Can't remove Ball Joint from Hub

[GenevaDirt]

get rid of the cage or bend it far enough out of the way to get a regular nut and lock washer up in there. I had the same issue a few years ago with one of the Festy's and just used my finger to hold a nut and washer long enough to get it to tighten. Never had an issue after that.

[WmWatt]

Try turning the steering wheel to move the ball around?
Try cutting away the rubber and whacking the ball directly?
I had no trouble removing mine. I put a cold chisel in the
pinch bolt slot and tapped it with a hammer to open it up. Then
the pry bar worked.

[TominMO]

The LCA inner bolt (and the lower rear strut bolt) have a thread pitch of 1.5, not 1.25, FYI. This of course doesn't matter if you are using an appropriate 1.25 nut as well.

The Festiva and Aspire inner LCA bolts should be the same. I took two off an Aspire to use on the lower rear Festy strut.

[codex]

I picked up the bolt and nut from fastenal today along with a lock washer. I have everything on the car, but when I am tightening the new bolt and nut, the nut is just spinning inside the frame, I have been trying to wedge things to stop it from spinning to no avail. Is the car safe to drive without that nut torqued down hard? I'm out of ideas.

[GenevaDirt]

No...it is not safe....get some lock washers....once it starts to compress it will hold the nut tight while you turn the bolt.

[codex]

i did and it did. but i cant tighten TIGHTen it.. it is a little tight but not torqued down

[codex]

Well between not welding the cut on the frame and not being able to torque the frame bolt it would seem the cards are stacked against me. I still think I'm going to carefully drive it to OS X.

If anyone has a tool of some type that can help my problem, I would greatly appreciate it.

[codex]

The Festiva does not want to live. I just got done washing it and noticed once I got home that the front driver wheel was hot and smoking. For some reason I thought I would try pushing hard on the brake pedal. Well, when I did this I blew the front passenger brake line. So now the Festiva is without brakes and will not be attending OSX. I have no tools or experience in working with brake lines. Any suggestions?

[Safety Guy]

Oh my!

How far away from Summit do you live? Maybe someone could pick you up and you can at least attend. Then more than likely we can give you more advice on working on brake lines, etc. (I'm about to replace an entire hard line system soon.)

If you can get to Summit, you can ride with me to Moraine. Then, preferably, get someone from your area to take you back, but if not, I'll do that, too. I hate to see someone miss an event!

PM me or post here tonight before 0600 tomorrow morning. That's when I leaveth.

Karl

[codex]

Well I have another car to bring, just not the Festiva. What does one do in a situation like this? Does the mechanic come to your house to change the brake lines? Any idea on cost? I'm thinking of just replacing the one but maybe they should all be replaced.

[Safety Guy]

If one pops then the other lines should be inspected, at the very least. Unless there is some obvious reason the one popped and the rest of the lines are good, then I'd begin replacing all of them.

Doing certain short sections is not too bad, but getting to all of them is not fun.

I'm taking out engine and transaxle and a lot of other things to make it easier for me.

Karl

[codex]

A friend of mine quoted $75 without looking at it yet. Is that a fair price for front passenger brake line? Not sure what car to bring to ohiostiva. I have 2 proteges a Mazdaspeed and a 92 LX

[Roboskittle]

Is that just the soft line that needs to be replaced or the hard line? If it is the hardline I would say go for it for 75 if its just the soft line i say no way to 75.

[Safety Guy]

If he does it while you watch and learn and he answers any questions you may have, I think that price is okay.

-Look at all the hard lines (and hoses) to see what he thinks
-Remove the old busted line
-Install the new one
-Bleed the brakes
-Test drive

I think that's it. You should find that most of it isn't too mysterious.

Karl

[codex]

I'm pretty sure its the hardline, I didnt look at it close enough though. Here is a pic. The hardline looks wet so I think it broke there. It was dripping down the softline.