This is a common design (bolt thru a metal bushing) on a lot of vehicles not just Fords. In dry climates it's not a problem. Elsewhere, yup, a pain in the butt. Sometimes it's cheaper and far less labor to just replace the control arm.

 

I've pulled alot of bolts over the years an never had one break till now. It' the lowest quality steele I have ever seen in a suspension bolt.

The design is very common your correct. My issue is with the quality.

And how about the welded nuts?

 

yes.... they are both a pain in the ass and an issue. My passenger side one broke on my (but it wouldn't come out......) what we ended up doing, was undoing the camber bolt and thus opening up the control arm from that side. it was still a pain in the ass.

 

You still have a broken bolt hoding your rear suspension together?[scratch]

 

^^X2 no way in hell is it coming out, ESPECIALLY under tension now. I literally wrenched on that thing with a 3' breaker bar and an extension of a 4' metal pipe. even tried torching it. nothing. LOL.

 

My concern would be the mounting point that is unsecure to torque from the twisting of the rear suspension under load.

The mounting point is 3" wide to counter torque.

With the bolt head missing it allows the spindle to twist under load.

 

This a very common problem. You need to cut through the bolt on both sides and just replace the control arm. Make sure to use plenty of anti-seize when you reassemble. What I did on the welded nut was grind that off smooth and simply put on a new one.

 

+1 on everything said there ^^ except I went on the cheap and drilled the old bolt out of the control arm....this was all that was left before it let go:

 

Well $640.00 and 4 days later I finally have my Focus back.

Ended up replacing both control arms +bolts. Then there's the 4 wheel alignment needed.

So much for the rear disk conversion.

$6.00 worth of bolts cost $640.00 in repairs.

That's life save 200 spend 600. Oh well.

 

has anyone ever replaced these bushings with the prothane lower control arm bushing set from cfm? im thinking about doing this. my bushings are long gone lol

 

I thought about it. It would have cost less.

But because this is a DD I went back stock to save on vibration.