Oldblue

Max are you saying you have an air wrench gun , but no air hammer/ chisel?
You will need at least a bench vise to press out the old bushings and press in the new.
Then there will be the ball joint to drill out the rivets to replace those.
For the cost and effort buy complete new LCAs , then you only have to R&R the 4 bolts

donbrew

Somebody posted a YouTube doing the job yesterday in another thread.

"Lower control arm" in the search gave 10 pages of results. I bet there are a lot of different suggestions on how to do it in them.

Maximus Max

No air tools at all, but I'm not so worried about the bolts, I'll get those out no problem. I'm just worried about pressing stuff in and out. Also truth told, I hadn't even thought about the ball joints. I was only thinking about the other two. Sure as heck if I replace only those two on the frame it will be the ball joint making all that racket!

I think you have some sound advice there young man.

Maximus Max

Ya, so doing that you led me to this guy...
Thanks a bunch for that. I feel 10 IQ points dumber now.

Maximus Max

But this is the guy. Out in the parking lot with about 3 metric sockets, a 3/8" ratchet and a phone book! (Watch and see)
Like a BOSS.

Oldblue

Mine looked like the rear bushing in the Saturn video, I did the bench vise and sockets dance like in the Blue on Blue video ( Mom was a big Bobby Vinton fan! ) and my ball joints were tight at that time but 3 months and a pothole or two later! I had to drill out those six rivets and install Moog ball joints which of course required removing those LCA's again! So, now when a friend needs their bushing or ball joints done I tell to order up LCA's and be done with it! Let them learn from my mistakes!

alexrckid

i have to agree that just geting new LCA's would be the best way to go. i had a tough time getting the moog vertical bushings into the stock aluminum arms with a (big) bench vise....the front horizontal bushings on the arms were ok.....as were the ball joints. either way, spending the dough on replacement LCA's would be the way to go....you indicated that you've got an FE1 suspension......i think that those LCA's are steel.......check the rockauto.com listing...

donbrew

Just did mine. One hour per side.

Half way through wrestling the second ball joint I slapped my forehead and wondered why not just loosen the three nuts holding the top strut mount.

phrog fixer

Okay I see some have the metal stamped lower control arm for FE1 on HHRs. My 07 is FE1 but has the aluminum LCA. Are these aluminum ones the same as the ones on the FE5?

donbrew

Well it's been discussed, even in this thread I believe.

The stamped metal ones belong on Cobalts, but work on HHRs. The FE5 has a different ball joint and possibly different rubber bushings. All HHRs came out of the factory with aluminum allow arms.

I know of no arguments for or against the stamped steel version, other than that's not came on it.