w123 Upper Control Arm R&R- guide joint puller??
 

116 589 16 33 00 is the tool number, I can't find the tool on the tool rental sticky, and I priced it at over $400:eek:

is this tool absolutely necessary? I'm thinking a pickle fork will tear the bushings...

any other options/ideas?? I'm too cheap/poor to pay somone to do this for me.

heres the link for the TSM, tool is pictured on the second page.

http://rbk3.com/mbz/tsm/MBZ33-500%20UPPER%20CTRL%20ARM.pdf

thanks for reading

ok, heres a pic...

http://rbk3.com/mbz/tsm/gdpuller.JPG

anyone?

I can't get much out of those links, but you don't need anything fancy to pop the joint loose from the spindle. I actually made one out of a 1" thick plate of steel, but you can use most any cheapo "pitman arm puller" - just look at the size of the spindle and you should be able to figure out whether the tool you get will fit. Autozoo loans out tools for free.

thanks for the reply Pete. I read as much as I could here about replacing the upper control arms and torn seals seemed to be a possibility. Anyway I didn't want to make things harder on myself...

I'll carefully use a normal puller.

Are my pictures/pdfs not loading?

I see the picture, it's working now. I think a puller is best, no impact. I'd only use a fork if I was hellbent on speed, and didn't carev about trashing the boot (which is OK if you're replacing the whole arm). Good luck, I'm sure you'll be fine.

Confused?
 

The tool is NOT needed, unless you plan to reuse the old upper control arm.



What are you trying to do?

I am planning to replace only the upper inner bushings. If the upper control arm is in good shape (basically if the portion where the upper inner bushing rides is not too corroded) I was planning to re-use it.

Current upper inner bushing are in extremely poor shape (literally falling apart), but the upper outer bushings must have been replaced b/c they look great.

Thanks for the help

Sad
 

99% of the time that means the ball joint is trash.

Have you been talking to my local Indy??:D

he said the same thing. I think that you are both right, but due to some real estate deals, I have virtually no disposable income... $40 for the bushings is cutting into my food budget. $140 for the arms is too much right now. But I'm burning up front tires every 3k, so I've got to do a stop-gap solution till my fix & flip house goes on the market.

thanks for the advice

Just a word of warning
 

I don't want to be a bearer of bad news, but you could well get started on that job and find out the only way to get that upper control arm out of there is with the torch. That is what I had to do at Christmas time, and if you search the threads good enough, it happens quite often - that is that you can't pound it out and it is almost impossible to saw them out, although one of the fellows did that.

thanks for the reply Jim, Yes I read 2 threads that went something like that... I was a little confused as to where he was sawing. did he just run the saw sideways across the top of the guide arm? and if so how did that help with getting the cone out of the joint?

more question(s), are there splines on the cone/joint? Will pb blaster help?

thanks!

Finally did the deed
 

I replaced both upper control arms, it was much easier than I expected, I used a pickle fork type puller, It wrecks the old grease boot, but who cares.

I bought 4 total upper inner bushings, but the UCAs come preloaded w/ them, now they are for sale.:cool:

Took about an hour including coffee break.

Hopefully this will fix my tire wear problem, but I still hafto get it prefessionally aligned.

Thanks to all who did this before and posted about their experiences.

I must ask
 

Where is Illadelphia?:D