Installation Time
(approx) 2 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Light to Moderate mechanical skill required.
Installation Guides
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If the Stock Lower Control Arms in your 2005 to 2010 Mustang have been damaged or are beat from high mileage, then you might wanna look into a replacement from OPR. Now, the option that we are featuring here today is a 100% factory replacement fitting the driver side in your S197 for right around 100 bucks. Installation will involve some elbow grease here guys, in order to remove those stockers, to swap it out for the new OPR unit, so figure a middle of the road two to three wrenches on the difficulty meter and about an hour or two from start to finish. But hang out till the end of the video and we'll show you how it's done. So there are a couple reasons why you might wanna look into a new set of Lowers or maybe even a single option, like the Driver side here, maybe a smoke to curb or got into a minor fender bender, and tweak the stocker ever so slightly.Maybe, on the other hand, your car just has a ton of miles and, therefore, the bushings and bolt joints have seen better days, which can lead to abnormal noises, plunking, vibration, and just overall poor handling. Now, the new driver side option here again, from OPR will freshen up the entire lower control arm from the inner bushings here to the new ball joint all loaded into this early steel arm, finished off in a gloss black paint. Now, this essentially, again, will be a factory replacement in every sense of the word, meaning, you're not losing any weight like you would be with a tubular option, and you're not really gaining any performance per se like you would with an upgraded option such as a polyurethane bushing. Now instead, the only upgrade you are essentially getting here guys will be the fact that these are a 100% new and fresh part, and will help take some of the sloppiness out of your 10 plus-year-old components.Now if you have stumbled across this video for the Driver side OPR replacement, you dig everything about this particular option, but maybe you wanna knock both out at the same time, passenger and driver, well, we do also sell them in pairs, along with a slight upgrade, in regards to OPR's low friction ball joint, all of which, again, can be found right here at AM if you are interested. Also, keep in mind that these will only fit the 2005 to 2010 model year Mustangs that were built before August 3rd of 2009. I know that's a very specific date, but the reason being is because Ford switched the size of the ball joint from 18 to 19-millimeters after August of 2009. So how do you know when your car was built? Well, the quick and easy way to find out here guys is to read the sticker in your door jam to determine if these will be the correct arms or if you need the '11 to '14 style instead. But let's switch to the installation as promised earlier guys, and to give you a better idea of what's involved here with this particular job. Here's a detailed walkthrough, along with a quick tool break down.All right, tools required for this job, a half-inch wrench, 3/8 inch wrench, half-inch extension, 3/8 inch extension, a 21-millimeter lug wrench, 18-millimeter, 15-millimeter, 18-millimeter box and wrench. 18-millimeter ratcheting wrench, 21-millimeter ratcheting wrench, pry bar, rubber mallet, and hammer, optional are the 3/8 inch impact and half-inch impact. All right, so our first step is to remove our wheel. You can do this install on the ground with a good jack and jack stands, but we're gonna be doing on a lift. Okay, so the next step is to remove this bolt holding in the lower ball joint. It's gonna require a 15-millimeter socket in the front and an 18-millimeter wrench in the back. All right, so the next step is to remove the bolt holding in our lower ball joint. It's gonna require an 18-millimeter wrench on the backside and a 15-millimeter on the front. Okay, so with this bolt out of the way, it's time to separate our lower ball joint from this spindle. And for this, I'm just gonna be using a pry bar and go in between the controller arm, and the lower ball joint.All right, so now that you have your lower ball joint out of your spindle, we're just gonna move the spindle up and out of the way. All right, so the next step is to remove the bolt that is holding the control arm to the [inaudible 00:04:47]. And for this, I'm gonna use the two wrench trick to get a little more leverage on it. All right, now that it's broke free, we can remove this bolt. All right, so with that bolt loose, we're gonna push up on the controll arm, and try and slip it past the steering rack here. All right, so we ran into a little clearance issue taking out that bolt for the lower control arm, so what we're gonna do is separate the knuckle from the steering, and that's on by an 8-millimeter bolt as well. Now, what you're gonna wanna do is hit the knuckle here with a hammer just to break that ball joint free. Okay, so now with the steering on hook, we are going to slide it up out of the way to expose this bolt. All right, so the next step is to remove the two knots, there's one on this side, and there's one on the outside, they're held on by a 21-millimeter nut.Now, you're gonna wanna save your hardware because we are gonna reuse it on the new lower control arm. All right, so now that we're on the outside bolt, same 21-millimeter nut. Okay, so now that you have your nuts and bolts all removed, you're able to remove your lower control arm. I'm gonna be using a pry bar and put it in this pocket right underneath the front. I'm also gonna hit it over here a little bit. All right, so next step is to install your new lower control arm. I'm holding the spindle out of the way with my body to gain a little more clearance, and then I'm gonna be using a rubber mallet to tap it into place. And I did use a little bit of PB B'laster just to leave up those bushings for the assembly. Now, I'm gonna put my bolt through the control arm right here. I'm just gonna start a few threads on that and then I can move to the nuts and bolts on the backside. All right, so now that we're gonna take our bolt, our factory hardware, you'll just spin it out of the way a little bit more, now, that I can start my nut. All right, now let's move on to the outside one. All right, now that we're on the outside, stick our factory bolt light through, and tighten this down.All right, next we're ready to move on to our lower bolt joint. We're gonna lift up on the spindle and down on the control arm. Now, you're gonna wanna get to seat below this bridge here because that's where your bolt actually goes through to help retain your lower ball joint onto your spindle. You're just gonna hit it a couple more times until it's in place just like that. You can peek through the bolt hole here just to make sure that it is lined up and send your bolt through. Now, at the back side, you're ready to tighten that up, but don't forget about your bolt up here on the other controller arm. All right, so now we're gonna tighten up the spindle nut. Now, we're gonna finish tightening up this guy. All right, now we are able to reattach our steering knuckle to our spindle. And this is on there by an 18-millimeter nut. All right, now you're able to tighten up your wheel, take it on the road, see if you hear any squeaks or rattles, and adjust if you do. All right, that's going to wrap up my install of the OPR Front Lower Control arm with Ball Joint. You can get yours here at americanmuscle.com.
Features, Description, Reviews, Q&A, Specs & Installation
Brand | OPR |
Control Arm Type | Fixed |
Control Arm Placement | Front Lower |
Fitment:
OPR 386691
CA Residents: WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
Installation Info
Installation Time
(approx) 2 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Light to Moderate mechanical skill required.
Installation Guides
What's in the Box
10 More Questions
Designed for models built before 8/3/2009.