Front LCA Removal Problems

CMac89

Registered User
I'm changing the upper and lower control arms and I'm having problems with the lower control arm. First problem, I was loosening the nut and whenever there were about three threads for the nut to come off, the LCA separated itself from the spindle. Now the nut and ball joint spin together and I can't get the nut off. Are there any tricks that can help me? I tried jacking the LCA up against the car's weight, but it still spins. I imagine the same cure for this problem has to be used for putting the nut back on, too.

Also, I remember that the late model SC's have a regular nylon lock nut on the strut rod and it's simple enough to take apart. However, my car ('89) has a three inch long, hexagonal something that seems to be an end cap nut? How does the strut rod come out of the LCA to change the bushings?
 
Also, I remember that the late model SC's have a regular nylon lock nut on the strut rod and it's simple enough to take apart. However, my car ('89) has a three inch long, hexagonal something that seems to be an end cap nut? How does the strut rod come out of the LCA to change the bushings?


That big thing is threaded and is the nut for the strut rod. Remove the nut and then remove the entire lower control arm, swap the front bushing, reinstall the control arm, install the rear bushing and nut.
 
Whenever I have a nut stuck and can't remove it, I hit it with my impact wrench and it comes off almost everytime, especially if the bolt or stud turns with the nut. I've got 2 impact wrenches, a 24volt cordless and an air impact. Both will do the job but sometimes I've had to get a really long breaker bar to pop the nut loose then use the impact the rest of the way.
 
From what I remember I ended up having to cut the nut off, I know I tried jacking the car up and that didn't work for me. I don't think this is a problem during the installation when the ball joint is a nice tight assembly.
 
I'm changing the upper and lower control arms and I'm having problems with the lower control arm. First problem, I was loosening the nut and whenever there were about three threads for the nut to come off, the LCA separated itself from the spindle. Now the nut and ball joint spin together and I can't get the nut off. Are there any tricks that can help me? I tried jacking the LCA up against the car's weight, but it still spins. I imagine the same cure for this problem has to be used for putting the nut back on, too.

Sorry, I think you are out of luck. Unless you can get vise grips on the remaining part of the stud, you are looking at a Sawzall situation.
 
toss some dirt in the spindle hole, jack it up and maybe whack it a couple of times (upward) with a hammer...it should hold if the threads on the ball joint stud isn't messed up. I've had to do this a couple of times. :rolleyes:

You might also heat the nut and the stud while it is jacked up...trying to get the stud to expand in the spindle hole.
 
I goofed and ordered two driver side LCAs from RockAuto. All of the parts stores wanted in the area of $90 for one LCA without bushings/nut. I ended up pressing the old ball joint out of the factory LCA and pressing a new one in. This ball joint used a castle nut, so that made things a lot easier. I'll just use the LCA I bought for the driver's side. The strut rod nut came off with a breaker bar, so it wasn't bad, either.

I ended up taking a sawzall to the threaded side of the ball joint to get it off. I suppose I'll have to do that for the other side, too. Replacing the upper control arm wasn't too bad (one bolt seized up so I had to take the shock out), but the driver's side looks hard to get to since it sits right underneath the factory ABS unit.

Thanks for the info, guys. JEEEEZZZOOOO Pete that was a ~~~~. It didn't help that the car has 200K miles on it and is going on 22 years old. One side down, one more to go.
 
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