Front Lower Control Arm Replacement

[rednucleus]

Have bad ball joints so replacing the lca's.  Looks pretty basic on FSM until it talks about seperating the ball joint from the knuckle arm with a press. A walk through for this replacement would be appreciated. Thanks.

[night_s12]

I believe u can use a c-clamp and a socket but dont quote me on that. Or since ur not reusing tho old ones(obviously) just beat it till it separates.

[Prolowtone]

My trick that i use. jack up the arm with the tire off, stick the head of my breaker bar between the lower control arm and the ball joint. Lower control arm and the head of the breaker ber should cause it to pop, If not tap on it a few times with a BFH

[rednucleus]

@ Prolowtone - that sounds great. Is that the 1st step in your removal or do you unbolt other stuff first?

[CamInHead]

Or take the arm and the balljoint and pay a garage beer money to press it in for you ?

[Arro]

No you should be able to press it in yourself, others have.

[rednucleus]

Figured it was easier to get new arms. $75 for the pair shipped from Partsgeek.com; got them in less than a week.  (Dormans)
Any other words of wisdom in changing these before I get started would be appreciated. I have never done suspension parts before lol - but never too old to learn!

[mc]

i was able to use my bench vise and some sockets as spacers...its pretty straight forward...i have some pixs in my build thread.

[VG30_S12]

look up dorman control arms, heard of people having issues with them(like bending and breaking iirc) just saying be careful

[rednucleus]

probably fine for my dd 15 mi a day routine