ankurdave

The other end was much easier and I was able to loosen it! So now the strut rod and both lower arms are loosened, but the carrier's rotation still seems to be prevented, which makes sense to me, since all links are still constrained. Why only loosen the bolts and not remove one of them?

bradland

Baby steps...
If you loosen enough bolts, none of which individually allow much movement, but collectively several slight variations do the trick. Also removing a strut rod bolt may help you get the bottom strut bolt through the necessary hole but this could put you right back to square one with the now removed strut rod bolt...

bradland

To avoid confusion-
Bottom strut bolt = the bolt you have issue with
Strut rod bolt = fastener at either end of strut rod (48780A)

ankurdave

It worked, I can't thank you enough! I loosened the bolts you marked, plus the cam bolt on the other end of the No. 1 lower control arm since that still seemed to be a constraining link. The holes still didn't line up at first, but I gave it another try by threading the bottom strut bolt in halfway and then readjusting the carrier height using my scissor jack. The extra play from the loosened bolts then allowed the second hole to line up and I was able to tighten everything up.

I inserted the bottom strut bolt backwards (bolt head on the left instead of on the right) because there wasn't much room for my wrench on the right due to the sway bar. I should probably go back and fix that for completeness, but this doesn't seem inherently wrong.

Also, due to loosening the cam bolt, I probably messed up the alignment by a fair amount, but I figure I'll need an alignment after this anyway.

Now a short test drive, and then on to the rear right side!

bradland

--------

Legender

I'd recommend new alignment after shock changes. Congrats on getting this done yourself and learning a bunch in the process.