[olddirtyrake]

I have an irritating problem. I am removing cv's but cant get the top A-frame to come loose from the ball joint. The vehicle is on jack stands and the lower A-frame is jacked up. The 4 bolts are removed but the A frame will not come off. I was wondering If anyone has a good trick to pop this thing off. I called the Nissan dealers shop they said its just hard to get off and were of no help.

[why3zx]

im confused, is the ball joint taper loose from the steering knuckle? i am understanding that the taper is still in the knuckle and the a arm bolts are out of the ball joint, and the sticking that you are refering to is from the interface of the ball joint to the a-arm? if you are replacing ball joints the taper into the knuckle is most likely going to be much more of an issue, i would put a couple of bolts back in, the a little trick a buddy of mine that works at a front end shop told me, jack up the truck by the frame, allow the tension of the torsion bars to pull the suspension down, take the nut off of the ball joint, then tap on the knuckle, perpendicular to the ball joint shaft, it will break free. then pull the upper a arm up take the bolts out of the interface and pound the old ball joint off with a hammer. but that said, it will break free with some force, dont have anything under the lower arm when it happens.

[GrimGreg]

Try slowly lowering the jack on the LCA, the BJ should drop out.

[olddirtyrake]

GrimGreg, on 04 November 2009 - 10:19 AM, said:

Try slowly lowering the jack on the LCA, the BJ should drop out.

Thats almost a funny post. I tried everything,finally got passenger side off with heating and cooling A frame then I put a bottle jack underneath the A frame causing upward pressure a couple firm strikes and it popped right off. Now for the other side.

[olddirtyrake]

why3zx, on 04 November 2009 - 05:46 AM, said:

im confused, is the ball joint taper loose from the steering knuckle? i am understanding that the taper is still in the knuckle and the a arm bolts are out of the ball joint, and the sticking that you are refering to is from the interface of the ball joint to the a-arm? if you are replacing ball joints the taper into the knuckle is most likely going to be much more of an issue, i would put a couple of bolts back in, the a little trick a buddy of mine that works at a front end shop told me, jack up the truck by the frame, allow the tension of the torsion bars to pull the suspension down, take the nut off of the ball joint, then tap on the knuckle, perpendicular to the ball joint shaft, it will break free. then pull the upper a arm up take the bolts out of the interface and pound the old ball joint off with a hammer. but that said, it will break free with some force, dont have anything under the lower arm when it happens.

Thanks for the good advice, but I'm just replacing boot on cv joint. I don't have to remove ball joint from knuckle just the A frame has to come off for cv clearance. I hope the ball joints don't go out from all this pounding around them I have enough work ahead of me as it is

This post has been edited by olddirtyrake: 04 November 2009 - 11:04 PM

[OldSlowReliable]

Just for future reference-

When I did my UCA's for my SL....I didn't want to untension the torsion bars, so I put a jack about an inch under the LCA, and a jack stand under the hub about an inch, then when I started to loosen the bolts, it just kinda pulled out as I went, and did all the work for me....although mine didn't really seem stuck in there to begin with...

[olddirtyrake]

OldSlowReliable, on 05 November 2009 - 06:51 AM, said:

Just for future reference-

When I did my UCA's for my SL....I didn't want to untension the torsion bars, so I put a jack about an inch under the LCA, and a jack stand under the hub about an inch, then when I started to loosen the bolts, it just kinda pulled out as I went, and did all the work for me....although mine didn't really seem stuck in there to begin with...

Ohh my A frames were stuck all right. Tried everything, got both sides done now just waiting for parts. I would recommend heating all around ubj, then position a bottle jack underneath A frame, heat again, and then pound a couple times and it pops right off. Really I couldn't have done it without heat and that bottle jack it was really on there.

[DavefromOZ]

One reason I love living where I do, no rust to worry about, when I did my CV's, I undid the 4 bolts and they seperated without any effort at all.

[GrimGreg]

DavefromOZ, on 06 November 2009 - 11:29 AM, said:

One reason I love living where I do, no rust to worry about, when I did my CV's, I undid the 4 bolts and they seperated without any effort at all.

Mine did too, and I'm in the rust belt.

