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Im removing my upper and lower control arms in order to change the bushings. It looks like I have everything off (top of the shock is unbolted)
and the upper control arm should pop out but it hasnt. What am I doing wrong?
Jd, I can't tell from your pictures or description if you have unbolted the upper control arm shaft. I hope you have not at this point. There is a tremendous amount of pressure from the loaded coil spring involved here. Dangerously so.
If the shaft is still in place you need to place a floor jack under the lower ball joint and lift just enough to take up the slack. Then strike the spindle very hard with a heavy hammer right where this green arrow is: One or two heavy blows and it should "pop" loose.
This is a very tight press fit. It will break loose but the upper ball joint nut you have installed will keep it from springing apart. Lift the floor jack up a bit more until the upper ball joint nut is loose enough to remove by hand. Then lower the floor jack. The coil spring will push the lower control arm all the way to the floor and at quite an angle. But the heavy pressure of the spring will be much less dangerous by this point. Pull the jack out of the way and the spring should fall out.
Cheers, Greg
That is what I suspected. I had a floor jack under it and the nut is loose but I should probably thread it on a little more. I dont think I lifted it enough or hit it hard enough
You need to break the upper taper fit of the ball joint free, you can often do this by smacking sharply on the side of the control arm where the balljoint passes through with a hammer or preferably with two hammers one to each side simultaneously. Make sure you leave the nut on there or that spring is going to try and come out at you.My method is to remove the shock completely and replace it with some threaded rod with nuts and washers top and bottom. There is a lot of stored energy in the spring and they can do some real damage if they get loose. The original springs are a lot longer than aftermarket ones and more of a problem, aftermarket ones you can often place a jack under the lower control arm and lower it carefully to release the tension.
If you can't break the taper joint free with the hammer method you can get a ball joint separator or use a pickle fork, the pickle fork will often knacker the rubber boot on the ball joint so take this into account before using this method.
I have a ball joint/ tie rod press tool that pops those tappers without boot damage. I would remove that shock completely, then pop that ball joint, lower the lower arm. pull the spring and then pop the lower ball joint. good tools really help. not a fan of "Smack it with a Hammer"!
Chain the spring to the frame loosely. This is a dangerous operation. The spring will come loose with a lot of force.
i second this.. be careful..
as many said.. remove shock.. are you replacing ball joints?? if so... harbor freight taiwan made fork..air hammer.. you will destroy the boot.. thye also have another some posted here but cannot find it.. it spreads it open with a bolt.. i think also harbor freight..Search Results For "Ball Joint Separator" (harborfreight.com)
that spring needs to be supported in my opinion and safety chained/ strapped..
Here's the preferred harbor freight ball joint "popper" tool. I don't know how I got along without this. Works in like 15 seconds. Does not harm the dust boots. Good for tie rods too. Not a fan of BFH.
Here's the preferred harbor freight ball joint "popper" tool. I don't know how I got along without this. Works in like 15 seconds. Does not harm the dust boots. Good for tie rods too. Not a fan of BFH.
I'll second that - one of the best cheap tools I ever had. I had the same issue with 3 ball joints not moving from the taper, but this tool popped all 3 out in a matter of minutes.
I agree with using the Harbor Freight tool. BUT on my corvette I broke one of the very same pictured tools. I found that for smaller joints (small ball, tie rods, etc.) you can just use the pressure from the tool, but with larger joints (corvette lower ball joint) you apply pressure with the tool and then hit the side spindle assembly with a BFH as pointed out in earlier pictures. Anyway that's what worked for me. Good luck, Russ.
Last edited by rberman999; Dec 4, 2020 at 12:10 PM.
Perhaps I'm missing something here, but the upper mounting portion of the front shock is bolted to the FRAME. If you're removing just the UPPER control arm, why the need to remove said shock absorber?
Last edited by sunflower 1972; Dec 4, 2020 at 12:55 PM.
To remove the lower control arm, yes. The OP was stuck on UPPER control arm removal.The shock doesn't need to be removed. The top of the front coil spring sits in a pocket in the FRAME. Jack the car up, place jack stand under the lower control arm, lower the jack so weight of the car is on the jack stand that's under the lower control arm. Break upper ball joint loose from the steering knuckle, remove upper control arm mounting nuts, remove upper control arm. Use threaded rod tool to remove lower armhttp://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/corvette-spring-compressor-on-a-budget/
Done.
Stuck on upper control arm removal
