Auto news on Youtube Aug 31 2018

This set of eight Mammoth Adjustable Control Arms is for those of you that have a 2007

to 2018 JK with three or more inches of lift that are looking for a set of adjustable control

arms that are going to do a couple of different things for you.

These are going to allow you to recenter the axels in the wheel wells, they're going to

allow you to adjust your pinion and upfront your caster angle, and they're also going

to give you some additional articulation by having heim joints on at least one end of

each of the arms.

These control arms are going to install very easily into your Jeep.

I am going to actually give it a one-out-of-three wrenches, maybe a strong one-out-of-three

wrenches.

You don't have to do a ton of disassembly to your Jeep to get these installed.

You can really just do them one at a time without really disassembling a lot, but we'll

talk a little bit more about the installation in just a second.

So when you're looking at a set of control arms, you can find factory replacement control

arms, you can find fixed control arms, non-adjustable that are just going to be stronger, and usually

at different lengths to change your pinion and your caster angles or you can find something

that is adjustable like these ones.

And because these are adjustable, they're gonna be a little bit more expensive than

some of the other options.

These are also going to have spherical joints on at least one end of either of them.

Now there are some joints out there that even more expensive, that are going to have spherical

joints on both ends.

Some of those are also going to be double adjustable to make adjusting them all that

much easier and you're going to get that much more articulation out of a control arm with

two spherical joints.

But these are still going to be a massive improvement over factory.

And as long as you're still going to be running a five-link suspension with your track bar,

you're really not giving up much by running a control arm that has a spherical joint on

one end and a rubber style joint on the other.

As far as control arms go for a set that are both adjustable and have the spherical joints,

these ones are pretty fairly priced in my opinion.

You can get a set of all eight of these for $600 and they are going to give you all of

the adjustability, all of the strength and all the articulation you're looking for.

This kit does come with all eight control arms.

I have one of each style out on the table here.

So you're going to have your larger lowers and then your slightly smaller upper control

arms.

Again, all of these spherical joints are greaseable, they are adjustable on one end so they're

gonna have a large jam nut and then the adjustment on this end.

Now because they are only adjustable on one end, they are single adjustable not double

adjustable, you are going to have to remove the other end from its mount in order to screw

it in or out and make that adjustment.

But it's not as though you're adjusting your control arms every single weekend.

This is really something that you're going to do one time.

And then if you do change your spring, something like that, you may have to do again.

But this is pretty much a set it and forget it.

So having the double adjustable control arms are very nice but certainly not a necessity.

Overall, these are going to be a well-built joint.

They're all going to be greaseable.

As long as you take care of them, they'll continue to work great for you.

I mentioned before that these come in at around $600 for a set of all eight, and I do think

that's a pretty fair price.

Now, just for comparison's sake, you can find a set of eight control arms that cost double

what this set cost.

Now those are usually going to have spherical joints at both ends and be double adjustable.

The joints also might have something proprietary going on inside there to make them hold up

a little bit better over time.

But overall, I think that this is going to be a great option and it is a little bit more

budget-friendly.

If you want all the features that those more expensive options have, we have those options.

You have to have the budget for it, but those are available to you.

If you're looking to save a little bit of money, if you're perfectly happy with one

spherical joint, single adjustability, I think this is going to be a great choice.

Now I'll have a member of the install team show you how you get these installed on your

Jeep.

We're gonna start by removing our upper and lower control arms.

But first, we're gonna support our front axle assembly on a couple of jacks.

You wanna make sure your vehicle is off the ground and safely supported.

We're using a lift.

You can do this on jack stands.

But please be as safe as possible when doing this to your own vehicle.

All right.

Let's go ahead and get started then.

Now we have our front axle assembly safely supported with our Jack Stands.

We're gonna go ahead and begin by removing our lower control arms and then move on to

our uppers.

Now that we have our front axle assembly supported on our Jack Stands, we're gonna go ahead and

start working on our control arms.

We're gonna begin on the passenger's side, repeat the process for the driver's side and

then we're gonna go ahead and work our way to the rear.

To remove our lower control arm, we're gonna be using a 21-millimeter socket and a 21-millimeter

wrench to remove our hardware, but we're gonna save our hardware because we're gonna use

that for the installation of our new control arms.

As you could see, I broke it loose first with a regular hand ratchet.

I highly advise doing this because just putting an impact gun or ratchet on your bolt can

result in snapping your hardware, and you don't want to do that.

When removing the bolt completely, make sure you support the lower control arm so it doesn't

swing down and hit you.

Now as you can see, our control arm is still staying put where it is.

That's because there's still tension on the bushing on the upper mount for your control

arm.

You're gonna be very careful once you break this loose.

This will definitely cause it to swing down and hit you.

Just carefully remove your bolt and put your control arm to the side and get ready to install

your new one.

We have a rubber bushing at one end and what's called a heim joint at the other.

Now this gives you a lot more flex and movement in your suspension when you take it on the

trails and off-roading, not to mention the fact that it's completely adjustable.

When you are complete your installation, you're gonna wanna take this and have your Jeep fully

aligned to make sure your pinion angles are correct.

For installation, just slide your new control arm up into the control arm pocket, install

your hardware but don't snug this down quite yet until you have your Jeep lowered at full

weight, then you can go ahead and tighten it up.

This won't put any stress or rip your brand new bushing.

For the front, it's the same process, swing it up into the pocket and install your hardware.

Now when installing the hardware on your front heim joint, you're gonna wanna make sure that

you align the center sleeve up with your holes to make it a little bit easier for you, that

way you're not fighting it too much trying to get your new hardware in.

That completes the installation of our lower control arms.

Now we can go ahead and move up to our upper control arms.

Now for the removal of our upper control arm, we're gonna be using an 18-millimeter socket

and wrench to get these out.

For the rear bolt on your upper control arm, there's actually a hole on the outside of

your frame that you're gonna go through to get your socket on the inside bolt.

This is the hole you're gonna be using to put your socket and extension through to get

the bolt for your upper control arm.

I just noticed that our Jeep is still equipped with the factory tab nuts that are on the

back of the control arm bolt.

This is a big help.

You actually don't have to go through this hole in the frame to access them.

But if your Jeep does not still have these tab nuts, that is the hole that you would

use to access this hardware.

You'll notice I switched over to using a ratcheting wrench.

This is because a ratchet and a socket really doesn't fit up around the exhaust.

So if you have a ratcheting wrench, this is great.

If not, a regular wrench will do just fine.

This is the factory tab nut that I was speaking of.

Sometimes these tabs fall off.

Now to get this bolt out, you seen I had to work around the exhaust a little bit.

Luckily, I was able to use the flex that's in our factory motor mounts to get our engine

to flex over a little bit just so I could sneak the bolt out.

When reinstalling this, I'm gonna show you a little trick that'll save you a lot of time

and effort whenever you need to go back and adjust your control arms.

The front bolt in our upper control arm has a lot more access to it, so let's go ahead

and get that one removed.

And just be careful that the control arm doesn't swing down and hit you once again.

Now that our stock upper control arm is out of the way, let's go ahead and get our new

one in place.

Now, I told you I had a little trick for reinstalling the upper control arm bolt that mounts to

the frame.

Remember that hole that you can access from the other side?

We're gonna put our bolt in the reverse way and have the threats facing out, that way

our nut goes on the outside instead of on the inside.

This way, if you ever need to remove this to adjust your new control arm, it'll be a

lot easier.

Now you can go ahead and snug up all your hardware, but you don't wanna completely tighten

it just yet.

Remember, we wanna make sure that our Jeep is on the ground and full weight is on the

suspension before we tighten these up.

This is because if you tighten them up now and put the full weight on it, you run the

risk of tearing your brand new bushings that are in your control arms.

And you don't wanna do that.

It'll cause a lot of squeaks and premature wear of your new bushings.

Now you're all together on your passenger's side, you can go ahead and repeat this on

your driver's side.

Or if you start on the driver's side, repeat it for your passenger's side.

Whichever way you decided to start, just go ahead and make sure you repeat the same process

for the opposite side.

Once everything is tied up in the front, we're gonna go ahead and move to the rear.

Now, just like your front, you wanna make sure that your rear axle assembly is supported

with a Jack Stand.

This is for safety.

I cannot stress safety enough to everyone.

I've seen too many accidents and I'd hate to see people at home have accidents too.

We're gonna begin by removing our lower control arm once again using our 21-millimeter wrench

and socket.

Now if you're doing this like I am and you left your wheels on your Jeep, now that your

lower control arm is out, you might wanna go ahead and get your upper control arm out.

This gives you a little bit more room to do so.

If you took your wheels off your Jeep, you probably wouldn't have this problem.

Now that our control arms are installed, just make sure once again, you repeat this for

the passenger's side.

Same process, no easier, no harder.

The vehicle is done.

Go ahead and lower it back down on the ground, making sure full weight is on the suspension.

You can go ahead and tighten up all your bolts and torque them down to spec.

After that, you wanna go ahead and make sure you get yourself in alignment.

This is very critical because you wanna definitely make sure that your pinion angles are where

they're supposed to be, otherwise, you can run into the risk of blowing your drive shaft

our.

And that is something you definitely don't wanna do on the highway or on the trail.

Now that we've reached the end of our installation, just go ahead and make sure you go back, throw

a little grease on your heim joints, and make sure that for more parts and videos like these,

you visit us at extremeterrain.com.