HELP! Removed lower ball joint without supporting control arm!

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bbblu74swinger

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I am in desperate need of help guys! I removed the lower ball joint without supporting the lower control arm (one of my dumbest mistakes yet) and of course can't get it back together. I don't want to screw this up again, does anyone have any suggestions? The worst part is I've done these ball joints before and know better.
 
You might of damaged the ball joint and need a new one. Or you need to loosen some other stuff up in order to make them come back together.
 
Just loosten the torsion bar adjuster all the way. It will then be loose enough where you can jack the lower arm up into place.
You may have ruined the threaded stud of the ball joint when it came apart. Check it out first.

George
 
What on EARTH are you talking about? You ARE working on a Mopar A body? And not an Avanti, Mercedes, or Datsun "Bluebird??????"

So jack up the car

If you cannot get the car jacked up (Bumper jack???) high enough to get something under the lower arm, then you'll have to crank the torsion bar tension bolt off. Count exactly how many turns you make, so you can crank it back again. Put anything, 2x4's etc under the arm, and.....................

Then put 'er together.
 
Thanks guys, got her back together. I had never messed with the the torsion bar system before, had no idea it would be that simple. I may even lower the front end a little now that I know how easy it is on my '74. Thanks again!
 
bbblu74swinger said:
Thanks guys, got her back together. I had never messed with the the torsion bar system before, had no idea it would be that simple. I may even lower the front end a little now that I know how easy it is on my '74. Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Don't be arbitrarily cranking these up and down. First, you don't want to turn them with weight on 'em, and you don't want to get them so low that the suspension can bottom, which can cause damage, and it will change the front end alignment some.

You sound like another guy who needs a shop manual. You can download a 72 manual, which will cover stuff like front end, here:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=132309&highlight=manual,+download
 
bbblu74swinger said:
Thanks guys, got her back together. I had never messed with the the torsion bar system before, had no idea it would be that simple. I may even lower the front end a little now that I know how easy it is on my '74. Thanks again!
Click to expand...

67Dart273 said:
Don't be arbitrarily cranking these up and down. First, you don't want to turn them with weight on 'em, and you don't want to get them so low that the suspension can bottom, which can cause damage, and it will change the front end alignment some.

You sound like another guy who needs a shop manual. You can download a 72 manual, which will cover stuff like front end, here:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=132309&highlight=manual,+download
Click to expand...

I'll second this. You can adjust the car's height by loosening up the torsion bar adjusters, but keep a few things in mind.

Never mess with the adjusters with weight on the suspension, the adjusters can strip out or even fail, you won't want to be under the car at that point

Lowering the car with stock torsion bars will quickly lead to the suspension bottoming out because you're reducing the amount of available suspension travel.

If you change the ride height, you need an alignment. Also, if you have stock suspension components, changing the ride height too much can mean that the car will no longer be able to be aligned properly. That's one of the reasons everyone upgrades to offset control arm bushings or tubular control arms.
 
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