I have seen write ups that say to put the jackstands under the car forward of the LCA and another that said to put the jackstands under the axle housing. Which way is better?

 

I would go out of your way to make sure both are supported. That way, the components that bear the axle's weight (UCA's, struts) will be under less stress while the LCA's are disconnected.

I would place jacks in front of the LCA's and support the car on those, then support the axle with at least a floor jack on the diff housing or more jack stands on the axle tubes on each side. Everything is supported, everything is happy.

 

I was thinking that same thing. If I put the stands on the frame rail and the floor jacks under the axle housing I could raise or lower the suspension to aid in lining up the bolt holes and then lift the car with the jacks above the stands would load the suspension so I could torque the bolts.

 

From the directions I've seen (I'm about to do mine when I get home in a week) the suspension is supposed to be loaded when they're swapped. A jackstand under the frame ain't a bad idea but I wouldn't have it supporting any weight. The main thing to remember is don't get carried away and take both LCAs off at once.

 

What matters is the type of bushings in those LCAs.

OE or OE-style replacements with the inner sleeve "toothed" to grab the brackets MUST be installed and tightened with the full weight of the vehicle on the wheels only. Otherwise, it is possible for the bushing material to fail in short order as there is no other way for the bushings to adapt to their correct static positions as determined by car weight and spring lengths/stiffnesses.

Poly is more tolerant of being installed/tightened with weight off the wheels - just understand that the ride height when firstlowered onto the wheels will be a little "high" due to stiction/friction with the poly. Eventually, the poly will rotate about the inner sleeve and bracketry to a final static rest position, and will no longer be constantly under stress. Understand that poly has other downsides that more than balance out this particular advantage.


Norm

 

Well I did the install and opted to put the jack stands under the axle housing on each side. The removal and installation went without a hitch. Everything lined up. I also swaped out the panhard bar while I was under there. It was an easy install also.