waddisme

Couldn't find one last nite. Only thing I am not sure about is the ball joint. Someone mentioned a special separation tool and others mentioned a "pickle fork". Father-in-law gave me a fork but I have never used it. Do I just remove the nut and hammer it apart? Anything else I should know? Bearing is SKF if that matters.

Falcon

Don't use the pickle fork, it will probably tear the rubber boot around the ball joint.

Loosen the nut on top of the ball joint and tap the side of the lower A arm. That shock will sometimes loosen the ball joint.

If that doesn't work, put a jack under the bearing and jack up on it while you tap the side of the lower a arm. The jack is putting pressure on the spindle, trying to raise it, while the spring is putting pressure on the lower control arm trying to push it down. If it doesn't let go easily, just tap a little harder and it'll let go.

pewter99

I ran into issues with the torx bolts on the back side of the damn thing...really need an impact wrench as they are not really deep and hard to get them loose ....just FYI before you get into it

froggy47

I did a video for the rear, which is pretty much same procedure as front.

Just click the link below in my sig.

Look at "rear knuckle", "rear suspension" and "longer lugs".

I wish they were numbered, but there is no system to do that.

No pickle forks.

waddisme

Well after a little hammering and jacking, the ball joint came loose. The two jaw puller Froggy used would have been a little easier probably, but don't have one. Seems like a lot of work to get to 1 bolt. Kind of like crank bolt and steering rack issue. Torx bolts came out extremely easy, almost felt like they were too easy. I hope that wasn't was make the bearing feel loose. SKF has a plastic ring on the back that holds the speed sensor connector. I assume I remove that and use the stock mounting bracket. Only found 1 pic of the SKF installed and it looked like it had a new bracket that was similar to stock.

Falcon

Yea, the 2 jaw puller is what I use and is easiest, but I figured you didn't have one so I suggested what to do with minimum tools.

froggy47

The two jaw puller sits, for years, in my misc. tool draw. Then ya need it.



Glad you got it off.

pewter99

you suck

Glad you had a better experience than I did...I replaced mine with Timkne and much like the SKF they were a direct swap...

JDIllon

This may help! JD
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...-tutorial.html
Note: I just took the entire suspension off of my and the best investment I made was buying the Kent-Moore ball joint tool J-42118-b it is the GM recommended tool for removing the ball joints and they all came off. The bottoms took a little heat but that was all. JD

waddisme

Ouch, the only place I didn't look - C6 tech. Would have helped a lot. I have the coilovers on the front, but using Falcon's jack and hammer method, I got mine to drop off. Looking at your thread reminds me I have the Quantum spindle ducts that I never got around to installing. What a perfect opportunity wasted. All in all in came out about as well as could be expected. Ball joint nut came off easily, torx bolts come out easily. Ball joint, I guess was as easy as can be expected. I didn't realize when jacking the spindle up, it had lifted off the jack stand, so when it broke loose car fell bout 1/2" but scared the crap out of me. Went for a test drive and all is good. The roar is gone. There was only 1/4" play in the 12 to 6 rocking so I wasn't really sure it was bad. At least now, push come to shove, I could change one at the track and this will show up in search. I picked up a new PTC front bearing for $50 so I have a spare. Thanks for all the help.

froggy47

1/4 inch is a LOT. Should be zero.