Front Upper Arm Removal

[Luke]

Well they are out, the upper arms that is.
Not the way I was planning or how any one suggested but they are now on the floor in the garage ready to get new bushings put in.
No ball joints removed at all. Attempted that but we decided to much damage potential was there.

This is what we did in the end.

1 All brake components, Calipers, Caliper mounting frames, rotors, abs sensor lines and hub/bearing was removed. (need new hubs mine are shot)
2 Removed 17mm bolt from bottom of the shock, cracked both 14mm nuts on top of shock mounts.
3 Forced arms down, and blocked bolt hole where bottom of shock mounted with pin punch, as it was a nice size. Let shock settle back on top of pin punch.
4 Removed 17mm bolt in lower arm outer vertical, this is the the one that was below the bottom of the shock before, that had no access.
5 Forced arms down again and unblocked the bolt hole so the bottom of the shock sits in original postion.
6 Removed 17mm bolt in lower arm outer that faces horizontal. Lower arm now removed from stub axle/knuckle, still attached to sub frame on inside. Removed both 14mm nuts from shock mounts.
7 Forced lower arm down with crow bar(you stick it in the arm as it is hollow), force upper arm down by hand and pull strut unit out.
8 Undo tie rod ends. 11/16in and 17mm spanners to crack, then 12mm spanner to remove shaft from tie rod end.
9 Undo 17mm long bolt in upper arm. (Need to back off 2x14mm sway bar bolts to slide out.)
10 Pull Upper arm, with stub axle/knuckle unit, tie rod end and all 3 ball joints in tact out of the car.

Note that this was with 2 people, which is really required for steps 3, 5 and 7.