my ball joints and idler arm are bad..need replaced...how is this accomplished? a place said they could do it for 400$ but if i can accomplish the task in my driveway, i will..thanks

 

You can definitely do this in your driveway.

Tools you may need:

spring compressor, pickle fork for separating idler arm from tie rods, jack, hammer, ball joint press - most of these odd items can be borrowed for free from Autozone.

The idler arm is a piece of cake, back off the nuts till they're flush with the ends of the bolts and either hit them with a hammer and pop the arm out or back them off completely and use the fork to get inbetween the joint and pry them apart.

The ball joint (you only have one - no upper - the strut takes care of what would be the upper) is a bit more involved. Its only held on (to the spindle and strut assembly) by a single nut, but by taking that nut off the spring will force the A-arm completely down to the ground allowing the spring to shoot out. This is where you might need the spring compressor to remove the spring. Install the compressor and compress the spring until it just moves around freely, then take out the cotter pin thats through the nut for the ball joint. Back off the nut a bit, put the jack under the A-arm for support and safety, then back the nut completely off. Lower the jack and the spring should come out freely; uncompress it and set it aside, make note how it was aligned in the A-arm because you'll need to put it back the same way. Also make note the length of the COMPRESSED spring so you know how far to compress it to get it back in, you don't want to compress it any more than you have to. At this point, if you have the space, try to move the spindle/strut/rotor assembly out of the way a bit, keep the jack under the A-arm and slam the ball joint from the top, it should come out with a couple hard hits. Putting the new one in simply involves lubing the hole a bit with grease, and pressing it in, don't forget to snap the grease boot over it! Reassembly would be the reverse of removal. Spring first, jack the arm up, put the bolt of the ball joint into the spindle and put the nut on. The rest is pretty easy.

Now if you don't think you'll have enough space to slam the ball joint out with the strut/spindle/rotor assembly in the way, you're going to have to remove it. The simplest way would be to take off the nut at the top of the upper strut mount and set the whole assembly on the ground MAKING SURE YOU DON'T STRESS THE BRAKE HOSE as it will still be attached to the caliper!! Reinstallation will be the reverse. If the brake hose isn't long enough, you'll have to remove the caliper. I'd suggest reading through a Chiltons or Haynes manual first to get a better idea how to do this.

 

I did mine a few weeks ago.It took longer to go get and return the tool from Autozone,than it did to press the old ball joints out and press the new ones in...And Autozone is 4 blocks from my house......