Im planning on putting air bags in the front of my car and i know i have to seperate the ball joints and remove the coils. what are the steps in removing the ball joints? once this is done do i have to put new ones? if so where can i get them? thanks fellas
It's not the ball joints that are dangerous, it's the energy that is stored in the compressed springs. There is enough there to be fatal. As long as the ball joints are not worn excessively, they can be reused. You will need a tool for separating the ball joint stud from the steering knuckle. It is commonly referred to as a "Pickle Fork". Use a spring compressor to hold the spring. Support the car with jackstands under the frame. Put a floor jack under the lower control arm. Once you separate the ball joint, slowly lower the jack. Do not stand in front of the spring when you do so. Position the jack so that you are as far away from spring as possible. Go SLOW. BTW, why are you putting airbags in the front springs?o No:
because i have air ride in the back and want to do the front now. do you have any images that might help? where do i hit? can i find new ball joints to put in? or is that alot of extra work?
Im overly safety conscious usually ...I actually loosely roped through one of the coils to the frame and Like Larry said S L O W L Y let the jack down ...with the rope that way if the spring did try to suddenly jump out from between the a-arms the rope would have prevented it from going too far and hurting someone ....just my .02....J.
Just to give an idea of how much energy is in those coils. Back in the early 80's a friend of mine decided to try to take out the springs on an early Nova X-body subframe. It was out of the car and sitting on the ground. He figured the weight of the subframe would help when he uncorked the balljoint. WRONG!!! The subframe flipped right in mid air. He's fortunate it didn't land on him.
I generally don't use a compressor when removing them. I put the floor jack under the lower control arm and orient the jack so the jack handle is by the front bumper. Just lower it slowly and your good to go. Once all the energy is released, I take my 4 foot ply bar and just pop it out of its seat.
great tips thanks! im just a little confussed about the ball joints now? maybe once i take a good look at them this weekend, ill get a better idea.
The ball joint studs have a taper that fits into the knuckle. As the nut is tightened it pulls the stud up into the matching tapered hole. When you lossen the nut the stud will stay in the hole and it takes quite a bit of force to push it back out. The pickle fork has a wedge shape and is designed to go between the ball joint and the knuckle and force the stud out of the hole. The lower ball joint has the force of the spring acting on it so when the stud pops out of the hole the lower arm will move down and the spring may fly out of the perch. This is the danger. Keep the nut on the stud so it will not completely come out. Use the jack and the rope or chain as described above and you should be OK. Also, the front shock is inside the spring. With the bag in there you will lose the shock - I think it will be too bouncy for you....??? - Bill
if u use an air driven pickle fork, there is less chance of damaging the rubber boot. i always use a coil spring compressor to compress the spring and a floor jack under the lower control arm. BE CAREFUL !!
Eastwood has a great video on how to revove and rebuld front end parts. I was afraid to try it until I watched it. I used a compressor. To much force for me to even think about not using it. Chaining spring to frame is a good option as well. If something gives spring stays on chain.
so if i remove the bal joint and rubber boot and both are in good condition....do i have to oil it once i repalce it? i see there is a piece similar to that on the brake cylinders.
If you're not re-using the springs, I would torch them into a couple pieces before taking anything apart...works slick and takes all the danger out of it!
you may not need a pickle fork. a good wack or three to the spindle with a 2 lb hammer usally takes care of it. Just loosen up the nut about two threads and smack the spindle near the area that the tapered ball joint goes into. do this for both the upper and lower joints to get the spindle out of the way. nate
Not sure if video is on line but Checkout Eastwoods online site. Also ball joint rubber if original may be very brittle and ready to tear. May be worth replacing for piece of mind.
if i torch them apart, do you think i can skip all the ball joint stuff if im installing air bags in the front?
I think you will still have to disconnect the ball joints from the spindle in order to get the old pieces of spring out of the car.
I agree with tlivingd, I have also used this method, worked great. When it was explained to me (tapping the spindle perpendicular to the axis of the balljoint stud) it didn't make sense at first. I thought, why not tap the the top of the balljoint stud? Apparently this sends a shockwave down the balljoint stud that makes it slightly bigger/tighter the instant you hit it? Chris
