what a crappy day

[fat_stan]

well my brother took the car out for a drive and calls me 5 minutes later telling me that the front spring just broke. so i get in the other car and drive down to where my car is stuck and take a look. it's actually the lower ball joint on the passenger side - it decided to pop out when my brother was going over a dip in the road on a left hand turn.

i can't drive the car as the wheel is loose as a goose and i couldn't get any tow company to tow my car. so i came back home and started to put together 2 dollies so that i could jack the front end of the car up and push/tow the car home in the middle of the night (this happened about 2 minutes from my house). anyway, i ran out of heavy duty casters so i dropped by my buddies place to pick a few up. on our way back from his place i noticed a tow truck helping out a guy with his tire, so i approached him and asked if he could tow my car if he doesn't have a call after this. he agreed and quoted me at $65 (had no choice, had to take it as every place i called told me they don't have anybody in my area or they'd charge me double that price).

he just dropper the car off at my place 10 minutes ago and he ended up charging me $40 since it was so close.

tomorrow i'll take some pics of the damage and post them, my brother had to drive the car off the road and the dropped suspension rubbed on the inside of the rim (metal on metal contact).

it's funny cause i was going to replace the ball joints this coming week as i needed some time to start the work.

[quick35th]

Damn that sucks! Hope you get it back togather soon.

Shane

[coolhand]

OK, I can hear it already. Thats what we get for runnin' LX's and not S/C',s.

Sorry to hear about all your trouble. Knock my wooden head, I have never experienced any suspension troubles with the old girl. I hope things work out as well as they can.
CoolHand

[fast Ed]

Stan, sorry to hear about the Bird trouble. Out of curiosity, how many kilometres does your car have on it?

cheers,
Ed N.

[fat_stan]

Ed - i bought the car with 100,000 km and as she sits now it's a tad over 235,000 km.

does anybody have a "u-joint tool" or ball joint remover/installer. i can't get the bolt that connects the shock to the lower control arm out so i figured i'll just install the ball joint myself while it's on the car, if i could get my hands on the tool instead of bringing the control arm to a shop. this thing won't budge, is there any trick to getting this thing out?

[fast Ed]

Stan, I believe that the ball joints are usually a press-fit into the control arms. So you would need a tool that will push the old joint out.


cheers,
Ed N.

[Jason Wild]

a lot of people say it's faster and better to get a new arm.

[fat_stan]

the ball joints are a press-fit into the control arms and a "u-joint tool" would do the job (ford tool number T74P-4635-C).

here's the tool:
http://members.tccoa.com/fat/ujointtool.jpg

well it looks like i have to take the control arm off the car and have a shop push it out/in for me, but i can't get the bolt that connects the shock to the lower control arm out. i've tried heat, pickle forks, pry bars, penetrating oil, and hammering it, but the thing won't budge. the nut is off, but i can't slide the bolt out even with all the things i've done above.

here's the bolt i'm referring to (number 7 in the picture):
http://members.tccoa.com/fat/damnbolt.jpg

any advice?

[SkunkWorks]

I dont know what with the god damn shock bolts but mine would not come out..

This is when the shocks was in good condition... :D


http://members.tccoa.com/skunkworks/comeon.jpg


Posted this before but.. Tools needed to get LCAs out..
http://members.tccoa.com/skunkworks/ROAR.jpg

then I got the LCAs out and I had to cut the shocks off the LCA's.. then my buddy took the LCA to work. one air chisel "splitting the LCA thru bolt are open" and anothe pounding the bolt out.. Thats all :)

I ended up getting new LCA's and Shocks.. I can get the LCAs pretty cheap.. cheap

[tbirdsc357]

(this happened about 2 minutes from my house).

If it had to go.....that's as good as it gets. Let us know how it works out.

[Ryan A Harris]

That shocks very much like mine did a few weeks ago....... :rolleyes:


Are you up and bak together? Are you sure your bro wasn't putting the "hammer down" on your car before she broke?

[fat_stan]

Ryan A Harris - i just returned the ball joint and will be picking up a new control arm. i ended up heating the thing till it was red hot (i think i have pics of it) and burning out the bushing. I’ve done everything I could think of and still that thing wouldn’t budge. then i took an angle grinder to it and cut out the spacer and bolt so the control arm is out now.

and lets not talk about what my brother might of been doing in the car when it happened (just gets me angry). i'll give him the benefit of the doubt. :rolleyes: