[s-cars] RE: control arm R&R

[Fred Munro]

Bill;

Careful! It is not good practice to pry open the casting to release the ball
joint spindle. As the Bentley puts it "Never use a chisel or other tool to
pry open or widen the slot." Doing so can deform the casting and if the
spindle drops out during one of those triple digit left hand sweepers Paul
is fond of, it can ruin your entire day.

The recommended method of removal is to soak the joint with penetrating oil
and lever it off with a six foot steel bar.

Fred Munro
'94 S4


-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of Bill de Alva
Sent: February 20, 2004 6:40 PM
To: Theodore Chen
Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] RE: control arm R&R


Teddy,

The ball joint remains attached to the control arm.  You have to drop the
spindle of the ball joint out of the suspension arm after removing the hex
bolt that secures it in place.  I drove a thin cold chisel into the slot in
the casting of the suspension arm that holds the ball joint pin.  I would
advise caution as you do not want to break the casting on the suspension
arm!  A slight spread to the casting along with some WD-40 and the ball
joint pin slipped out easily.

I did not disconnect the torsion bar from the subframe.  Of course, one does
have to remove the lock nut, washer and bushings that secure the control arm
to the torsion bar.

Here are some photos showing the conntection at the torsion bar, the ball
joint and the connection between the subframe and the torsion bar:
http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/tachyon/Audi/Dscn2448.jpg
http://volcano.photobucket.com/albums/v11/tachyon/Audi/Dscn2445.jpg

It is possible to pull up a weath of information with a Google search of the
S-Cars archives for a particular topic.  Here's a link to the search results
on S6 control arm:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=site:www%2Eaudifans%2Ecom+
S6+control+arm

Hope this helps,
Bill

Theodore Chen <tedebearp at yahoo.com> wrote:
bill,

my question relates to removal of the control arm. how did you
separate the balljoint in the control arm from the spindle? i was
unable to get them separated. did you disconnect the antiroll bar
from the subframe?

-teddy

--- Bill de Alva wrote:
> It was my rf control arm bushing that went bad first. Guess that blows the
> conspiracy theory...
>
> The first sypmtom of the bad right front control arm bushing was a
clunking
> noise when that wheel hit a bump at low speeds. At first, I thought my
> struts were going bad. Here's a link to an earlier thread on this issue:
> http://www.audifans.com/pipermail/s-car-list/2004-February/025438.html
>
> Also, I ended up with an extra set of new control arms with new bushings
if
> anyone is in need. Here's a link to that posting as well:
> http://www.audifans.com/pipermail/s-car-list/2004-February/025884.html
>
>
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