Hello
I have an 04 XJ8 and it’s been good car overall.
so far I have replaced many things on it but at this time I need to replace the front upper control arms and I don’t find any videos online of how to do it, my question is ; do I need to remove the front air shocks in order to replace the control arms?
It seems that the bolt that holds the arm is too long to slide it off to remove it, there is not enough room.
I have not started the job yet But there is a you tube video of a guy trying to do the job and he couldn’t finish it without removing the air shock.
I think there is a shortcut to it Without removing the air shock I just don’t know how to

thanks in advance

 

I researched this recently and could not find a "quick" way to do the job because as you state that bolt will not come all the way out because of the air shock.

I did find, on Ebay, low priced Ford upper control arms for $79 a pair but ended up sending them back as I realized I only needed to replace the rubber boot over the ball joint.

If you find a quick way of doing the job I hope you can post the results here.

One thought I had is that the shock, after undoing the mount at the top, might "push down" far enough to get the bolt out after undoing the ball joint nut.

 

Hi rf69,

As John suggests, you may be able to first disconnect the upper control arm ball joint from the steering knuckle, then disconnect the air hose and ECATS connector from the top of the air spring/damper, then remove the four nuts at the top of the air spring and try to push the unit and lower control arm down far enough to pull the upper control arm bolts out. You would have to be very careful of overextending the wiring harness for the ABS wheel speed sensor, the brake hose, and the air suspension ride height sensor electrical harness and arm or "poke yoke." I've only replaced the upper control arms while also replacing air springs/dampers with either new ones or coil conversion units.

Do you have knocking noises or are you only wanting to replace the arms due to torn ball joint boots? If so, John's suggestion of just replacing the boots is worth considering.

Cheers,

Don

 

I don’t have any knocking noises, just only wanting to

replace the arms due to torn ball joint boots.

Are the ball ball joint boots difficult to replace?

 

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I only need to replace the rubber boot over the ball

joint. The control arm is fine , no knocking or anything

bad. Are the rubber boot over the ball joint difficult to

replace ? Never done it before.

 

They are easy to get at so long as you support "things" properly when you undo the nut holding the bolt of the ball joint to the lower suspension part.

It is relatively easy to take the wire clips off each end to reuse on new boots.

However putting on a new rubber boot of the correct size so far for me has not been great.

The first pair, one for each side, of boots were not quite the correct size.

So I tried to temporarily use a "good" old boot. No way could I get the larger end of it to go over the groove in the metal surrounding the ball joint easily. I ended up ripping
it in the process. One issue is grease making handling of it difficult.

I am waiting for two more boots to arrive where I adjusted the measurements slightly. They are being shipped from Bulgaria and are about 10 days out.

The material that these new boots are made from is much stronger than the original material.

So cannot give you a good answer yet.

I am not in a hurry right now because I am in the middle of respraying my hood. A whole other story.

These are what I have ordered HOWEVER I am not 100% sure they are the correct size because the measurements the seller shows seem to differ from my measurements taken with precise calipers based on my first order experience.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-X-High-Qu...72.m2749.l2649

 

Is the joint loose when you move it?
Mine were not making any noise.
But the rubber was torn, so the replacements were waiting.
They were pretty loose, when compared to new ones.
My leaking front shocks had to come out for replacement anyway.
So no choice for me, the mileage was around 85,000.
As long as the lower shock bolts are not an issue, just follow the Arnotts video, on shock replacement.
Replacement is pretty straight forward.
Replacement of the boots. means first taking the joint apart with a puller.

 

The one I looked at came apart easily. I did not need a puller.

Also no play in the ball joint at all. Actually a tad stiff so I think I am good for a while.

At some point the previous owner replaced the OEM air shocks with Arnott something I did not know until I recently

when I had the wheels off to get rid of curb rash. Thats when I noticed the torn boot.

As Wingrider states the Arnott videos are very good for showing how to remove and replace the struts.

 

Youll have the upper ball joint nut removed and the air spring nuts and line, so just remove the suspension sensor height arm link and the lower shock bolt from the lower control arm and get the shock out of the way. It makes life so much easier and take a whole minute or two.

 

Brutal is giving you good advise, take it.

 

Thanks I appreciate the advise

 

HI
I just replaced the front upper control arms today on my 04 xj8. I paid for the "good" ones, about $85 for Moog. I noticed the cracked rubber like you did, but assumed the other bushings were fine. When I replaced it, the other bushings, hidden in back, were totally shot. I couldn't see them to know that they were that bad. For $180 I'd suggest replacing both uppers - if one piece of rubber is old, so is the rest. And yes, it was a pain to pull the air shock and not damage my sensor wires and brake lines - I used a couple of smaller bottle jacks to move the suspension up and down. A pain, but not the end of the world.

 

At Rock auto, of course.

 

On another note. Replace the whole arms. Those bushings are very hard to tell if cracked and broken. And they creat a specific noise(bobble). But even when i did not think they were bad, they turned out to be. And i have looked at 100s over the years and know what to look for and still think theyre good when not. They are one of the most common noises in the front suspension along with sway bar bushings when worn or bad

 

Thanks , I’ll do that , I already replaced the front outer rods, front lower control arms and rear sway bars.