Good morning all,

I'm replacing my upper front control arms. I would like to know how and when to tighten up the bolts on the anchors, not the ones on top of the shock towers, rather the ones from under. I was told you are suppose to bring the arm to normal ride height and then tighten it so it doesnt clock the bushing inside. Just confirming.

Thanks
Shah

 

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You need to tighten them with the weight on the arms however if you can't get in there to tighten it you can make a mark on each side with a marker to show where it sits with the bolts loose. Then pull it and line up the mark and tighten it down to spec. Then reinstall it.

 

The upper anchors I've seen had marks cast into them that aligned with marks on the control arm. So you can align them with it off the car.

 

You can put load on them without having the wheels on the hub. All you need to do is jack the car up put it on a jack stand (log/cinder block) and then place the jack under the owe ball joint and jack up the suspension till it just starts to lift off the stand. Then you can go about tightening all the bushing hardware.

 

If you do it via pre-loading without a wheel attached;
verify the car is on a flat level surface,
verify the car is at ride height level,
verify tires are correctly inflated,
verify centerline height of the hub is as it would be if the wheel was installed.

If you are uncertain about the ride height measurement, install the wheel and level the car, jounce the car and check fender lip to ground height and where the centerline of the wheel wants to be. Remove wheel, set correct height, tighten FUCA bolts.