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

I'm changing front struts (what a B*TCH!) and can't get the ball joint back into the knockle. I've got the tierod end disconnected and the strut hanging by the mounting nut. With the control arm all the way down, there isn't enough room to get the knuckle to the right location. I've pryed every which way with no luck. Stock springs, BTW. Please help. This POS car is taking up my whole garage.

compress the springs

throw a breaker bar on the LCA and push down so it's fully extended and see if you can make it work.

I know what you are talking about. the LCA hits the subframe metal to metal and you still need 1/4" of travel. you need 21mm socket and 3" extension. lower the sbframe to get that 1/4". you might get away w/ two bolts on the side where you are working, or you may need to loosen the other side a little. either way you don't knock it out of alignment if you are careful.

also, depending on what struts you have you may have about 1/4" of travel of the knuckle up the strut. don't neglect that. take the strut pinch bolt out to use that travel too.
every 1/32" helps.

btw, I honestly don't see how one can compress the spring in situ not with rental spring compressors from autozone I don't think...

A lot of us have had this same problem, and we've cussed, cussed and discussed this issue over and over. I spent hours and hours in the same predicament you're in right now. I have two observations that might help. #1 - unless you have a spring compressor different from the one I have, you cannot compress the springs while the strut is in the car. The compressor is simply too big to fit inside the strut tower. #2 - the control arm can be forced downward enough to get that extra 1/4 inch that is so critical. I used a homemade pry bar to force the arm down. I used a piece of 1 inch square tubing, about 4 feet long. I inserted the end of the tubing into an opening somewhere around the back of the control arm (can't remember exactly where, but somewhere that I could get leverage), and then sat on the opposite end of the tubing pry bar. In that way, I was able to force the control arm downward. I probably worked 10-12 hours on that problem, using bottle jacks, scissors jacks, floor jacks, etc, and the long pry bar was the only thing that helped.

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried to compress the spring, but with the loaner tools from AutoZone, I can only get two coils next to each other. Squeezing those together nets absolutely nothing. I used my jack handle (~4 ft long) as a pry bar and can get the knuckle close. I saw the 1/4" or so of travel in the strut with the pinch bolt removed and am using that as best I can. I actually had the ball joint spindle resting against the angled section of the knuckle just before it slips into the hole, but I can't get the very small amount of extra room necessary. I think may need a helper for this job. I'm taking the day off tomorrow to finish it up, then I'm taking the car to someone else to do the driver side front strut. What an insane design!

If everything is lined up correctly you can do this without all the prying of the LCA. I have done this several times and have never had to force things into place. You may have to twist and turn things to get it to pop in but this can be done with minimal force.

A buddy is a huge plus!

I've had the same problem. I rigged a setup where I used a jack connected to the strut to jack the strut up into the tower. You have to rig something up to do this carefully but I did it and it worked fine. The reason I had this problem is because the new upper strut mounts/are much thicker than the old. The care rides much much better with these thicker mounts and new struts...

Bob