Lateral Link Replacement Guide

[mts]

Originally posted by "Renboy"

 

 

 

The pictures in this guide are for the Left (Drivers) side.

Read the whole Guide before you start.

Tools needed:

12mm socket with short extension

17mm deep socket

17mm wrench

breaker bar or cheater bar

19mm socket

ratchet

hammer

prybar

tie-rod separator (optional)

 

1) Jack car and remove wheels (or wheel if you do one at a time). Safety here, put it on stands or something secure (not ramps though, you need to remove wheels).

 

2) Once the wheel is removed, use a 12mm socket to disconnect the speed sensor. There are two bolts holding the sensor, and another that holds the bracket for its wire to the steering knuckle. The bolts are highlighted in yellow below. The first pic shows the speed sensor, the second shows the bracket for its wire.

 

 

 

3) Now remove the cotter pin that goes through the 17mm nut highlighted in red above. Now you have two options: 1)remove the nut and hammer out the ball joint from the steering knuckle, or, 2)use a tie-rod separting tool to remove it. I recommend the tie-rod separator because if the joint is okay, you can put it back undamaged. If you do decide to hammer it out, first completely remove the bolt, lube the threads, and put it back half way. This way when you hammer, you hit the top of the bolt and the threads on the screw part don't crush. The reason you remove and lube the nut before you hammer is that if you just loosen it a little and hammer it, when you go to remove it, you'll only spin the ball joint rather than removing the nut.

 

4) Now you'll need to use a 17mm deep socket with a 12" extension and either a breaker bar, or a solid cheater bar on a ratchet to remove the cross-member bolt. To access the bolt, slide the socket and extension up through the lower control arm (there's a hole in it for this). This bolt is on tight so make sure your car is secure. Now loosen the bolt as much as you can without removing it (you can if you want, but there's no point). The bolt is in yellow below.

 

 

5) Two more tight bolts to remove. Here you'll need a 19mm socket, again with a cheater/breaker bar. These bolts are again for the cross-member. In the two pics below you'll see what needs to be removed and from where it's removed.

 

 

 

6) Now you can remove the bolt that holds the lateral link to the cross-member. Use a 17mm wrench to hold the bolt, and a 17mm socket on the nut. Before you loosen or remove the nut/bolt, take note of the alignment marks on both sides, so when you put them back your alignment won't be completely off. Once you remove the nut, you'll understand why you needed to remove all the cross-member bolts.

 

 

7) To remove the bolt completely, you'll now need to use a prybar. Place the prybar as in the picture below. Now put pressure on the prybar and slide the bolt out. Once the bolt is out so is the lateral link.

 

 

8) Installation is the reverse of removal.