Rear Control Arms - Help

[alex.rhodes]

Pleased to say the ball joint separator that was recommended worked perfectly. I took the first one off and my son took the second. The driver's side sounded like a shotgun when it let go, the passenger's side was more like a .22. Both rear lower control arms have been replaced.

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by alex.rhodes

Pleased to say the ball joint separator that was recommended worked perfectly. I took the first one off and my son took the second. The driver's side sounded like a shotgun when it let go, the passenger's side was more like a .22. Both rear lower control arms have been replaced.

Awesome!!! Any other projects while you were in there or just the control arms? Always a good feeling with a job well done

[alex.rhodes]

I was trying to get the transmission fluid changed and my younger son was cleaning road grime from the transmission and wheel wells. The fill plug refuses to let go and I've soaked it with kroil multiple times. I'm probably going to take it in for that one, let a profession take it out and verify the threads aren't stripped. Give them a chance to give everything a once over make sure it's in good health.

Really surprised my sons when the ball joint let go. If the nut was not still on I think it would have been embedded in the floor. My older son was able to install the control arms himself, I simply locked everything down.

[jakeru]

Glad to hear you had good luck! Did you grind the inside edge to 26mm+?

[alex.rhodes]

No grinding. What should I have ground?

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by alex.rhodes

No grinding. What should I have ground?

Check out the U shaped jaws on my tool compared with Jake 's. The wider jaws allow the tool to get around the LCA ball joint better. Unground works too (I was able to do one side with the stock tool but it kept slipping off the other side) and you had good success too. If I had a grinding tool I would have done mine too.

Originally Posted by jakeru

That tool looks very beefy, bird dog!

Here's my harbor freight balljoint tool, with inside u-shaped edge ground out to fit around the 986 balljoint's 26mm diameter. (Still works on 986 tie rod ends, too!) I have very little doubt that this tool will also last my lifetime.

[Brockmeister]

I used 2 pickle forks. One on top of the other. The yhad 2 at the part store and I couldn't decide on which one so I bought both! First one wasn't getting enough leverage so then I tried the second one on top of the first. Worked like a charm.