re: The tune-up thread

After that I got to my upper control arms. The ball joints up there were shot and the bushings were dry rotted, so I bought two upper control arms with bushings and ball joints already pressed in. It was also rusty as frick and I didn't feel like cleaning it. IIRC, they were like $119 each. While all of the other joints were dirty, these were the worst, so I just did them today. Will probably get at lower ball joints and idler arm some time in the near future.

Here is what it looks like from the outside. You need to undo the nuts on the inside of the upper control arm, but before you do that, mark the inside of the mounts with a permanent market. Just draw all over the inside of those little plates to get an idea of where they need to be when you put them back on. They are boxed in yellow. The two red circles also need to be removed. The left one is a bracket for the brake line, and just unclip the other ABS line for now. It will be transferred to the new arm.



This green arrow shows another clip for the ABS that needs to be removed. The yellow arrow shows the nut for the ball joint that needs to come out, and the wedge is where you are gonna hammer in a pickle fork. Unbolt that yellow arrow nut almost all of the way and start banging the shite out of the pickle fork to pop the ball joint loose. I had to use a sledge hammer on this one. Then, take the nut all of the way off.



The ball joint was loose in this picture, but I jacked up the lower one so I could easily separate it from the spindle.



After the ball joint is completely free, just yank on the fricker until it comes out



Here is the new one with that ABS clip installed. The old ball joint was just flopping around when I took it out, so it definitely was time to replace it.



Here the thing is installed. When you put it back together, line up those permanent marker marks exactly where you had them. That should get you decently within spec. Now get a grease gun and fill up that zerk fitting until the rubber boot bubbles out all of the way around. You will still need an alignment though.



Sometimes those fricking ball joints dont want to cooperate and just spin when you try to tighten them down. No worries because there is a little hole to stick an allen wrench to hold it still while you wrench on it.