Ball joint replacement

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dartfreak75

Restore it, Dont part it!
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Im replacing my upper and lower Ball joints as well as my control arm bushings. I have everything loose my lca seems to still have alot of tension on it to remove the ball joint from the knuckle should i lower my torsion bar adjustment to release the tension? Thanks for your help
 
Im replacing my upper and lower Ball joints as well as my control arm bushings. I have everything loose my lca seems to still have alot of tension on it to remove the ball joint from the knuckle should i lower my torsion bar adjustment to release the tension? Thanks for your help

Yes!

Unless you want the suspension to unload suddenly when you make the separation.
 
Heres where im at so far

20180615_193249.jpg
 
If you don't,you can get maimed for life.
Put the nuts back on pronto!
until the T-bars are loosened all the way, and you might as well push them to the back, so you can remove the LCAs from the chassis
 
run the nut on until its flush with the top and then use a ball joint seperator to break the taper. Itll POP but wont go anywhere.
Best $8 I spent at HF...
maxresdefault.jpg
 
Ok thank you for that I appreciate it! I had a Haynes manual at one time but lost it
 
Can i put a jack under the lca and raise it to release the tension or should i just use the adjuster
 
Just support LCA with jack, pop the top BJ off and lower the LCA. It will lower pretty far. Then you can loosen and leverage the LCA back and push the torsion bar out.
 
Back-off the adjuster ! doggone it. You are flirting with broken body parts. You have to anyway to remove the arm to replace the bushing, cuz that is probably the most worn part in your front end.
 
Here's the truth (tested on a car in a yard). The LCA doesn't drop far and the drop is not catastrophic if you don't loosen the tension before separating the upper ball joint (as I had also been told), BUT there's really no reason not to as you need to take the bar and LCA out anyway.
 
Back-off the adjuster ! doggone it. You are flirting with broken body parts. You have to anyway to remove the arm to replace the bushing, cuz that is probably the most worn part in your front end.
Ok will do thank you that makes alot of since sense i gotta replace the lca bushing
 
Here's the truth (tested on a car in a yard). The LCA doesn't drop far and the drop is not catastrophic if you don't loosen the tension before separating the upper ball joint (as I had also been told), BUT there's really no reason not to as you need to take the bar and LCA out anyway.

Yeah I agree, I wouldn’t call it catastrophic. But, if you’ve got some fingers or something in the wrong spot when it unloads it can definitely make for a bad day. I just make it a habit to back off the adjusters if I’m working on the suspension. Even if I’m not pulling stuff completely apart it usually makes life easier to have the suspension completely unloaded.
 
Not to mention good practice in case you accidentally stumble into some Chevy stuff and it's catastrophic! When that stuff comes apart.
I applaud the original poster for actually doing the suspension first and not building a crazy motor that does wheelies and then years later saying hey man I better do something about this forty-five-year-old suspension for I kill myself. Or I should at least say you get a lot more credit then I get to give myself...
 
Doesn't the shock limit the down travel of the LCA?

You can remove the UCA with the torsion bars installed.

And you can replace the Lower Ball joint with the Torsion bars installed

Here is what I don't know... If you support the LCA with a jack and remove the shock can't you lower the LCA enough to release all tension on the torsion bar?
 
Doesn't the shock limit the down travel of the LCA?

You can remove the UCA with the torsion bars installed.

And you can replace the Lower Ball joint with the Torsion bars installed

Here is what I don't know... If you support the LCA with a jack and remove the shock can't you lower the LCA enough to release all tension on the torsion bar?
You're right on all counts
 
So with the shock off and the lca all the way down the torsion bar will slide right out??
 
Doesn't the shock limit the down travel of the LCA?

You can remove the UCA with the torsion bars installed.

And you can replace the Lower Ball joint with the Torsion bars installed

Here is what I don't know... If you support the LCA with a jack and remove the shock can't you lower the LCA enough to release all tension on the torsion bar?

The shock might limit the down travel, but if you hit it with enough force when you fire the LCA off it might not. You’re assuming the shock won’t come apart.

Removing the UCA is still easier without tension on the torsion bars and LCA. And if something moves the LCA is still under tension.

Sure, you don’t need to remove the torsion bars to replace the lower ball joint, but again, why do it with load on the bars?

And last, it totally depends on the torsion bar adjustment. Maybe without the upper bump stops in play the LCA will lower enough to come off the adjuster, but, maybe not.

Can you do most of that stuff with tension on the bars? Sure. But why? It takes two minutes to loosen the adjusters. If you don’t, and something goes wrong, the suspension is loaded and that stored energy can bite you in the ***.

So with the shock off and the lca all the way down the torsion bar will slide right out??

If the adjusters don’t have tension on them.

From the looks of bushings do they need to be replaced?

View attachment 1715188294

View attachment 1715188296

Is that a joke? Those things are toast.
 
All my parts are ordered i got upper and lower Ball joints and bushings camber bolts tie rods inner and outer with adjusting rods new steering gear pitman arm idler arm etc pretty much everything except the centerlink and control arms. Since everyting is gonna be new im gonna take the time snd sandblasting and paint everthing. What kind of paint do yall use on suspension and break calipers
 
If it's not a restoration front end rebuild (I've only done one that had to be "correct") I use black engine enamel. It holds up well. I don't tend to paint calipers, but I'd use the same paint.
 
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