[edicer2]

I hate the rust belt! im kinda nervous about putting on my UCA never done it before and dont really know how so im sure it will be mess and im sure something will be rusted together.

This post has been edited by edicer2: 06 November 2009 - 02:10 PM

[OldSlowReliable]

edicer2, on 06 November 2009 - 05:10 PM, said:

I hate the rust belt! im kinda nervous about putting on my UCA never done it before and dont really know how so im sure it will be mess and im sure something will be rusted together.

Your biggest issue will be the metal sleeves being rusted onto the spindle, and MAYBE the frame side bolts.....it was actually easier than doing the rear lift springs...


Some tips I would have found helpful-

To help get the stock shock unbolted, use a pipe wrench on the non shocktube portion (upper cover thing) so it doesn't turn when your trying to unbolt the shock...

Get a breaker bar, use it.

You will need a 7/8 wrench (me thinks thats right) for the rear side bolts of each UCA, (I couldn't fit a breaker bar in there easily, but the big ol wrench did the trick)

Get a torch and a cheapo flathead screwdriver to burn out the bushings....takes forever but is rather easy....

If in the event your sleeves are rusted on, and you CAN'T get them off, DON'T try to cut them off, I ended up slicing into my spindle a little bit, and will have to replace it some day....on my drivers side, I finally gave up on the sleeves and just lightly sanded the stock sleeves and reused them. They actually worked better, and with just a little grease, the RC bushings just slipped on, vs the RC sleeves that I couldn't get the bushings on easy by any means.

The RC sleeves are longer than stock, it causes issues. (for me atleast)

Re tighten your bolts SOON, I just did about 400 miles later, and the side bolt on my passenger side UCA was finger loose and I could see the spindle threads in the space O_O. On the spindle that I used the RC sleeves, I didn't cut them down, and now one bushing has a 1/4" space in between the flange of the bushing and the RC arm.....dunno what Ima do about that one...

[olddirtyrake]

note that 6/8 uca bolts are snapped into the bj at least I still have 1 natural thread on each side.
I think for the snapped bolts I'm going to drill it out a little larger than before and put some heaver duty bolts through and nut them with lock washers instead of having them thread through,I dont have a tap and I kind of drilled 3 offcenter with a smaller size drillbit.

This post has been edited by olddirtyrake: 07 November 2009 - 12:05 AM

[olddirtyrake]

Finally ready to put both cvs back in progress pic

[OldSlowReliable]

Wait, are you re-using the old Ball joints? Why not just replace them instead of drilling them out......Chances are they probably need replacing anyways..

[olddirtyrake]

OldSlowReliable, on 07 November 2009 - 09:10 PM, said:

Wait, are you re-using the old Ball joints? Why not just replace them instead of drilling them out......Chances are they probably need replacing anyways..

I checked them before I pulled the wheel I think there fine. I tried to take them out and I don't think its going to be easy. Plus Im going on about $600-700 in parts and about $2000-2500 in hours spent on this thing. You have to draw a line somewhere, if its not broke at this point I'm not going to fix it. Believe me enough things were broke that I have had to fix already. I need a ride before winter hits.(Usally at this point I would replace them either way but I really want to get this on the road.

[OldSlowReliable]

just sayin, if it were me I wouldn't want to drive around on retapped balljoints...

for future reference-
http://www.oreillyau...tPartType=C0106

[GrimGreg]

Yeah, I'd replace those. You said if, "it aint broke", but those are broke, not the joint, but the mount. Not like they are an expensive part, and at this point you could use a pickle fork and not care if you destroy the rubber grease cap.

[ChaosSaint]

agreed... just pop those suckers out while ur in there, another $100 and and what, an extra hour?
I picked up inner and outer tre's, upper and lower bj's for passenger and drivers side for about $85 on ebay - not top of the line by any means but better than 15 year old parts

[olddirtyrake]

ChaosSaint, on 10 November 2009 - 10:30 PM, said:

s

Replaced the ball joints. I was going to drill them because on some Chevy's there riveted on and when some people have to take em off they just drill em and bolt them up. After I drilled em 1 sides rubber got damaged, at least I tried. Wouldn't be so cheap but I just bought a $1000 slab saw for agates