Emergency ball joint replacement

[Stu]

Yep. Started hearing popping while in the parking lot, and my tire is leaning. I hoped under it and the upper joint looks suspect. Pretty scary coming home from work tonight. The good news is that it has done before so I saw bolts & nuts instead of rivets.

Any tips?

[88grandmarq]

support the car from frame, behind the tire.

Jack up the lower control arm, remove the wheel and brake caliper.
Lossen the upper ball joint nut and smack the flat spot in the spindle with a BFH. the ball joint stem should POP when it comes loose.
lower the jack to seperate the ball joint from the spindle, replace the ball joint and revers the process.

if the ball joint has been replaced and you see bolts and nuts, swapping the joint should be cake.

[trwp72]

Ball Joints...

Actually.. you don't want to lower the jack, as the front spring will come out... EXPLOSIVELY.... after it is loose... just swing the upper "A" arm up and unbolt the ball joint from the "A" frame... Also, while you have it apart.. I would replace the lower at the same time... A large cold chisel and a large punch to knock the rivet out of the hole will take care of the rivets in the ball joint., IF it is the original one.. it proably needs to be replaced too....

Also--- have you been greasing the upper "A" frame bushings??? Those could also be the problem.... if the needle bearings dry out and wear out.... that could also make noise and cause the top of the tire to lean out...


I will probably do three of mine this winter... including all of the tire rods.. etc.... (Already replaced one of the ball joints.. hitting a curb at about 60 when you get run off the road by an idiot that doesn't know what red lights mean! She decided to change lanes as I was passing her.. in the fast lane)


Tom...

[p71towny]

Yeah do both while your at it. Sorry to hear of your shitty luck

[seneeb]

just did on on my car (some how i forgot to put the rf upper in when i did all of them, musta been the firewater)

anyway, i just popped the spindle off of the upper control arm, i did not undo anything, just supported the lower control arm, then i took the upper off since it's easier to drill downwards than upwards.

took about 15 minutes.

off to werk

[88grandmarq]

Re: Ball Joints...

Actually.. you don't want to lower the jack, as the front spring will come out... EXPLOSIVELY.... after it is loose... just swing the upper "A" arm up and unbolt the ball joint from the "A" frame... Also, while you have it apart.. I would replace the lower at the same time... A large cold chisel and a large punch to knock the rivet out of the hole will take care of the rivets in the ball joint., IF it is the original one.. it proably needs to be replaced too....

Also--- have you been greasing the upper "A" frame bushings??? Those could also be the problem.... if the needle bearings dry out and wear out.... that could also make noise and cause the top of the tire to lean out...


I will probably do three of mine this winter... including all of the tire rods.. etc.... (Already replaced one of the ball joints.. hitting a curb at about 60 when you get run off the road by an idiot that doesn't know what red lights mean! She decided to change lanes as I was passing her.. in the fast lane)


Tom...

When I say lower the jack, I meant only enough to seperate the ball joint stem from the spindle.

[phayzer5]

And depending on how bad the springs are they wont shoot out of there. During my brake swap we got the arm dropped all the way and just yanked em out. New pi springs went in even easier.

[Stu]

Well, it took entirely too long but I got it done with some AIM peptalk care of Eric. Unfortunately my upper arm seems to like to move side to side so I am going to use one of my two NOS police upper shaft kit next week. I couldn't do it this week because the part was 40 miles away.

[trwp72]

Stu,

How bad was the ball joint??? I was afraid you were going to say the shaft had play in it... at least you have a spare!!!

Just make sure when you get a grease job, TELL them about the upper grease fittings... I have had shops not even grease them after I told them because either they don't understand, or they are too hard to get to. Thats why I go to Ford for my oil changes, and grease jobs... Because if they don't grease them and they go bad.. they have to replace them.... they messed up my oil drain plug once.. it started leaking after an oil change.. Went back the next day.. they put a tap in to clean up the threads, to make sure they were ok, then put a new drain plug in, and changed the filter again, and new oil.... for free.... They got my business from then on.... And oil change shop would have never done that... they would have claimed it was because it was old or something....


Tom

[gadget73]

I don't let people work on my car for this reason. Generally I don't really trust too many people to work on my stuff and actually do it right. There are a few people who I'll let do things but these are all people I've known personally for a while.

[trwp72]

Gadget...

I would do all the work myself.. but my landlod is an ass.. he would freak if he saw me changing oil or anything major at the house... (Driveway, no garage!) About the only thing I have done there is the time Tom came over and did my airshocks... and a brake job I did... (I knew he was out of town!!)


I have a really good mechanic that I can trust for anything major...
Tom...

[TommyN]

they messed up my oil drain plug once.. it started leaking after an oil change.. Went back the next day.. they put a tap in to clean up the threads, to make sure they were ok, then put a new drain plug in, and changed the filter again, and new oil.... for free.... They got my business from then on.... And oil change shop would have never done that... they would have claimed it was because it was old or something....


Tom

My in-laws had a bad experience with an oil change at the Toyota dealership.

They brought their Camry in for service and the dealer recommended a new oil pan. I asked my father-in-law if they said it was rusted out. Turns out the dealer recommended the pan because the threads for the drain plug were "distressed."

I went up to the dealer with the father-in-law and asked them to show the distressed threads to me. After making us wait 45 minutes, the service mgr brings us back to the car on the lift. I notice the plug was in the pan. I asked the guy for a wrench so I could see the distressed threads. I asked him for a drip-pan, but he said I would not need one. I removed the cross-threaded plug and about a 3/4 quart of dirty oil fell all over the floor. Since the dealer was the last one to change the oil less than 3,000 miles prior, they must have stripped it out. The service mgr acted like he was doing us a big favor by offering to install a new pan for free labor if he paid the $80 cost for the pan. At least I got $320 knocked off the price. He should have got it for free, but my father-in-law did not want to put up a fuss. The drain plug incident cost the dealer though. When he bought his next car, he bought a Honda instead. My father-in-law is one to do all the scheduled maintenance at the dealer too, probably $4,000+ over the life of the car.

I don't trust any shops, especially ones that describe cross-threaded parts as distressed.

Tom

[seneeb]

we get cars with stripped drain plugs all the time. people taking their cars to jiffy lubes or walmarts.

why the hell would someone take a 40000$ towncar to walmart for service?! that's just damned stupid