Under 13 Minutes Step By Step Control Arm Replacement | 1998 Ford Explorer

In this video, Wes replaces the upper and lower control arms on a 1998 Ford Explorer along with the shocks and sway bar links.
Welcome to “The Stanley Way” channel where we will cover just about every project that a typical American family will encounter. This is not a “pro how to” channel, just an ordinary guy videoing his own projects.
Current and future projects include converting two bedrooms and a bath into a movie theater, installing a hybrid water heater, cleaning and painting the garage floor, building a mega shed, Kiwico projects, installing a hybrid solar panel system and many auto repairs.
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You may learn something, you may not, but somewhere along the line you will probably laugh as Wes documents even his most embarrassing mistakes.

[@MakeNShakeNBake]

This is the best step by step guide on this specific operation I've seen. I am researching what I need to replace both control arms on my 98 Ford Explorer and am completely confident that by following this guide I can do it myself at home! Thank you so much for this extremely valuable content!

[@TheStanleyWay]

You are very welcome and thank you for watching! I appreciate the great comment as well. You can do it!

[@MakeNShakeNBake]

​@TheStanleyWay One question here, I reached the point of the operation where the torsion bar key needed to be reinstalled and found that the key would "Lurch" because the isolator disintegrated. How did you compensate for the lack of support? That blue cracked up part seemed necessary for installation. I've ordered new parts from Ebay, but they aren't coming in until Thursday. How did you get the key in place as you did in the video? Thanks!

[@TheStanleyWay]

@@MakeNShakeNBake I ended up loosing a bunch of the isolator material on the driver’s side. Now, because of the lack of material, you can hear the torsion bar move when hitting a big bump and I had to adjust the key all the way in with the adjuster bolt to get the correct ride height. You can take all of the isolator material out, the front end will just be a little noisy and you may not get full ride height.

[@ytemplarbond]

This is a world class video. Thanks so much.

[@TheStanleyWay]

Thank you!

[@jimmorton1169]

Thank you Sir! Great video-

[@TheStanleyWay]

@@jimmorton1169 thank you for watching and for commenting!

[@SaltyTubers]

This really helped a ton, thank you! One thing I found out is that if you have 4WD or AWD, you'll have to take most of the knuckle apart to get the lower ball joint out. You'll need to remove the brake caliper (and hang it up) and disconnect the ABS sensor from the chassis side, so that you can lean the top of the knuckle out far enough to get the CV axle out of the hub. Othewise there's no way to get the ball joint out of the knuckle, it just won't clear the CV axle. Pretty much the only thing left was the tie rod. :) Thanks again for this great video and tightening torques!

[@TheStanleyWay]

I am glad you found the video helpful and you are correct about 4WD. This is one time I am happy to have 2WD. Thank you for the comment!

[@nathanmurphy8707]

Awesome

[@TheStanleyWay]

@@nathanmurphy8707 thanks!

[@richardhall6324]

Thanks my next project

[@TheStanleyWay]

Cool, good luck with it!

[@spyker_aileron]

That torsion bar isn't as scary as i thought it'd be. 😮 i that it would be under constant load like a coilover strut and explode apart if i didn't have the proper tools.

[@TheStanleyWay]

I agree. I like that you can relieve the tension with it still in the truck and then pull it out completely relaxed.

[@spyker_aileron]

@TheStanleyWay i've been putting off replacing the bushings on the lca's on both sides. Trucks got almost 300k on the clock and still has the factory bushings under there and it's starting to feel super unsafe to drive because of how loose it is. Gonna need to do a whole front end rebuild.

[@TheStanleyWay]

@@spyker_aileron good luck. It’s not too bad of a job.

[@spyker_aileron]

@TheStanleyWay thanks. Now that i know how to do the lca's it's more about money to buy the parts i need. 👍

[@bobody6258]

Where do you find the replacement splash guard?

[@TheStanleyWay]

@@bobody6258 shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/kai-fender-splash-shield-fo1250145/11835086-P?vehicleIdSearch=39640&isAllVehicle=false

[@RoachLx]

Would I be able to use a jack with a socket on top to push the torsion key up? Don’t really want to run into the problem of not having the right tool but dishing out 100 bucks for a torsion bar tool I’ll only use once sounds crazy

[@TheStanleyWay]

@@RoachLx yes you could do that just be very careful.

[@RoachLx]

@@TheStanleyWay I’ll give it a shot tomorrow! Great video btw!

[@TheStanleyWay]

@@RoachLx thanks!

[@travislakin]

What brand parts did u install?

[@TheStanleyWay]

@@travislakin I’m not 100% sure but I think I bought Dorman. I have had good luck with Dorman over the years and their prices are usually way better than OEM. For suspension parts I usually try to buy KYB but I don’t think they don’t make control arms for Explorers. Go with KYB if you can, shocks, springs, struts, etc.

[@ronnmiller9085]

YET ANOTHER MECHANIC WHO REFUSES GO SHOW HOW MUCH TROUBLE IT IS TO REMOVE THE DRIVER SIDE BOLT AND JUST CUTS THE VIDEO TO KEEP FROM SHOWING HOW HE REMO ES THE BOLT WITH ALL THE SOLID METAL LINES BLICKING THE B8G SPACER MADE ON THE BOLT!! WHEN THERE'S A PROBLEM PART TO REMOVE OR REPLACE ALL THE SO CALLED PROFESSIONALS yeah,sure, ALL CUT THE HARD PART OUT!!!! IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A. IDEO, DON'T DO A HALF FAST JOB!!! DO IT ALL OR NONE!!!

[@thomaskoneck3352]

I see you skipped the part of how to remove the pivot bolts. This is the hardest part in my opinion.

[@TheStanleyWay]

Skipped? I showed each piece of hardware and how they came out. The only part I didn’t show was pulling the bolt all the way out of the frame. From that point all you have to do is pull the bolt out. I didn’t see a reason to double record anything by showing the front bolt removal. It’s not that hard anyway, not sure what you are getting at.

[@charlesgillingham61]

Getting it around the brake lines is the difficult bit you didn't show...