ball joints

[hofficergrover]

My car has bad ball joints. So i started to pull the old ones out, but teh last bolt i tried was the one at the body of the car. It jsut spins and i put a wrench in and still jsut spins. Both sides do this on my car so i can't replace them. Any one have this problem before? What should i do?

[Levitan]

Take a cutting wheel and cut a square outta the side of the frame so you can get to the nut. The nut is a square nut so you may be able to wedge a screwdriver in there or a wrench. If not, cut the bolt. Add a new bolt and nut while adding antiseize. You could tack weld the nut in place which would probably be best, after new LCA is fastened. Then weld in metal to replace metal removed from frame.

[Ogrestiva]

I don't have a wielder, so I just took a sawzzall and cut the screw off at the side of the head of the ball-joint between the ball-joint and the frame, and punched out the caged nut with a hammer and punch, and replaced the broken caged nut with a new nut and lock-washer, and I replaced the bolt while I was down there. It took two metal cutting blades that I got at the hardware store for about $2 to realize just how to wedge the sawzzall as to not bend the blade, but it was worth it.

[Levitan]

Daniel,
How'd you get the nut inside the frame and then get a wrench on the nut so you could tighten it?

[hofficergrover]

Ok I will try that thank you.

[Ogrestiva]

I have long fingers...lol Actually it was easy enough to put the new bolt in the hole(I got a longer bolt) and wiggled it around until the nut/washer lined up with the new bolt in the small hole that was there from the factory.

[Ogrestiva]

also, with the lock washer I just hand-tightened it on the inside than from the bolt side used a ratchet until it was tight. the way I had it set up I could fit a deep-well socket in there if I needed to, but the lock-washer was enough to grip so that I could tighten from the bolt side.