I was trying to remove my front control arms like my haynes manual told me with out using a spring compressor. I jacked up the control arm like they said and got one of the bolts out of it from the cross member. I got the other bolt like 1/2 way out and now it wont move because the control arm has shifted. I tried moving the jack up and down but wont help at all it seems as if the arm twisted a little and is putting alot of pressure on the bolt. I tried for hours but cant get it pulled out.

But anyway, I was thinking maybe if I compress the spring It will take pressure off the control arm and I could easily pull the bolt out. Am I correct in thinking this?????????????????????? Also I am going to rent a spring compressor tomorow from Auto Zone but which kind do I get???? the one on the right or the left in the picture.??????????? Thanks alot

 

When I took my control arms out I just dropped the A arm slowly all the way and used a crow bar to pop them over the pocket. but if you do this stand to the side. You will need the compressor to put them back in though

 

definatley the one on the left if it will work.. i tried using the ones on right for taking the spring off a coil over one time on another car, and its a pain with those.. however the autozone i went to didn't have the one on the left...

 

I've never tried a crowbar but I would say give it a shot. Or if your not confident with that method get yourself an internal compressor, that should provide enough slack to get that bolt out. When I did mine I bought a cheap compressor for about 15 buck and cut about an inch or so off the top. The shaft on the compressors you buy are too long and won't compress it enough. Do this then drop the A-arm from the spindel, a lot easier than what your attempting to do.

 

Definitely the one on the left, but as Grafx said the screw is usually way too long for our tight areas. I've heard of using a small length of pipe between the lower compressor part and the shoulder of the nut of the screw to take up some room. If you end up getting your own, you could just cut the screw a little to make it fit.

 

I just replaced my springs yesterday with Eibach Pro-kit springs. I had the spring compressor on the left available, but it wasn't much use, more of a waste of time. To get the bolts out, I used a crowbar to push against the bolt using the crossmember as a fulcrum and apply a force against the head of the bolt toward the front of the car. While applying this force, I used an 18 mm ratchet to turn the bolt and eventually it came out.

By the way, be careful when you pull the last bolt out because one of my control arm setups exploded when i popped it down, and it sent the 6-ton bottle jack I had underneath it flying across the garage.

At first I tried using the spring compressor to aid in getting the spring back in there, but it seemed to screw up the angle and it made it more difficult to get the control arm to line up at the same time as the spring. To get the control arm lined up, I used 3 jacks and a prybar. One bottle jack under each bushing (not directly under, but close) and one floor jack with wheels to help keep the angle right.

In some cases I had to use the crowbar to guide the control arm horizontally while I jacked it up. It was easier to line up the bolts closer to the rear first, then the ones toward the front. For each bolt, when the hole was lined up I put the bolt part way in and knocked it part way in with a hammer then checked the other side to make sure the hole there was lined up too, then knocked it through the rest of the way. Sounds kind of brutal, but worked surprisingly well.

Good luck, i hope this helped.

 

congradulations on the instalation, but did you ever think that not everyone has 3 jacks at there disposal? Hell I only have 2 but needed only one to do the job. I don't recommend the use of a bottle jack to do the job only because of how small the mount is, if you have 3 of them well then yeah. I used a spring compressor to take some of the tension off the spring prior to droping the a-arm, this could also help to prevent the chances of springs exploding your bottle jack across the garage floor.

 

You made two small mistakes on your A-arm removal.

1) was using a Haynes manual.

2) was trying to remove the bolts with spring still in place. The proper way to do it is to pop loose the ball-joint, lower the arm - SLOWLY - as far as it will go, and then pop the spring out with a pry bar. Then you can remove the bolts and A-arm.

The spring compressor will bail you out. You will also definitely need it to re-install the stock spring. Good luck!

 

I worked it like Coxy but since the new lowering springs were much shorter I just lined 'em up proper on the lower A and put the floor jack to it.

But as for a-arm removal mine have been a pain too. Lots of pryin', beatin', and cussin'. Now on to the delicate operation of stock bushing removal. I've got an old trick but I'd like to hear everyone else's take on this.

 

Yeah if you read the manuals They all say to drop it from the rear of the a-arm by pulling the 2 bolts. The only problem is it's such a bit*h with just a standard Jack. There is actualy a special tool that mounts to the jack and then attaches to the two bushing shells on the back of the control arm, it allows you to safely lower and remove the spring with out the aid of aditional compressors and so on. But who's going to go out and spend that kind of money on a specialty tool for a one time job. I'll be honest I made the same mistake, I went by the manual and tried removing it from the rear and it was a lot of work mainly trying to get the arm back into place. If I ever have to do it again I'll drop it from the spindle and try taking it out the front. But definatly use a compressor just as a safty measure, the last thing you want is that spring shooting out at you.

