"Late model" front control arms are on 87-89 300ZX's. The car was actually changed a lot over the years from 84-89. They widened the track in 87 as well as changing the body style slightly. Thus the control arms are slightly (10MM) longer. Now an uninformed person might ask why you would want longer control arms, and might think it was to widen the front track. Actually, the real benefit is additional negative camber up front WITHOUT having to install camber plates. 87-89 control arms yield a beneficial -.5 degrees of camber (about; as measured by me) and can be had for under $60 used as opposed to about $300 for good camber plates. You can also swap the strut housings from an 84-86 into your 87-89 for the same effect. The poly front control arm bushings run about $20.

Start by removing the front calipers and wiring them up out of the way, be careful not to damage the hoses. Now you can begin to remove the control arms, you have to remove the sway-bar end-link from the arm, followed by the tension rod bolts on the bottom of the arm, followed by the bolts on the bottom of the strut that attach the strut to the steering knuckle, and last but not least, the bolts holding the arms to the cross-member. (ok, that was one HUGE run-on sentence).

your car should now look like this:

(notice I removed my struts, this was to install the 88SS springs, you do not need to do this in order to swap the control arms)

The old bushings should be burned out in the same manner as the rear bushings, but this time you will not need to save the inner sleeve since they are provided with the bushings. Also, be careful not to heat the control arm itself too much, you can actually weaken it (bad thing). Now clean the inside of the outer bushing sleeve with a scotch brite pad, then grease and insert the new bushings. Make sure to use plenty of grease, and only the grease that came with the bushings! The arms should be ready to go back in the car at this point.

This is the "early" style arm on the top with a stock rubber bushing and a "late" style arm on the bottom with a poly bushing:

Now simply put everything back together the way you took it apart. This is a picture of the arm in the car.

Now go get a front end alignment (or DO IT YOURSELF), you most likely will need it. Enjoy!

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