i spent over 2 hours trying to get these damn ball joints in. they keep going in at an angle. it looks like the cup on top isnt sitting straight because of the design of the A-arm. has anyone else had this problem ?

 

http://www.fl-thirdgen.org/balljointreplacement.html

some people don't care for this method. but it works everytime for me.

 

thanks for the advise. ill give it a shot tomorrow, hopefully ill have some luck w/ it.

 

If you have the A-arms off I say take it to a shop and get them to press them in.

 

I've pounded them in before, but you really should have them pressed in. You can end up cracking the a-arm by pounding on them too much. Also, there's a special tool designed to be used "on the car"( without removing the a-arms. It's kinda like a giant c-clamp.

 

I bought my balljoint remover/installer press, made by OTC, but I hear you can rent them, too. I had a hard time aligning the ball joint into the LCA holes, too. There's a few pieces to the press, and they like to fall out or misalign themselves before the forcing screw is tightened!

I had my LCA's off the car, so here's what I did. Know how they sit when they're on the car (balljoint stud facing up)? Well I flipped the LCA's upside down so the balljoint stud would face the floor, and gravity held the balljoint in it's pocket. Then I assembled the press over the balljoint. With gravity helping me out, I was able to get the balljoint aimed "straight" into the hole. (And I used a tip from teh guys on here and coated the inside of the hole with anti-sieze.) Then I tightened up the press's screw to give some pressure to the whole tool/balljoint/lca assembly, flipped the control arm on it's side, and used a breaker bar and my boot to get the balljoint in.

If the lca's are still on the car, a second set of hands will help you assemble the press around the balljoint. You'd have to hold the balljoint so it's aimed square into the hole, and your friend would have to jiggle the pieces of the press around and then tighten the screw up to lock the tool/balljoint/lca together.

Hope that helps... oh and for what it's worth, the little sheet that came with my Moog balljoints said never to apply pressure to the center plate of the balljoint- only to apply pressure around the edge of the balljoint... keep that in mind if you use a jack to press them in instead. If you look closely at the page that mrr23 gave, he put something between the bottle jack and balljoint so as not to apply pressure to that center plate.

 

what it looks like to me is the control arm is curved up on the side nearest the spring. the cup that goes over the ball joint wont sit completely flush on the control arm. i thought maybe one was bad, but its like that on both sides and theyre exactly the same. im going to try lubing the holes, freezing the ball joints to shrink them down, and if i have to ill buy a propane torch. i dont know how much good any of it will do, but its better than trying to get the control arms out of there. just looking at doing it gives me nightmares, especially after hearing how the bolts rust in the sleeves.

 

Oh, okay, I know what you're talking about. That slight angle shouldn't affect anything. You should be able to work the tool (with slight pressure on the forcing screw) to make the balljoint aim itself perfectly straight into the hole. If the balljoint starts going in slightly crooked, it's okay, it'll straighten out. I'd say maybe a degree or two out of being parallel would be fine.

Freezing probably won't do anything at all. I tried freezing a set of my LCA bushings, as was recommended, to make for an easier installation. Maybe if I could've frozen them to -239025298 degrees, it would've helped.

As for bolts rusting to sleeves, yeah, good point. I had to fight that one.

 

Mine also started going in a bit crooked but I just kept tightening them down and once the shoulder of the hits the outer edge of the joint hole, it SHOULD straighten out and be fine. Keep tightening it up I guess.


Ed

 

i tried just keep tightening them once one side hit, it completely stopped turning. i greased the hell out of them, freezed them, nothing. they line up perfectly till the clamp starts pressing them in, then they go crooked as hell. im completely out of ideas here and kinda need wheels. any other thoughts, other than the ones listed above? theyve all been tried.

 

I have ground the sleeve that sits on the top of the A-arm. This way it sits square to the ball joint.

If the press isn't yours then can place shims under the low side of the sleeve. Shims can be anything from screwdriver shanks to round rods like old rocker studs.

HTH's,

RBob.

 

I donno, I just use a balljoint press with a huge a$$ breaker bar and tighten it till its in straight, It helps for me if I turn the press so the arm is closer to the side thats no going in

 

ok i finally got them to go in. i ended up having to get a new one, one of them wasnt made quite right and wouldnt press in. it was something i just kinda had to guess at and swap with for a new one, but i was right. the other one went in hard as hell but finally went in.