 

I tried that deal in the manual too..NEVER AGAIN!

If you guys get time check out this thread and tell me what you think..https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=90230

 

I also had a hell of a time getting control arms off, the bolts were siezed in the sleeves, I had to take the whole k-member out, then I got 1 bolt on each side, but the other I had to rely on the ole heatwrench. AS if that wasn't enuf, when beating the hell out the bolts a hole in the k-member became elongated, so I had mig the hole and used a carbide burr the bring it back to proper size. A lot of work and cussing later all is well. I see a lot of you guys getting lucky, must be nice,lol.

 

Thanks guys. Guess what? I get to do it again. After getting eveything back together yesterday all I had left to do was screw the little grease fitting on the the bottom of my NEW MOOG ball joints. One wouldn't screw in. It would barely catch on the threads then eventually would screw in but VERY crooked and then would fall out every damn time. The damn hole for the fitting in the ball joint is obviosly not threaded right or was stripped by the manufacturor. The other ball joints fitting screwed in fine.


Now I can't drive the car. Damn Summit is making me buy a new one. Then haveing me send back the bad one to determine if its defective and will hopfully see the obvious and refund my money.

 

Did you ever think that I don't care how many jacks anyone has? I offered info on what I know works, I never said it was the best way to do it. Figured I might as well tell the whole story while I was answering the original question.

 

I had the same problem when I replaced my ball joints, but a different brand. One was threaded for the grease nipple and the other was not. I didn't notice until after pressing them in, I wound up having to force the one on, it squirts grease out the sides of the threads but it works some what.

 

Don't mess with summit. I say go to MOOG (Federal-Mogul). Find a tech line or customer service and let them know what the problem is.

I work for federal-mogul btw, at a moog plan (not the one that made your ball joints though...we probably made the tie rod ends ).

 

I tried but I couldnt find any number too call. All I saw on their web site was that if you have a problem take it to the vendor you bought it from and they will take care of the warranty. So that is what I had to do. Ordered a new one the other day so its on its way. But hopefully Summit will stand by what its sells and reimburse me like they say when they see whats wrong. Thanks. If you know of a number let me know though just in case.

 

I've had the ball-joint problem before, we just used an oversized grease fitting(zerk). It worked everytime.

 

Damn , wish I would have know that before I reordered the ball joint. Thanks


Also anyone know how many times you can remove/install a ball joint before the hole starts too enlarge to where it wont fit tight anymore?. This will be the third ball joint pressed in (counting the factory one) I worry too much but should I be????

 

John- I'd keep an eye out on it. A few years ago I had to have one of my ball joints welded to the arm because it managed to beat itself loose where it was pressed into the arm. And this was a factory original ball joint- they've never been replaced. At least 'till now- they're worn out but at least I managed to get another lca from the yard to replace the worn one...

Which brings me to a question of my own- since I'll have to remove my lcas (and replace one) to replace my ball joints, after reading this thread would it be safe of me to say that I need to:

1) use a internal compressor on the spring while removing/replacing the lcas...
2) do NOT use the method described in the manual (I've got a factory shop manual, it describes using the jack adapter on the frame side of the lca) but instead loosen the ball joint nut and with the spring compressed lower that end of the arm until the spring can be removed
3) THEN unbolt the 2 bolts holding the frame side of the lca and remove the assembly.

Am I leaving anything important out? I'd like to avoid a spring (or something else) flying across the garage...

 

Looks like you've got it covered David. Using this method, a-arm removal was a breeze for me.

 

Thanks, racereno.

BTW is there some aftermarket set of ball joints that can be attached to the arm other than pressing them in? Like screwed or bolted? I would think there'd at least be a racing application that did it this way.

 

If it does get to the point that it won't fit tight in the control arm, you can usually get an oversized balljoint. Or just spot weld it.

 

Oh, cool- you can get oversized balljoints? I'll keep that in mind in case the shop has trouble getting the new ones pressed in.

 

The oversize ball joint info is a good file-it item. I ordered a new set of tubular a-arms that come with urethane bushings and ball joints installed that should be here mid-week. I wonder how they'll hold up in everyday use... so... I'm currently rebuilding my stock a-arms (new stock bushings and ball joints) to put on the shelf just in case.