Right side?

 

Yes

 

I had to pull my gpan to get it off and left off till I had suspension back together again. I had troubles aligning up front left side and lucked out on the rear. For all of them I used a long tapered punch for initial alignment and a heavy duty 90 deg pick wiggling to center the nut and dead blow hammer for final love taps on the a arm to align the bolt to nut. Good luck!

 

I would do that bolt first and then the rear bolt. Seems easier to wiggle the rear of the lower control arm after the front bolt is loosely in vs the opposite. Did you install new bushings or change anything?

 

I would do that bolt first and then the rear bolt. Seems easier to wiggle the rear of the lower control arm after the front bolt is loosely in vs the opposite. Did you install new bushings or change anything?

Yes. Try doing the front one first.
I feel for you, I had the very same issue with mine that I also fought with for hours.
I also used a tapered punch with a dead blow to get the rear one in.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

I installed new bushings. I think I’m going to have to unbolt the bracket, install the air to the bracket, then bolt the bracket back on.

 

I never took the bracket off

 

I would try LostPawn's suggestion and start with that bolt then do the rear bolt.

 

I would not pull the bracket, you could very well end up in a bigger mess than you think you are in already. If you can get a look at the alignment of the arm and bracket, maybe a phone camera pic, you might see how it is misaligned. Maybe uninstall the arm and try again and focus on the bracket end first. Pending how stiff the bushings you installed are it might be a little less forgiving than stock bushings when trying to align. Unless the new bushing is not square to the hole in the arm it should align. Guessing you’re just a bit off…

 

It is tricky, I tend to get them almost lined up then tap with a hammer then turn then tap then turn, if you have both hands you can tap and turn at the same time and its not so hard. It's really a difficult bolt to do every time though.

 

You can also use a long thin straight tool like allen wrench and keep tight to the side of the bushing and move forward until you either hit the hole in bracket or you hit bracket. You do top bottom and each side truing it up as you go. Once roughed in then go around perimeter to double check. Then get bolt started thru other side of bracket and maneuver nut into place. I can't remember if that was one of the nuts I hot glued to stiff wire to be able to move the nut but that's one way with my limited mobility for me to overcome obstacles.

 

I have a bolt that I ground a taper on the end so it’s my alignment tool. I put in all the way then pull it out. I also grind a small chamfer on my bolts so they can go into the far side hole even if they are a little off.

 

put some grease on both sides, and once you get the bushings started, tap the arm all the way in past where it’s suppose to go from where the ball joint goes with a rubber mallet. Then use a small pry bar on the top and bottom and work it back towards you. Depending what pan you have, the technique of inserting the bolt will be different. I have the rear frame stiffener brace and I got rid of the stock bolts and replaced the with tapered allen heads. Once you get the holes lined up, stick a long Allen wrench in and twist it in as you lightly tap with a mallet. Goes right in.

 

On this one, the nut is welded to the bracket, so hammering the bolt won’t work.
The phone camera suggestion reminded me that I have a borescope - I’ll give that a shot to see how it’s misaligned.

 

It works just fine to tap the bolt in thru the bushing into the welded nut. Once there you can use the leverage on the bolt to tweak it while turning. Done this many many times, but hey do what ya want.

 

I had the same problem as to OP. After numerous failed attempts, I was staring at the bolt and found it was actually slightly bent (almost imperceptibly so). I went to the hardware store and bought a new (straight) bolt, and voila. Bolt went all the way through and threaded into the welded nut on the other end. I'm not saying you definitely have a bent bolt, but it's worth checking in case you have the same issue I had.

 

Once you sort this out, you will be ready to change the air filter. (Joke. Air filters also take forever)

 

Using the borescope, I got the bolt back in. Now on to the other side.

 

Good deal! Hopefully that will be the worst for you. Don't feel bad it just took me two days to figure how to get apart a 35 year old hydraulic ram. I had never run into square wire cylinder retainers and spiral wire retainers deep inside cylinders before.