hi all.
thanks to TSIN03SE for posting this and helping on my post about bearings in troubleshooting.
see my post over there for my experience.
i was under the impression that control arms were much more expensive.
anyway, i got mine done without removing the control arms, but it was a major b!tch!
it sounds like to get stuff back in, people went:
control arm -> ball joint into spindle -> THEN spindle onto strut. not sure but this might be easier than
spindle on strut then drive shaft in, then onto ball joint (what a PITA).
oh, and for bearings. if it quiets down when you turn right that means the RIGHT bearing is bad. when you turn right the load of the car goes onto the left bearing and quiets down the right.
i only replaced my right bearing and i'm all nice and quiet again. and no, you don't have to replace them in pairs. it's just double the work. :-)
oh, and you don't need a special puller to push the driveshaft out of the hub. a normal three jaw gear puller will work fine.
. It was bad anyway, but I tore the boot in the process. Others I have separated had a tapered ball joint so all you had to do was hit the knuckle with a really big hammer and it would pop out. Not so easy on the contour. Also, the bearing would not press out. The machine shop destroyed the bearing while trying to remove it. They had to weld a bead around the inside of the outer race to shrink it enought to get it out. What a pain!! Hope the otherside doesn't go out anytime soon!!