Order to replace things on the front suspension

[NoCalMer]

My 300D needs a front end alignment and new tires. I want to make sure I have the right things replaced before paying for an alignment. The front right tires is getting some bad inside tire wear but I have not rotated the tires in awhile since I needed new tires.

Here is my plan.

Take out a little slop out in the steering box by adjusting preload with hex bolt on top CCW until no slop is felt while grabbing pitman arm.

Check tie rod slop on each side and replace them if needed.

Check wheel bearing preload by jacking up front of car and grabbing tire at 12 & 6 o'clock and pushing/pulling to see if there is any slop.

Inspected upper control arms on both side. From what I found searching this is probably the reason for the inside tire wear. It would make sense to me that both would need to be replaced so most likely I will replace both.

Is it common to change the upper control arms and not the lower ones? Should I buy the complete control arms or just the bushing kit? I would like to keep the cost down if possible. How does this plan sound?

[winmutt]

You dont change the lower ones but you do want to inspect the LCA bearing. If it needs replacing things get more complicated.

[Diesel911]

In my case it was the rotted out rubber on the Lower Control arm bushings that caused the inner tire wear and obviously tilted inwards at the top wheels.

I all so had 1 Upper Control Arm with bad Ball Joint (you have to replace the complete arm when this happens).

Opinion time:
The thing is both the Upper and Lower Control Arms have Rubber Bushings. In practice the control arms do not pivot on the bolts.
When you tighten the LCA and UCA bolts it renders the center tube in the bushing stationary and your both control arms pivot on the elasticity of the Rubber. That same Rubber gets old and hard over time an the stress on it.
If an LCA Bushing goes bad it puts more stress on the LCA Bushing and visa versa.
So you may or may not get away with only changing only the parts you think are worn/no good.

I also found that (my Car came origionally from the East Coast) that the inside bore of my Lower Control Arms was severly rusted (I have a thread on this). After the heavy scaly rust was beat out the bores were too large for them to be reused.

It used to be that suspension/alinement shops offered a free inspection. You might take it to a shop and have them inspect it but not have the work done there.

In my case I bought an after market kit on Ebay for around $250. I will not list all of the parts but it came with 2 Upper Control arms, 2 Lower Ball joints and 2 Lower Control arm Bushing, 2 tire rods, another rod like the Tie Rods but connects to the Pitman arm and a Bushing kit for anothr part of the steering.
I did not use the whole kit but I figured that when you start working on things you often find something else is wrong in the process; so I bought a whole kit.

[NoCalMer]

I pulled the tires and the rubber in the control arms look original. How do I inspect the control arms and figure out what needs replaced?

[NoCalMer]

I lifted the car last night. It looks like both tie rods assemblies and the drag link are bad.

I don't get much play in the lower ball joint except in the vertical direction when pushing up from directly under the tire. The rubber boots on the ball joints don't look too bad. This a sign of a bad lower ball joint?

I am not clear how to check the upper control arm. What else should I check before ordering.

[panZZer]

Originally Posted by Diesel911

In my case it was the rotted out rubber on the Lower Control arm bushings that caused the inner tire wear and obviously tilted inwards at the top wheels.

I all so had 1 Upper Control Arm with bad Ball Joint (you have to replace the complete arm when this happens).

Opinion time:
The thing is both the Upper and Lower Control Arms have Rubber Bushings. In practice the control arms do not pivot on the bolts.
When you tighten the LCA and UCA bolts it renders the center tube in the bushing stationary and your both control arms pivot on the elasticity of the Rubber. That same Rubber gets old and hard over time an the stress on it.
If an LCA Bushing goes bad it puts more stress on the LCA Bushing and visa versa.
So you may or may not get away with only changing only the parts you think are worn/no good.

I also found that (my Car came origionally from the East Coast) that the inside bore of my Lower Control Arms was severly rusted (I have a thread on this). After the heavy scaly rust was beat out the bores were too large for them to be reused.

It used to be that suspension/alinement shops offered a free inspection. You might take it to a shop and have them inspect it but not have the work done there.

In my case I bought an after market kit on Ebay for around $250. I will not list all of the parts but it came with 2 Upper Control arms, 2 Lower Ball joints and 2 Lower Control arm Bushing, 2 tire rods, another rod like the Tie Rods but connects to the Pitman arm and a Bushing kit for anothr part of the steering.
I did not use the whole kit but I figured that when you start working on things you often find something else is wrong in the process; so I bought a whole kit.

Ah, I see

[NoCalMer]

Got the knuckle loose from the upper control arm but can't removed the knuckle from the ball joint and lower control arm.

Do I need to removed knuckle from the ball joint and then removed the ball joint from the lower control arm?