to remove and replace the front upper control arms, do you need to remove the shock/strut? I looked on lexls where he instructed to remove the shock but i dont see why, the bolts seem accessable.

 

I didn't remove shocks when i did mine. Not too hard.

 

I think with the air shocks you do have to remove them but standard are OK,you can slacken the top mounting bolts to give a little more room if required to remove the UCA bolts as you can then move the shock a little.

 

its doable without removing the strut but its a little annoying.

 

You'll have to use an open end wrench if you don't want to take the struts out. I couldn't fit a breaker bar with socket in there or a ratchet.

I took the struts out. They come out so easily it isn't a big deal. Plus, I wanted to get a torque wrench on the UCA bolts when I reinstalled them, which is impossible to do without the strut out.

 

OMG, this ****ing sucks. I just stripped the bolt on the end of the ball joint connecting to the strut rod (the one with a cotters pin). Than i chewed it with a pipe fitting wrench. Any suggestion's before i take a cutting wheel and dremel further showing a display of frustrated swearing and inner manliness??

 

you jacked up the castle nut on the UCA ball joint?

go to sears or harbor freight and buy some "Bolt-Out" type sockets, used to remove broken/stripped bolts/nuts.

less possibility to jack up mating surface on the knuckle.

you can't reuse the castle nut then if you've screwed it up that bad, go hit your local lexus dealership and buy a new one (shouldn't be more than $2-3 even with the massive markup)