71 Swinger Ball Joint/Control Arm Question

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74desertduster

74desertduster

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I may be looking at upper ball joint replacement and after searching and reading many threads here I have a question.

Would it be easier for me to buy some upper control arms that are ready to go with new ball joints and bushings and change out the control arms?

Rather than fight trying to unscrew the ball joints on the old ones and then not knowing the condition of the threads/arms etc once I get them out.

I realize it's more money than just doing ball joints...but my UCA bushings aren't looking real nice either.

Thoughts from people who have done this?

Thanks!

Brian
 
Changing ball joints wasn't too bad for me. I left the arms on the care and I rented the socket and just had to use a 4' section of pipe as a cheater bar to get enough leverage to turn it. Luckily my threads were in good shape. and the new ones went back in just fine.

Bushings were more challenging. I don't have a press so I made a tool to remove them using a scrap piece of exhause pipe, some all thread and large washers.

It would definately be easier to just buy some, but where's the fun in that. :)
 
Much less expensive to replace the UBJs and bushings yourself. It's not hard to do at all. Plenty of help available if you get stuck.........
 
bushing's arn't that hard to get them out, I made my own press with a 20 ton bottle jack and some metal. you're lucky the previous owner screwed the threads on one of my uca and pressed out the balljoint, so my new one is tac welded in for now. try to do them, the ones alreay pressed in I've seen I dunno if you can just get replacements. in a long and short run I think it's better to use origional
 
I'm not worried so much about getting stuck as far as knowing what to do...lots of good help here...just wondered about being able to free up the ball joints.

If I need control arm bushings too then I will probably look for some arms that are already rebuilt.

Is there a good step by step for doing the control arm removal? Or the ball joint?
 
74desertduster said:
I'm not worried so much about getting stuck as far as knowing what to do...lots of good help here...just wondered about being able to free up the ball joints.
Click to expand...
The key for me is always to get the crud that builds up around the top of the ball joint cleaned up. This allows the socket to get a good set and grip on the ball joint. Once cleaned up, I soak it with KROIL. I use one of the specialized sockets on the ball joint with the UCA mounted to the car. The socket is on a 24" breaker bar and a 4 foot long cheater bar slipped over the breaker bar. Try to keep a 90º angle between the breaker bar and the socket, otherwise it will hop off and may hurt.

74desertduster said:
Is there a good step by step for doing the control arm removal? Or the ball joint?
Click to expand...
Just about any RWD Mopar repair manual covers the subject. Haynes manuals are ok, but they have the ball joint removal all wrong. They say the UBJ is a press fit. Not so.

For what it's worth there are two ball joint sockets. The smaller is for 72 and earlier A-body cars. The larger fits 73 & later A-body cars and all B-bodies. Someone did a DIY thread on how to rebuild the front end. Use the search engine to find it. It's good.
 
Awesome help guys....thanks!

Crackedback.....having trouble focusing on what you wrote....my eyes keep heading down....lol
 
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