Hey just looking for a little help,
My 95 needs a new lower control arm ball joint so I got the whole control arm from Nissan and it arrived today. I didnt really feel like paying one of their guys 72 bucks + tax to put it in so I thought I would first ask if anyone on here could give me some help. I live in St. Catharines and am able to travel a bit to do this. If someone can give me a hand I will order food or somthing like that.
Here are pics of the front LCA. Basically there are two pivot points. The
one closest to the engine comes out easily. Grab a wrench, and a ratchet
and take the bolt/nut out.
The balljoint end is a bit of a pain. Basically you need to loosen the
crownnut first, and once the nut is loosened, you will need to hammer out
the arm.
Grab a chisel, place over the top of the crown nut, and hammer like a
mad man until the arm pops out of the socket.
Right, Just Give’r Man 
Beat that thing silly till it comes out, make sure you loosen the nut 1st 
LOL will do, I just wanted to make sure since this is one of my first attempts on my own car lol. I will take pics along the way so that I can make a reference for other users.
I’ll be doing the exact same thing…
But I’m using my stock arm. How hard is pressing in the ball joint gonna be?
Anyone?
heat the arm around the hole with a torch in a circlular pattern. the metal will expand then the ball joint will drop right in. If not, wack away with a soft mallet and a peice of pine(cause it’s soft)
Thanks man, I appreciate it. YOU KW ARE A-OKAY!!
usuially after this process the balljoint needs to be welded in or else it will pop back out…
hmmm, 30000km and mine’s still in, you have a snap ring at the bottom to prevent it from popping out the top, or slding out the bottom for that matter. It’s the same idea as heating the hub to install a wheelbearing, or heating the main gear(brain fart, forgot the name) on the diff to get it to fit over the new housing. You’re not heating it red hot, just enough so the metal expands some so the joint goes in easily with a wack.
matts right. Though the metal will expand while being hit in, the force is not enough to permanetly deform the metal. If you heat it too much, you lower the point where it will be permanently deformed, and yes, that will fuck it up as it goes in. BUT, if you heat it up enough to have the ball joint go in without any force, when it cools it will reform the same shape, … but the joint will be weaker (via annealing process).
This is not the correct way to split a ball joint. You’ll eventually get it off for sure, and in this case that will suffice as he’s putting in a new LCA, but this will fuck up the ball joint, the nut, and anything else you happen to hit by mistake… Others might be reading this expecting to be able to use the same ball joint afterwards… Ie. taking parts off in a wrecking yard.
To understand how to split a ball joint you first need to understand what it is… the ball part is pretty obvious, the joint is a tapered bolt that fits into a tapered hole, tightening the nut stretches the bolt so it seats in the tapered hole exactly. To split this joint you need to stretch it from the other end this is what the “pickle fork” type of ball joint splitter does, it’s basically a wedge that you drive in between the bal and teh jointand it pulls it apart by stretching the tapered bolt. The problem with the pickle fork is they usually fuck up the rubber boots. The other type of ball joint splitter applies pressure in a cotrolled maner to the top of the joint (slightly different to beating it with a hammer and chisel) I guess with enough pressure you can split the joint without stretching it. The problem with this type is … well most of us don’t have one.
There is another simple laymans way to split a ball joint, that does involve using a big hammer… so you do get to relieve stress at the same time. This way you loosen the nut, but leave it on several turns in case you have an errant hammer blow then you won’t screw up the threads. Apply some pressure to help stretch the joint, I usually get a long pry bar (like 4’ long) pry down on the LCA against the frame. Now hit the taper that the ball joint goes into, the hitting will stretch it and the pressure will pull the joint apart as it stretches. You should only need to hit it HARD a couple of times, provided you have some reasonable pressure pullig it apart. If you miss and hit the nut too often you’ll screw it up anyway, but otherwise you should be able to split any balljoint like this and re-use it.
-Martin.
You should always press them OUT and IN. Either use a hydraluic press or a ball joint press (sort of a C-clamp with a selection of spacers and cups that goes over the ball-joint. You set it up them wind the threded rod in with your air gun and out the joint pops… I wouldn’t recommend heating.
I would strongly recommend tack welding the new joint in though. Yes the spring clip won’t let it fall out, but it will allow it to rotate in the hole if it’s not the tight interference fit that it’s supposed to be. You want the ball of the joint to do the turning, not the ball joint in the LCA hole.
-Martin.
Or as I have done I ordered from Nissan the Lower Control arm with the ball joint already in the arm. So I dont care if I beep up the old ball joint since it is the reason for replacing lol. It has .5" of vertical play.