On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 00:46:08 -0400, micky
wrote:

On Fri, 17 Oct 2014 15:12:10 -0400, "Steve W."
wrote:

micky wrote:
Respond as soon as possible please. Car up on stands right now. I want
to take it down by 11PM at latest.

Besides front end damage, that I've repaired, the rear forward right
lower control arm, on my 2000 Solara convertible is bent.

I have the replacement part, but the bolt near the center (of the two
bolts) is in something that looks like a soup bowl. The kind that is
flat in the center and then curves up near the edges and curves down
again at the very edge. Maybe it's meant to be a washer.

So I can't get an end wrench or a box wrench on it.

And I can't get a socket wrench on it, not a torque wrench or even a
3/8" plain ratchet or breaker bar, because there isn't enough room
between the bolt and what might be the floor pan for the rear seat. I
would bend that up and out of the way but there is a screw head in the
very spot that needs bending. Maybe I should push it up anyhow????

How should I get this bolt off???

BTW, when I realized I couldn't get the bolt off, I tried hammering on
it with a mini-sledge, in order to bend it back straight. I could
easily hit the right spot and it would have worked if only it had bent.
I gave it a lot of good whacks. Then I tried a full size sledge, at
least 4 times as heavy, maybe 6, but I couldn't swing it as well.

(The nut is fixed in place, and I don't have a cutting torch. )

To cut away part of the soup bowl. But see below the problem that
might leave.

BTW, so far, all the videos are for front control arms

And I couldn't find any text instructions on this repair either.

Sounds like you need a set of through hole sockets. Those are shallow
compared to normal sockets.

Plus iiuc no space is used by the ratchet handle, right? I've seen
these, I think, but it never occurred to me to use it here. Yet it
might just work. And 19MM is included in the set.

I'm going to go get them tomorrow or Sunday. Maybe I should call to see
if they're in stock. The webpage doesn't say. Maybe I should print out
the webpage to get the sale price (22 from 32).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw-ihOjjF1o

These are ok for those once a year use items.

Exactly. If I use them so much that they break, I'll know if it's worth
buying a quality version, or not.

http://www.harborfreight.com/21-pc-s...set-67974.html

..... After my initial enthusiasm, possible reality is setting in. I
reread the shop manual, and it could go either way.

The FSM says, just to remove the the forward lateral control arm, to
first:

Disconnect the O2 sensor on the center exhaust pipe.
Disconnect both ends of the center exhaust pipe, and remove it.
Disconnect both ends of the strut rods (trailing control arms) on both
sides of the car (although possibly one could only disconnect one
end and let it dangle).
Disconnect both ends of the rear control arms (which they call the No. 2
lower Suspension arms.) although here too maybe I could just
disconnect it from the center plate.
Remove the stabilizer bar brackets on both sides (though here they say
nothing about disconnecting the bar from the knuckles, which sort of
implies that above the arms have to be fully removed.)
Support the suspension member with a floor jack. (The susp. member is a
thick plate or a sandwich in the middle of the car that the control
arms and stabilizer bar attach to.
Remove the suspension member (4 nuts, 2 bolts, and 8 stoppers!)
Lower the suspension member.

Only then can one remove the forward control arm.

Acc. to them. (You can see why I didn't want to do all that.)

By jove, they are right. That bolt is about 4 or 5 inches long and you
only have about an inch and a half of space to get it out before you
hit what - the floor?? The only way to get it out without dropping the
crossmember would be to make a hole in the floor, lined up with the
bolt, to extract the bolt through - which would allow you in with a
socket and extention to remove the bolt.

You are stuck.

But I've learned that shop manuals often make things harder than they
should be. (1) One GM car I had, the FSM said to use a press to remove
and replace lug bolts, but the guy at Atlantic Wheel and Rim told me no
one does that. They remove it with a drift and a hammer, and the
install it by putting on a lug nut and tightening it! And I did that
and it took only a few minutes and worked fine. 2) And it said to
remove the rear half axle (RWD, '67 Pontiac Cataline) one should use an
axle puller. Well my bearing started rumbling when I was 2 hours from
home, and even at home I didn't have an axle puller, but I unbolted it
and it came out like a hot knife through butter. I pulled no harder
than if it were lying on a hardwood floor. 3) And one guy on the web
yesterday was led by Toyota manuals or webpages to think he had to
remove the steering wheel and the air bag to change the bushings on a
front contorl arm. In reality he only had to loosen a couple bolts and
move the rack a little bit.)

OTOH, the drawing shows the bolt that attaches the center end of the
control arm I need to replace, shows it to be quite long, meaning maybe
that even if the wrench above loosens it, I won't be able to back it out
far enough to remove it. (Don't worry, I'm going to try anyhow, but
what I think will happen is that I will break the wrench. I know I'll
need a cheater bar, but I may also have to hit it with a mini-sledge.)

Now I suspect that the soup bowl that surrounds the head of the bolt is
there precisely so no one will try to remove the bolt before he lowers
the suspension member in the middle below the obstacle that is now
preventing me from using a simple 1/2" or 1" socket wrench.

And this certainly accounts for why the dealer wants $210 labor. Now
what is strange is that Firestone is so cheap, only 1.1 hours and $121
labor. Can even a good mechanic really disconnect all those things
above, replace the control arm, and then connect them all again in 66
minutes? I guess I'm still thinking of hand tules, but an air wrench
makes things go a lot faster.

So if I can't do this with the wrench above, I could go to Firestone,
but they will insist on buying the part from Toyota. Even if I bought
it from Toyota 2 days earlier and had the receipt for it, they said they
wouldn't use my part. So they certainly won't use the junk yard part.
I'm going to ask them, If I sign away the warranty on the rear end, will
they do it then? What if I buy the 170 dollar lifetime wheel
alignment too? This control arm is as good as new and they should all
be able to see that.

Or I'll try to find an independant shop that won't have such strict
rules, and will let me sign away the warranty on the rear.

Or I could go to Toyota, who want $158 for the part and $210 for labor.
Same decision I had before, except I'll have wasted $50 on a part I'll
never use. But no more than 50.