Big Red Monster]

Can the lower and/or upper arms be replaced on the ground, one side at a time? I don't have access to a lift and I'd rather not pay a mechanic to remove 8 bolts.

yes it can be done on the ground, i helped my dad do his, it took about 5 hours, we broke a snap on breaker bar, two socket adapters, rounded out one socket and nearly tipped his truck over on top of me.

sound like were idiots? well were not, the tools we were using were all SNAP ON brand and we were using an igresol rand 1/2 inch drive thunder gun. we did all this work on the floor we had to sawzall the bolt on the driver side out, use alot of pb blaster is all I can say. I need to change the ones on my truck eventually. I dont know when Im going to do it but Im already spraying pb blaster on the bolts like once a week hoping that the job will be somewhat easier. you better have good tools and not cheap ace hardware brand tools if you plan on doing this yourself. we never broke a snap on tool up until we had to do this job

 

[98EXPY 5-0]

I bought mine from Expy_express on ebay. I just need to find the hardware now.

 

[98EXPY 5-0]

My left side arm is off, but I can't get the axle in the right position to get the holes lined up. Any thoughts?

 

[98EXPY 5-0]

All done. I used a come along.

 

[FordandPolaris]

When you took the arms off, was the axle still supported fairly well, or is it pretty much held in place by the lower arm? Basically what I mean is what did you do to keep the axle from moving a whole lot while you were changing them?

 

[Big Red Monster]

we had the axel supported with jackstands along with the frame and a 2 ton floor jack holding everything also

 

[98EXPY 5-0]

I had a jack stand under the frame and a 2.5Ton jack under the axle. The driver side took me 4 hours. The passenger side 1 hour.

I pushed the driver side upper bolt out and put a cutting wheel in my grinder. I cut about .25 inch into the bolt all the way around. I couldn't get much deeper due to clearance and that the grinder would start bouncing around. Then I put the nut back on and tightened it back down until the bolt head snapped off.

 

[FordandPolaris]

OK sounds like the drivers side is a PITA from what I have been reading cause of the gas tank and what not. Thanks for the input, makes my mind much more easy hearing how others have achieved success.

 

[FordandPolaris]

Okay this is a year and a month late to the day on the response, but I did end up doing the repair. Basically took a sawzall and cut the bolts, there was no way they were coming out by ratchet. Cut the arms in half, and took them out that way. Went with the PMT arms, kind of spendy but they give me huge peace of mind. Just wanted to update this so that people who search for it in the future can see it resolved. Axle stayed put, wasn't a problem.

 

[daoud el-massri]

yea they can I did mine twice once when I got them The other time Ian when I installed the other rear excel . The only thing I used was a floor jack two jack stands 4 10ft tydown straps with rachet style . I used the straps two doubled up from left to right from excel too frame then the other two doubled up from left to right to frame then I used the straps to keep the excel from twisting it took me two hours and a can of PB blaster . I think that is what u call it . Just take your time if u need to know who makes a can lower set of these tracking arm let me now I bought a set of ebay They are solid too after market for both of them cost me I think 210 included shipping .