Originally posted by eepals:
Having fun yet? The balljoint stem is rusted to the knuckle. I haven't looked at the knuckle in a while,but if it is sloted like the area where the strut sits in the knuckle, take a flat or a wedged pry bar and open up the slot. Spray it good with a rust buster/ penetrent. It will take some work. I had one side that busted balls and the other side came out in a fraction of the time.
Even after getting the ball joint loose I still had problems.
On my 97 V6 I COULD NOT get the ball joint out of the knuckle all the way without extra work. I tried stepping on the a-arm, pickle fork, pry bar but the subframe just does not allow the a arm to drop low enough to clear the knuckle. You could 1) (recommeded way) find a way to compress the spring up about 1 inch to get the clearance. Some people have used stategicly placed bottle jacks and blocks of wood IIRC. Be very careful as there's a LOT of force stored even with just an inch or so of compression! or 2) (harder) lower the subframe about 1 inch.
At least on my car there was no other way to get it out without doing one of these 2 things. Since I was pulling the subframe for a clutch anyway I just did that first and the ball joint end slid right out.
97 Contour SE MTX
K&N 3530, UR UDP, 19# Injectors, mystery mod, FMS wires, Fordchip.com chip, SVT: TB, Flywheel, clutch, exhaust
04 Grand Caravan SXT
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