Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting replacing ball joints ?

I got an estimate for getting an allinment and ball joints , I thought it was high $625 yeh ha ha . So can any one tell me if I need any special tools , or proceedure , or any kind of help. Thanks . bye the way it's a 98 SVT

The original ball joints are riveted to the control arms, so you'll have to somehow remove the rivets. I used a grinder to grind off the end of the rivets, and then punched the rivet through the hole. The replacement ball joint bolts into place, rather than riveting. You may need a ball-joint removal tool to pop the joint loose. Other than that, the tools you will need are what I would consider standard. The ball joints are fairly inexpensive. I believe I gave $30 or so for each one. The main problem you'll have is working with the strut while it is under compression, but the fact that the new ball joint bolts into place makes even this part of the job a lot easier.

Yeah, you can do this yourself, and save yourself about $500. You may want to check the condition of your control arm bushings first, as they may need to be replaced too, depending on your mileage. My control arm bushings were shot on my '96 SE at about 110k, and I had to replace the control arms, since the bushings are pressed into place. The new control arms came with new ball joints installed, even though my old ones were still good. Control arms are considerably more expensive than ball joints, but its better to do this job once, not twice.

You may be in luck, because the '98 has redesigned control arms with stronger bushings, so you may not have the wear that I did.