the helm's doesnt really give too much information about removal and replacement of a lower control arm. does the spring/shock assembly need to be removed? from the archives it seems the ball joints need to be popped out.. i think im gonna do the "jack the car and lower" to pop them out.. seems the easiest. any things i should be wary of?

 

If you are talking about the fronts, that didn't work for me. I ended up placing a jackstand under the hub to support it. Key here was to get the axle straight & the ball joint "shaft" verticle. I then starting hitting the raised flat spot on the back side with a hammer. Turning the wheel helps in getting clearance. The vibration allowed it to come apart. Keep the nut on a couple of turns so things don't hit the floor. I was fighting a really stubborn one earlier this year. I ended up getting it in the above postion & driving a cold chiesel (sp) in between the parts. Just a couple of taps made them pop.

 

yeah i thougth about the big ******* hammer but im scared i might break something too bad.. heh

 

Actually, using the hammer to hit the LCA might be easier on everything rather than using a balljoint popper, which has a tendency to rip the boots. Honda techs also use this method to separate the balljoints. A small 5lb sledgehammer does the trick.

The coilover assembly doesn't need to be removed, but it would be a good idea to remove the shock fork to make re-assembly a little less complicated. Not necessary by any means, but might be helpful.

 

The hammer method didn't work for me, so I had to use the jack method. The second time I did took a lot more time than the first so be patient.

I suggest:
1.) placing a cloth between your rotor and jack. I used a floor jack so I didn't want the fout "teeth" to damage the rotor.
2.) using aball joint separator as the leverage piece. It is pretty thick, and the irony of using the separator like this is pretty sweet.

I ended up having to use a 2" thick crow bar because the damn thing would not release.

If you do end up using the hammer, be careful not to stike the actual balljoint which becomes much easier as you get more frustrated. Oh yeah, keep the shock fork in place till you release the b-joint.

Then remove the inner control arm bolt and you're set. I've never taken the control arms completely out, so I can't tell you how that'll be.

 

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=211147&page=1

Just be careful not to pinch the ratchet handle too close to the boot. Otherwise, the we-todd-did method takes about 2 seconds and works great.