How in the hell!!

[Mercmarquis]

I got new shocks the other day and I'm gonna cut a coil out of my stock springs to lower the car down. Only thing is I cant bust the ball joint off the lower control arm using blaze's technique. I was hitting it with a sledge for half an hour and it wouldnt budge. I also tried taking out the lower control arm bolts, I got one out but the other bolt is stuck (the nut is off but I cant drive out the bolt)I was thinking of heating it up with mapp gas to loosen the rubber enough to drive the bolt out. Anyone have any tricks of the trade to help out? Last resort would be running down and getting some pickle forks.

[turbo2256b]

Put the nut back on the bolt and tighten it get an extension if needed. I use an 1 1/4 schedule 40 stainless steel pipe about 3 feet long. Tighten the bolt untill you here it pop. Remove the nut the bollt will come out most of the time.

[Mercmarquis]

I'll give it a shot tomorrow. Thanks mang.

[85crownHPP]

you used a sledge hammer??? I hope you didnt bend anything... and be carefull with the heat. If the rubber bushings get hot enough they will cook and melt... and wont serve thier purpose anymore.

[Mercmarquis]

you used a sledge hammer??? I hope you didnt bend anything... and be carefull with the heat. If the rubber bushings get hot enough they will cook and melt... and wont serve thier purpose anymore.

5) To get the ball joint unstuck from the spindle, you will need a good sledge. A small 4-5lb'er should do it. I found it easiest to hit the spindle at the ball joint from under the middle of the car. And hitting the back side of the spindle. The reason you do this, it to just jolt the spindle with an impact and it causes the ball joint to come out. You left the nut on the ball joint though just as an extra precaution that it stays up.

I tried that above, didnt seem to work, But I probably wasnt doing it right and I sorta got paranoid hitting the spindle...didnt seem right to me. Good call tho on using heat, I dont want to trash the bushing.

[turbo2256b]

What gets stuck is the bolt rusting to the metal sleeve that is vulcanized to the rubber. Heating just melts the rubber from the sleve which is still stuck to the bolt. The sleeve has a split in it tightening the bolt pops it loose from the bolt. Like tightining a brake fitting before loosining it.

[Mercmarquis]

Yeah the bolt is stuck, I see now and come to think of it now, I did that on the bolt thats out cause I had the ratchet set wrong and didnt catch my mistake. I'm gonna give it a shot tomorrow morning before I head out to the blue suede cruise at Norwalk dragstrip.

[Blaze86Vic]

Using a sledge will nock it loose. You are not in any way going to damage the spindle. If you hit the nut on the ball joint, you will bend the ball joint. It has to be a very good, SOLID SQUARE hit. Sometimes you just need some help.

I beat the passanger side off pretty quick. But I spent 30 minutes on the driver side to no avail. But had my Father take a swing at it and dropped in 4 tries. Sometimes it's a pain, it just has to be a well placed hit. And the heavier the sledge the easier. Had a 6lb short sledge that did nothing, but 8lb sledge was usless as well. Our 12 lb was a lot betterm and I think a 16lb would make it easy.

[gadget73]

I don't think you can get the spring out by unbolting the lower control arm and not disconnecting the ball joint. What's giving you a hard time, the nut on the balljoint, or seperating it from the spindle? If its the balljoint from the spindle, the BFH method should do it. If its really really stuck in there, and you have a balljoint press avaliable, use a pickle fork to seperate it, then install a new balljoint to replace the one the pickle fork destroyed. Might be able to get away with new balljoint boots doing that tho.

[Mercmarquis]

Got it done...I couldnt get out the bolts, so I tried the sledge method. Whacked the back of the spindle and POP. I was hitting it in the wrong spot which is why I couldnt get it yesterday. I cut the springs and put it all back together. Now I just got to grab me some shocks and its done. The stance is perfect, the car is nice and low now and it has some rake too. The bullitts look so awesome tucked under. I'll get pics monday of it. Thanks

[85crownHPP]

oh ok - 5 pounds is hand held I was visualizing a 20 pound sledge in my head

and o yes, jonnies right. Spindles are one of the strongest parts of the car - just aim well. A miss could be disastrous!!!!!!

[Paul_]

oh ok - 5 pounds is hand held I was visualizing a 20 pound sledge in my head

I've chucked a 20lb sledge at someone before. :evil:

I've never seen a 400lb person run so fast in my life.

[gadget73]

So you have what, stock original springs with 1 coil cut out? How much did it drop? I'm thinking of cutting a coil out of mine to drop the front end some. I don't like the current stance. Its too high in the front.

[Mercmarquis]

It went down a good bit...close to 1 1/2" of drop maybe more. You might have a clearance issue if you run higher profile tires. But I got low profiles on my 17's so it looks good and I got plenty of room. I say try it, it was easy enough.

[mercenvy]

BTW you can remove the springs without removing the balljoints. You just unbolt the lower control arms from the frame side and use a spring compressor. I've done it and it works quite well. also need to disconnect the tierods.