LCA removal again

wanted to make sure everyone wouldn't miss anything with the pic

but I'm still at a loss here

Well the only reason you wouldn't be able to push the knuckle in far enough that I can think of is if you don't have the CV shaft seated in the hub or the tranny completely. Otherwise you shouldn't have to bend anything to get the knuckle back on the balljoint.

well the problem is when i lift the hub up with a jack the hub pushes the jack out. so its not going strait up. well i think I'm done for today. I'm not feeling my best and will be heading to bed soon. so i should wake up with a better mood toward the car.

SVTJON87 said:

well the problem is when i lift the hub up with a jack the hub pushes the jack out. so its not going strait up. well i think I'm done for today. I'm not feeling my best and will be heading to bed soon. so i should wake up with a better mood toward the car.

Click to expand...

dont use the jack. use a prybar to pry the LCA down and then maneuver the knuckle into place. if it wont go back far enough then, like i said before, give a few good shoves till it pops back into place and then try the ball joint.

using a pry bar on my new LCA's runs the risk of damaging the new bushings. on the old one i popped one out when prying. also I'm going to wait until i have help. i cant hold everything with 2 hands, tried that. night.

I know what you're talking about. Try to have someone hold the jack in place while lifting it, so it compresses the strut instead of sliding out. Also, if you rotate the axle a bit, it may help it slide back into the transaxle. A helper is a must, though.

If the sliding jack is the problem you can try renting a string compressor from an auto parts store that you can actually fit up in there and compress the spring that way I've used a bottle jack before too, that shouldn't roll just be careful that it doesn't tip over.


I've never had to worry about damaging the bushings on the LCA's as mine are shot anyways :blackeye: But I suppose that is a good thing to point out for people thinking of doing this in the future (including me) to not pry too violently on the LCA if you are pressing it down.

i was thinking the same thing. rent a spring compressor. I'm pretty sure that would be a big help! my dad told me he would help me when he got off work today. so when he comes home i will go grab a spring compressor. i no longer have a 2nd car to drive. lol

Let us know how you go. I'm following this thread very closely. If you have time, I'd be interested to hear your full tool list for the job, I am going to be picking up some additional tools tomorrow night so I'd like to make sure I have everything I need.

i will do that for you, but not until i finish.

Not sure if this is any help, but I did my LCA about a week ago and it sounds like I had the same problems getting the knuckle back in like you.

I found that by pushing down very hard on the LCA and pushing with my shoulders near the rotor wheel bolts, I was able to move the cv inward enough that the knuckle almost fit in the hole .I got the post aligned with the hole and then gave the wheel studs a good couple of kicks and it popped right into place.

This is very hard to do by yourself because you have to bend down the LCA while trying to push the wheel assembly inward. Getting another set of hands simplifies the lca job immensely.

enduro said:

I found that by pushing down very hard on the LCA and pushing with my shoulders near the rotor wheel bolts, I was able to move the cv inward enough that the knuckle almost fit in the hole .

Click to expand...

He said he didn't want to chance wrecking his new lca bushings, that's why he's not prying down too far on the LCA.

You wont wreck the bushings, you have to bend the lca down enough so the threaded part of the ball joint will fit under the hole - no more. The problem is you cant push the driveshaft back in because the LCA is in the way, and if you do push the driveshaft in then the LCA doesnt line up. You have to do both at the same time. Very hard for one person to do -easy for 2 people. And ... dont use a prybar use your hands its really not that hard

Autozone has good instructions

i was able to pick up a spring compressor loner tool at auto-zone. I'm pretty sure this will be cake with this tool. ill let you know.

BTW i have the tool for 3 months before it becomes mine! wow

ok, everything is back together. a spring compressor is not needed and you will not be able to really use it when the strut is on the car.

to get it back in.
what i did was: use my 5' pry bar to push down the LCA gently. don't push really hard on the pry bar. the pry bar just makes it so your not straining.

next i took my other hand and started to rotate the hub back and forth so the drive axle would pop back in the tranny. i and gently hit the hub with a rubber mallet. that way i would not damage the wheel bearing. so while pushing down on the pry bar with your butt or other had move the knuckle onto the ball joint. its actually not to bad. i was just using the wrong methods. don't use a jack for this part! i also had the knuckle moved about 1/4" up on the strut. now i doubt that really helped at all so i would not do so again.

if you need new sway bar end links do it when the LCA is out. its far easier to get to the part bolted to the sway bar.

to get it apart: you need a torx socket bit for the ball joint pinch bolt. and a socket for the other side. i actually did not need to use my torx bit as the bold did not rotate when taking it out or putting it back in.
after that bolt is out jack up the hub so there is room for the LCA to drop. use your pry bar in the manner pictured. again mine is 5' long. over kill, yes but i would rather have it to long and have to cut it. o yea its 1"x5' and thicker and its to big. use your PB blaster on all the bolts and where the ball joint and knuckle meet.

you also need deeper sockets and a torque wrench.

This may seem like a dumb question, but do you need to take the brake caliper and disc off? If so, did you have any trouble with these?

SVTC1136 said:

This may seem like a dumb question, but do you need to take the brake caliper and disc off? If so, did you have any trouble with these?

Click to expand...

No I don't see why you would need to. I just ordered my new LCAs from BAT yesterday (need them pretty badly) and should get them next week they said. Where did you get yours? I tried going through my contact at Ford and he says they are getting really hard to find (backordered, out of materials at the factory, etc etc) So I'm just curious as to where you got yours from.

If you could get a new ball joint, drill out the rivets, and insert the ball joint into the knuckle before you bolt the three bolts onto the LCA. Might be easier to line it up?:shrug:

SVTC1136 said:

This may seem like a dumb question, but do you need to take the brake caliper and disc off? If so, did you have any trouble with these?

Click to expand...

i took mine off. i had better acsess to things. its easy, just to bolts and your done. but then again i could do my front brakes in 30 mins.

muntus said:

If you could get a new ball joint, drill out the rivets, and insert the ball joint into the knuckle before you bolt the three bolts onto the LCA. Might be easier to line it up?:shrug:

Click to expand...

well by replacing the whole thing you get new bushings. i would say it would be easier to just do the whole LCA. and have piece of mind.
but if you figure out how to pop it back in is easy! the next side will be cake for me. - the bolt cutting.

i did not need a 2nd set of hands during this.


I got my LCA's and bolt/nuts from Steve at Tousley Ford when i ordered everything i needed all at once. great prices. they were back ordered but came in like the next day. just ask for Steve.

Steve
Tousley Ford
White Bear Lake, MN
1-800-328-9552
(Mention SVT plan for LARGE discount.(from 30-60%!) Don't need an SVT to use this plan.)

Click to expand...

Yep, I got mine from Steve too, but it took almost a month. He said he could get them for me quicker but it would have cost more. Mine are in really bad shape, I think one of my bushings is completely gone.