The Nissan Path

I'm looking at the lower front control arm removal. Is there enough room between the axle joint and top of the ball joint to get the pin up from the knuckle? It looks really close.

You have to remove the cv axle to remove the LCA

Well of course. Another thing that probably won't go as planned......

I tried removing my LCA without removing the cv and it was a pain, cutting and grinding. It wasn't pretty.

Did the other side with the cv shaft removed. So much easier. Rented all the tools from oreillys.

Correct. If you rent the pitman arm remover you can press out the upper control arm away from the spindle/knuckle without damaging the boot.
Once the UCA is removed depending on the brake/abs lines you can move the spindle away enough to pull the cv axle out of the hub. Leave it inside the differential just prop it up.

After that you can bolt the uca just enough to help stabilize the spindle as you removed the lower control arm.

I assume the axle pulls out from the bearing spline, not pressed in?

Correct. It may be rusted in a bit, use a piece of wood or a rubber mallet, try not to hit the end of the axle with a hammer too hard or it will mushroom on you.

Replaced the R/rear control arm because of the seized adjuster bolts. Wasn't too bad of a job. The Diablo metal sawsall blade made quick work of the bolts. Definitely easier to drop the coil spring arm for access. Hardest part was not having a hoist and doing it with jack stands on the ground. Hoist would have made the job go much quicker.

I hear you. I was under my truck, ready to do all the rear uppers and lowers. I called it and sent it to the shop, and the bill was NOT pretty. But lying on my back sawzalling for 2 days just wasn't going to happen.

Surprisingly, (or not) the most expensive part was getting the bolts from Nissan.

disallow wrote:I hear you. I was under my truck, ready to do all the rear uppers and lowers. I called it and sent it to the shop, and the bill was NOT pretty. But lying on my back sawzalling for 2 days just wasn't going to happen.

Surprisingly, (or not) the most expensive part was getting the bolts from Nissan.

I have found a huge difference in parts pricing from the USA and Canada as well. the lower spring buckets for example were over $400 from my local Nissan dealer. I used an online OEM source in the USA, $47.
This makes no sense what so ever.

Got all of the control arms from partsavatar.ca for $360 Canadian. Checked the dealer for the rear upper and rear front lower and the prices were almost the same. But they weren't greasable, and were going to take a few days to get there.

Ended up having to do one or the rear lower coil buckets too due to rusty bolt, locally the mevotech parts was well over $200, but if I could have waited partsavatar.ca it was only $80 cad.

I hate buying parts locally. They are literally more than double the online retailers, and it's getting worse every year.

Such discrepancies in parts pricing. I called a couple more Nissan dealers and got the same pricing. 10x as much for the same OEM parts in the USA, ridiculous. I've used Mevotech for some aftermarket stuff too.

Well I got lucky, the front control arm bolts came loose and I was able to install new cams. Every control arm adjuster is now replaced with a liberal coating of anti seize. Alignment shop liked me for that lol. What a lot of work!!
Drives great.

Thats great to hear.

ALO604 wrote:Such discrepancies in parts pricing. I called a couple more Nissan dealers and got the same pricing. 10x as much for the same OEM parts in the USA, ridiculous. I've used Mevotech for some aftermarket stuff too.

Can you do online ordering from USA? .