Rear lower control arm re-installation - how do I get it back on?

[nmlss2006]

So I finally got around to the rear suspension.

Well and good, mostly, except for a detail.

I took everything apart, replaced the upper control arms, replaced the spherical bushing, all well and good.

I followed Gareth@FCP's advice and unbolted the frame end of the lower H control arm to do the job, not trusting the vise-grip method.

All well and good. Except when it came time to put the lower control arm back in.

There was no credible way to get it back ON the bushing without damaging the boot, so I removed *both* frameside bolts, then slipped the hub end onto the ball joint and the L guide, all well and good. Threaded the bolt of eternity back in and went to put the two body-side bolts back in, expecting trouble.

Sure enough, trouble arrived. I was able to PERSUADE the rear bolt to go in. The front one simply isn't interested - I actually got the bolt in one end, but the other hole in the bracket is off and there's no room to get a punch in to straighten things out.

What am I missing? Should I be doing things in a different order? Right now ,effectively, everything is bolted on (though not tightened down) except for the second half of the front frame bolt of the lower H control arm.

If I didn't know better, I would think that the least painful way to do this would be to unbolt the bottom of the shock, get the suspension to ride height, tighten everything while I'm there, then send the suspension back down and get the shock back in. Is this.. reasonably feasible?

[racer2086]

If you have a tall jack, compress the rear spring and shock some. That should do it. That whole assembly is under pressure from the spring/strut. Make sure you do not torque the inner frame-side bolts down until the car is at ride height. There are bushings in there that can tear.

[gusdog]

I'm having trouble picturing exactly the problem, but a quick thing to check is to make sure the parking brake is released. Years ago I was replacing the rear suspension on an E34 and spent hours trying to get a bolt to line up. Finally thought to release the parking brake and everything went back together in a matter of minutes. It is such a habit to set the brake when jacking up a car, that I didn't think to release it once up on the jack stands. Might not be your problem, but worth a look-see.

[nmlss2006]

Thanks folks.

I should add a few details. The car is up on a lift (I'm a lazy bugger) and I did try to jack the suspension up because it looks like it is indeed as racer2086 says and the arm will go in just fine as long as it is horizontal.

The slight problem is that the amount of lift required was lifting the car OFF the pads... so I stopped and I thought about removing the strut bolt to get rid of that problem.

And I'll check the parking brake.

[billh]

Pulling the strut bolt should give you enough room to lift the arm into place.

PITA for sure.

[racer2086]

Yeah strut bolt would be the way to go. Not easy, but better than having the car fall off the lift...

[nmlss2006]

Folks, see my follow up post. In the end, I had to give up on that bolt because I was afraid of messing up the strut bushing.

And thanks for all the suggestions and for putting up with my rants.