I need to take the lower A-arm off the front suspension. Can I do this without a spring compressor without knocking my teeth out? Anyone got a short procedure as to how I should do this? Also will need to reinstall it in another car. Will I need a spring compressor to do that? Lastly, I need to put this A arm from a '62 544 into a '68 544. They're interchangeable right?

Thanks for any help!
Bob
(10 volvos '62-91) and counting

Bob...you might want to wait a bit if you havn't torn into it already... I may well have an extra 544 front end... I can check. If not, I would think that we could more easily fix the one on the white car than replace it...even if we do have to remove it first...

Unless, that is, you are doing this for some other reason....

-Matt

Let me guess - is it cracked? Someone else had mentioned cracked arms on 544's, and lo and behold when I looked at mine there were cracks on both of them. I just took both of them off and welded over the cracks, then put it back together with new poly bushings.

Cracked where?

In this case, the spring sorta fell through the bottom. A hard fix in the car I expect, but not impossible... I've never had that happen on a 544...but I've never known of the possibility, hence, I never looked for cracks.

-matt

The lower arm is made up of two heavier outer arms with a sheetmetal sort of tray in between that the spring sits on. Its bolted to one arm and welded to the other one. The cracks seem to form along the welds. I imagine if they got away with it for long enough that they could break clean off and the spring would push through like you describe. I'm not sure what stress causes the cracks - I guess the arm flexes somehow. The condition seems to be somewhat endemic among PV's..

Looks like I'll be getting the jack out and going to work. Thanks for the help! Oh... and how embarrasing.. No 544s in '68, Duh..

Bob

No '68 PV544s, but they were still making P210 Duett's then.

Hi Gang, there is one little trick of saftey that body and frame men use. They put a loose chain through the spring and a suspension part, usually the control arm, then bolt the ends of the chain. Just in case some strang event happens, such as a run away floor jack, the spring will not launch to far. Saves on dental work. Keith

Spring compressor=jack; no problem.
Put the jack under the inner pivot, remove the 4 bolts, and lower the jack. then remove the pivot bolt that goes through the spindle support.
Assembly is the reverse.
The tricky part is getting the pivot into the other car, since there are 4 threads that have to index correctly.
Yes, the A-arms are the same, except '65 was the last year for the 544.

I think it is slightly more easy if you reassemble by bolting the 4 bolts together first on the inner pivot, install the spring, jack up the arm, then install the single outer lower pivot bolt. When done like this the arm is steady and the rest of the suspension moves freely - there is little resistance other than the weight of the hub and upper arm. It lines up very easily and stress free.

I agree with John's method of R&R.