I'm really having problems with this and all on line directions seem to assume that putting the cup of the new arm over the threaded post of the ball joint is not a big deal. But how the hell do you do it? It took me hours of prying and jacking on the right side one to get the post to just sit on the edge of the cup in the control arm. With a double kick to axle it popped in.

But on the left side I just can't get it to go. If you jack up from below the whole brake/balljoint etc. assembly just pivot outwards (of course, since the ball joint isn't hooked up) and that is the wrong way. I can pry the new control arm down far enough to put the post of the ball joint in it, but I can't move the brake disc/shock etc, inward enough to go into the cup on the control arm. The differential is about an inch and no amount of prying seems to help.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

Kevin

 

I don,t have the answer, but is a known difficulty and i remember reading about some good tricks. A google search on forums should be of great help.

 

Thanks. I certainly have tried that without finding any good tricks. I can push the control arm down low enough but the ball joint simply is a good one inch or so too far out. If I jack the hub it moves outward, making it worse. I spent at least three hours trying everything I could think of to pry and jack it and couldn't do it. Very frustrating.

 

I finished this very frustrating job. Knowing what I know now, I could have done both sides in three hours and avoided many more hours of pointless jacking and prying. In hopes of sparing somebody else the frustration, I will share a few points, all of which apply to at least my vehicle, a 2001 T5:

1. The Haynes manual is useless.

2. The videos I could find are typically other vehicles with similar looking parts. There is a nice video on a V70 and the parts look identical but you can't actually do it that way.

3. You are going to need an 18mmm socket, not included in many DIY sets. Also a 21mm which is in most pneumatic sets.

4. You need a sturdy ratcheting strap like those that hold boats down on the trailers. I used a 2" wide one from Harbor Freight Tools which ran about $8.

5. Taking the control arm out is fairly easy and straightforward. On the right side one (passenger side in the US) you may have to loosen a top engine mount and gently raise the engine a little to get to the two bolts that secure the failed horizontal (front) bushing. I used a couple wobble extensions and it worked fine, you'll need a breaker bar to crack it loose. One of those u-joint style adapters would be nice but I didn't have one in half inch drive. The control arm has three places it is held, and I suggest you remove the ball joint nut first (you may need to hold the shaft with a torx while you turn it). Then the single bolt for the vertical bushing, then the two for the horizontal front bushing.

6. Do not take the caliper off as people suggest. You can remove the axle nut it will make it less likely you will pop the axle out of the transmission if that sort of thing freaks you out.

7. Don't bother with a spring compressor, you don't need it and it really won't help anyway.

8. Now on putting the new one in, the issue you face is which of the three attachment points you start with and which comes last. If you put the balljoint one on first, you will NEVER get the others in place, particularly that rear horizontal bearing which must slide in level. Instead, put the single down bolt in the rear bushing, and spin the top nut a few turns to lightly hold that one in place. Next, finger tight the two side by side bolts on the front horizontal bushing. Don't strip out the threads on this, turn the bolts several turns but not tight at this point.

9. Now, the hard part that everybody more or less skips over in their instructions. I removed the tie rod end as someone suggested. Use the HFT strap, running it from just behind the cup in the end of the new control arm (make a loop of the strap and the hook) and run it under the car and put the other hook in the nice convenient hole in the subframe on the other side of the car. Ratchet the control arm downward until it looks low enough to push the stud of the ball joint over and into it. You will NEVER and please believe me be able to pry that stud of ball joint over and into the cup. Instead, look at the two horizontal bolts runnings through the fittings on the uncompressed strut. If you just slightly loosen the bottom one (DO NOT REMOVE IT!) you have a nice pivot for the hub, disc, caliper, balljoint etc. Then you remove the one above it. Using a small pry bar, you can pry a little space into the place where you just removed the upper bolt. Again, since this is a compressed strut, do not remove the bottom bolt. With the upper bolt out, you can nicely pivot the ball joint toward the cup on the control arm. This gives you the inward movement you need to get the ball joint into the control arm. You may need to slighten slacken the strap to get it to pop in and then put the nut on there and tighten everything up. Since you have loosened some important things, but SURE you retighten and reinstall everything such as the tie rod end and the upper bolt of the strut. You still need to tighten the bushing bolts on the new control arm, of course.

