Decided to do FW bearing job myself. Disassembled everything. No problem until the step where you remove the lower ball joint stud. I had to position bottle jacks under the knuckle to do that.
Took the knuckles to a machine shop and had them press the new bearings in.
Upon reassembly the problem is that the knuckle (which is fastened to the strut with the axle installed) cannot be positioned over the ball joint stud. When I push down on the lower arm there is clearance for the knuckle, but as I push the knuckle inward, the axle reaches its compression limit and limits the inward movement about 1 inch short of aligning with the stud.
It appears that if the spring could be compressed on the vehicle, it may pull the knuckle toward the body enough to allow the stud to align, but the spring compressors I rented from Auto Zone do not work on the vehicle.
This happens on both sides.
Here are the questions.
1. Re: Springs. The vehicle is an SE. Are SE springs so much more stiff that they would need to be compressed on the vehicle to do this type of job?
2. Re: Axles. Is it possible that there was some dislocation/separation within the axles during disassembly so that they are an inch or so longer and will not allow the stud to align with the hole in the knuckle?
3. Anything else anyone can think of.
p.s. I have done axle replacements and knuckle replacements on Tauruses, so I know how to do this job under normal circumstances. Something probably just isn't right here that I'm not picking up on. Surely all Contours can't be this impossible to do this job on.
MKoine
