hi all,

i had to get my car state inspected, and the guy said that one of the front control arms needed to be replaced. i've done suspension work on wrx's and a tc, but never a honda car. is the control arm something easy to buy and replace ? i tried searching but nothing came up under accords

thanks in advance

 

Should be quite easy, get your Haynes repair manual, your tools, which you can borrow from autozone, you will need a picklefork and heavy hammer to seperate the balljoint and make sure the new part comes with a grease boot at the balljoint. Get a new cotter pin also for the balljoint retaining nut.

Be safe and use jackstands, you may be able to borrow the jacking equipment too???

 

Not a difficult job, but you will need a manual. Follow the procedure step by step, and be sure to carefully torque all the bolts correctly.

Be careful- Honda uses some NON REUSABLE nylon-lined nuts in the suspension. A Helms manual will ID all these. Check the diagrams before starting so you have a parts list with these nuts (they cost very little).

Different body styles have different locations for these, you may not even run into one with the control arm, but be sure to check. When I rebuilt the front/rear suspension on my '94 these nuts were in 3-4 locations, if I remember right. If you reuse the old ones they will likely work loose, and you will have rattles. Wrenchy

 

thanks a bunch
i do happen to have a haynes repair manual , but i don't know anyone with a picklefork (or a picklefork set?)
is the $30-50 spent on the set (i googled pickle fork) really worth buying if I can supposedly have the whole part replaced for $19?

 

not a hard job..hardest part for me was seperating the ball joint..i tried that fort think and it would work..in the end i used a BFH (big ****** hammer )

 

simple work thats the first thing i did to my 94 accord all u really need is a puller or a hammer

 

Do not hit the threaded portion with the hammer, get free tools, pickle fork, from AutoZone rental, and a BFH. You can hit the side of the through hole that the threads go through but you have to really kill the side of the knuckle and its also recommended to apply some pry bar to seperate the control arm with balljoint from the steering knuckle, even use a pry person and a hammering person, do not hit the threads of the balljoint.