Anyway, I hope this helps. The parts I got are from "Professional Parts Sweden" and I am really hoping the quality isn't as bad as the Scantech ones everybody says are garbage. At least I can do this job now.

 

Appreciate the writing!

 

The car drives nice and straight now, the steering wheel is properly centered which wasn't true even after the last alignment when they told me they couldn't do the job properly without new control arms. And the car does not dive left or right when I hit the brakes. So I'm happy. And also concerned that the ones I put in are indeed from the Scantech successor. Hopefully they've worked on quality control in light of their problems.

 

As I said, I was really hoping that "Swedish Parts Professional" control arms were much better than the Scantech ones, Even though this was, reportedly, mostly a name change.


Well, since I put in the two control arms as I described above, they have gone bad again. Did not quite make it to a year. About 20,000 miles. The blue poly cracked and now it dodges one way or the other under brake application. And I can do this again. I have a pair of the supposedly new and improved IPD rubber ones with the one year warranty. If I come up with any way to simplify my description from last year I'll update this.

 

I would definitely go with a full Lemforder control arm. I have read on several forums, and most people agree that only Lemforder or original Volvo bushings will last for years. Most have found that all aftermarket bushings, no matter the place that is selling them, have a tendency of failing after only one year.

they sell off Ebay

There are also other Lemforder control arms that sell on Ebay for cheaper but those have the smaller bushing made by Febi, which again I won't trust.

 

IPD claims these control arms are from new R&D, with better adhering rubber than the factory ones. So the old advice about sticking with factory may -- or may not -- be true.


Somebody needs to try them and it will be me this weekend and if they don't last I will let all of you know. I will also redo my installation steps (writing things down as I go this time) if somebody else wants to do this on an S60.


The parts arrived and it is definitely firm rubber, not poly like the Swedish Parts Professional ones I regret buying. The arms themselves seem very well finished and heavier than stock to me.


Anyway, I will report on how it goes.

 

I replaced my two Swedish Parts Professional aka Scantech control arms over the weekend having received a whopping 11 months of service out of them. (About 18,000 miles before the car started pulling one way or the other when braking.) The rear bushing (the down bolt goes through it) was sloppy on one and on the other rear one the insulating rings around the bushing had both apparently become cut and were gone. Interestingly, one had rubber on the rear bushing and the more worn one was poly.


Having now done 4 control arms in 11 months, I have a few comments to add on technique.


First, these new IPD supposedly better than OEM arms look really nice and fit well. I will let you know how long they last. The angle on the horizontal bushing threads was absolutely perfect for installation.


The frustration in putting in control arms is that the technique you used last time may not be cut and dried for the next attempt. You need one or two big ratcheting straps, the HFT one I recommended before broke so I got some 1500 pound working load ones which were better. Maneuvering the post of the ball joint into the cup is just something that you will have to work on and it takes time. That is the hard part of this job. The frame bushings are easy. Swiveling the rotor, etc. out by removing the bolt as I recommended helps. This time it seemed to help when I shoved the handle of a ratchet down into the space on the strut created by removing that upper bolt. I then jacked up the rotor and the angle was right and with a swift kick it went in. Kicking helped for that last half inch or so on the other side too, as did spring compressors on that side.


I did have to jack the engine up a little to access the bolts on the drivers' side arm. Just loosen the cross brace over the engine bay, put a jack under a big block of wood and lift a little on the engine. You need just a little lift if you have a wobble extension.


I also replaced the right axle since the boots were shot and that was a piece of cake. But the control arms are not fun. It wasn't fun either to find that when I'd knocked the ball joints out of the splines that the ones I had for replacements were fine splines and the old one were coarse, so it was no go on that.

 

This is how I replaced the arm

 

Well, I did not try that, but it looks like a possible new method. I hope I don't have to try it for a long time. Thanks!

 

The new IPD control arms have far outlasted the Swedish Parts Professional aka Scantech ones. It's been 18 months and 30K miles and they are good as new.

 

Many many thanks for that - just one question, did you only remove a top engine mount or also the one right next to the control arm?
I have a P2 D5 V70 and damaged the head of one of the retaining bolts - so I need to get it out.