A
Anonymous
Guest
hi guys has anyone ever changed the upper control arm bushes on a td cortina .i'm stuck my mechanic says that i have to drop the hole cross member to get them out. any help would be great
Yes, I did it on my own in one all nighter on my Bristish V6 TF Cortina. (The same frame as the TD, without the Aussie TF's better suspension 
). You have to drop the cross member, but you don't have to take the engine out to do it. Takes four hours on your own.
I used a car hoist, a 1.5m long 4X4 woodern beam, and opened the bonnet, and added two woodern chocks on the inner gards to use the beam to hold the engine. Then I stropped the engine with tie downs and a ratchet, and torqued it up so it hung from the beam.
Then the car got raised, and the four frame mounts were loosened, the rack and pinion bolt withdrawn, the fuel line was corked, and then the bottom bolt was taken off each engine mount. The anti-roll bar and front calipers were with drawn, and the whole cross membr became free to be removed. You don't even need to bleed the brakes if you shove a couple of spare asockets in the calipers. The power steering unit had the power steering pump plugged, and the lines were corked shut.
Change the frame mounts to heavy duty nolatahne, and whack it all back in. Use a trolley to hold the cross member, get the steering rod hooked up back to the spline, and raise it up by lower i the hoist or rasing the trolley.
The whole thing just drops in and out. No realignmnent, no bleading , no oil loss, the engine and exhast and radiator, trans, drive shaft stays put. And no stress if you have the right equipment!
NB: My V6 came with power steering from the factory. As an upgrade for $0 from a wrecked car, I used power steering from a Hyundai Stella and the front suspension was Hyundai. A straight bolt in, mate, just the engine mount frame brakets were differnent. The anti-roll bar even had a kink in it for the in-line six if I wanted to, and the coils and shockes were much beafier!
). You have to drop the cross member, but you don't have to take the engine out to do it. Takes four hours on your own.I used a car hoist, a 1.5m long 4X4 woodern beam, and opened the bonnet, and added two woodern chocks on the inner gards to use the beam to hold the engine. Then I stropped the engine with tie downs and a ratchet, and torqued it up so it hung from the beam.
Then the car got raised, and the four frame mounts were loosened, the rack and pinion bolt withdrawn, the fuel line was corked, and then the bottom bolt was taken off each engine mount. The anti-roll bar and front calipers were with drawn, and the whole cross membr became free to be removed. You don't even need to bleed the brakes if you shove a couple of spare asockets in the calipers. The power steering unit had the power steering pump plugged, and the lines were corked shut.
Change the frame mounts to heavy duty nolatahne, and whack it all back in. Use a trolley to hold the cross member, get the steering rod hooked up back to the spline, and raise it up by lower i the hoist or rasing the trolley.
The whole thing just drops in and out. No realignmnent, no bleading , no oil loss, the engine and exhast and radiator, trans, drive shaft stays put. And no stress if you have the right equipment!
NB: My V6 came with power steering from the factory. As an upgrade for $0 from a wrecked car, I used power steering from a Hyundai Stella and the front suspension was Hyundai. A straight bolt in, mate, just the engine mount frame brakets were differnent. The anti-roll bar even had a kink in it for the in-line six if I wanted to, and the coils and shockes were much beafier!
I feel sorry for you 
I had to do it on my TD a couple of moths ago and was also shocked when I realised that the cross memeber had to be dropped.
After getting over the shock, it wasn't too hard to do. I used the method explained by XECUTE.
One thing to check is the size of your bushes. I thought I had the right size until it was time to put them in. As I found out, TD's have two sizes and the size that I had was not available from any of the normal spare part outlets.(They did not even list the size I needed!!) Eventually I found them from a company in Dandenong VIC.
If you have this problem let me know and I'll find the number and name of the company.
See Yah
I had to do it on my TD a couple of moths ago and was also shocked when I realised that the cross memeber had to be dropped.
After getting over the shock, it wasn't too hard to do. I used the method explained by XECUTE.
One thing to check is the size of your bushes. I thought I had the right size until it was time to put them in. As I found out, TD's have two sizes and the size that I had was not available from any of the normal spare part outlets.(They did not even list the size I needed!!) Eventually I found them from a company in Dandenong VIC.
If you have this problem let me know and I'll find the number and name of the company.
See Yah
Right on. The post 72 Cortinas got all the Falcon running gear, and the front end needed hardened ball joints, steering tie rods, and the better frame mounts. I noticed this when trying to fit the TC six front end in my TF.
One thing the 302 V8 guys do here is make up four metal gromets which are part fillet and part stitch welded in to place. Never moves then . One guy even used roller scate amterial cut to suit.
The compliance in the front end is best looked after by nolathane. The give can stop failures. As you two are well aware, even mild sixes or 13 second quarter horse Cortinas can do wheel stands!
One thing the 302 V8 guys do here is make up four metal gromets which are part fillet and part stitch welded in to place. Never moves then . One guy even used roller scate amterial cut to suit.
The compliance in the front end is best looked after by nolathane. The give can stop failures. As you two are well aware, even mild sixes or 13 second quarter horse Cortinas can do wheel stands!
