Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension Can't get ball joint into knuckle

The front is a two man Job IMO!

We ended up cutting the lower ball joints off of the LCA's and replacing them with bolt-in units. Makes the install a piece of cake compared to prying the not-enough-clearance LCA's

http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=susp&Number=731872&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&vc=1
I posted this a while ago, but it could be a reason you are having trouble. I also had trouble with the drivers side. If it is the CV joint out of the tripod housing it will fight you. Be carefull you can pinch a hole in the boot easily if you are too rough.

I installed my camber/caster plates this weekend and ran into this problem. The driver side was a breeze to get back together, but not so with the passenger side.

Yes, you have to pry down on the LCA pretty hard, but that's not really the problem. In my situation, it was more the angle of attack. You need to have the lower ball joint pointing out away from the car. With the control arm lowered, this allows for the highest point of the ball joint (the edge of the top) to be lowered as much as possible. You can then pull the strut and khuckle assembly out just enough for everything to fall into place.

Here's what I found when I had problems with my passenger side. I noticed my driver side ball joint was firm and would hold into place where ever you moved it. My passenger side was not like this. It move around easly, but when you removed pressure from it, it would return to it's center. So I was not able to get the edge of the ball joint as low as possible.

What did I do? I got my 9 year old daughter, who was out there with me watching everything I did and asking questions, to move the ball joint into place for me. Once it was in place, I slowly released on the LCA just enough to catch the knuckle. I then told her to remove her hand and I took it from there.

Problem I had then was getting the stem of the ball joint to maintain the proper angle while traveling through the knuckle! I was pretty tired from fighting with it, so I took a break. I can back out and worked with it some more. I still couldn't get it, so I just started kicking the hell out of it! Still nothing. I then walked away from it for about an hour or so, went back outside and it fell right into place after a few taps on the bottom of the ball joint.

As someone just stated it really helps to have an extra set of hands for the hard parts. But since I usually work alone, having an extra set of spring compressors, which I cut shorter to fit inside the wheel well helps. Just compressing two, of the easier to access, middle coils helps alot.

If you have the earless pliers, easy. About $20 for the Lisle brand. Once you remove the large clamp only, besides the mess from all the grease, you'll be able to see that the rollers from the tripod are out of the housing. Putting them in is easy. Just make sure to orientate the roller or rollers the correct way if one or more have fallen into the boot.

Holy sh**. I just went out to the garage, ready to tear into the CV boot. The ball joint stud was resting in the pinch hole, but at a wacky angle, just like it had been yesterday. I figured I'd give it one more futile push before tearing into major repairs. I did the same thing I'd done for 4 hours yesterday, only this time, I heard a satisfying <thunk>. I could hardly believe it. The darn thing went together. I laughed. I cried.

Working on this car is an emotional roller coaster.

I've never had an issue with them. As long as you slather it with anit-seize and have it lined up it's a piece of piss! I use a crow bar to lever the LAC down makes life a LOT easier.

When I did mine 'bout a month ago. I just replaced the lower ball joint. By the time I had everything apart the boot was ripped anyway, and w/80K I figured why not do it now rather than have to do the whole ordeal over. They're like $25 from BAT or $30 from Autozone. The beauty is, after getting the old one off, you can get the shaft in the knuckle first and tighten pinch bolt. Then take large scratch awl or phillips screwdiver to line up center bolthole and get the first 2 bolts in. Much easier and prolly a good investment if you have any sorta milage on car