Need some advice on taking off my control arms

[frog210]

Well today is the day that i started taking off my control arms to install my porterbuilt arms. well after many swears and a few tool runs im stuck

Im trying to take out the springs so i can start unbolting everything, i stop because it got to dark and mosquitoes were out.
Well i unbolted my sway bar, shock, tie rod, the lower ball joint nut, i tried to undo the top ball joint, but couldn't break it loose. well i lower the jack, the arm goes down the stud of the ball joint goes flush with the spindle whole, but it wont go down to take the pressure off the spring. i dont know if im missing something here or what
( in the video i was only working on the driver side, so thats why you still see the sway bar, but it aint connected)


^^^click to watch






Thanks for any help

[S10Fan]

Hard to tell from the picture but is the shock unbolted?

[Big Dawgs 86]

What I did was loosen the bolts to the upper and lower ball joints... And then I popped the upper ball joint from the spindle by using a fork.. Once the upper ball joint releases the spindle I removed the upper ball joint nut and lowered the jack slow wile taking the tension out of the spring..
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[88Jimmy4x4]

you need to take the brake caliper off too

[hatzie]

I did a set of springs on my long gone 85.
Your jack is placed right. Hopefully your jack valve allows you some controlled release.
The spring is still under tension with the lower control arm at full extension because yours aren't busted. You can get it out without a spring compressor but you won't be re-installing those without one.
You'll need to loosen the U bolts retaining the lower control arm to the crossmember and slowly release the jack.

Be careful putting it back in. Re-installing the front springs is as close as I want to get to holding a small armed bomb. The spring under tension has a LOT of energy stored. If the compressor cuts loose it's gonna hurt you. Don't put anything you can't afford to loose anywhere it might fly.

I closed the compressor just enough to install the spring with some temporary longer U bolts and took it up with the jack till I could install the original U bolts one at a time.

[frog210]

The shock is unbolted

I do got a fork, thats how i undid the lower one, but the top one dosent want to give, i put it between the control arm and spindle, maybe i need to keep banging on it

Jimmy dont i have to take the spindle down a bit to get the brake line from behind spindle, to be able to get it out of the way...

[old Rusty C10]

use a large prybar and height to get the LCA to bend back far enough to pop the spring once everything is unbolted

[frog210]

Old rusty I'm confused with your comment, could you clarify
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[LONGHAIR]

A couple of things that might help....
I have seen the LCA catch in the hole that is in the dust shield, then it will not drop further.
Also, forget the picklefork, they just tear things up. Ball-joint boots are not the only thing, they can bend the flanges of the control arms too.
To separate the joint: Loosen, but do not remove, the nut. Strike the spindle itself right next to where the tapered stud goes through it. It takes a pretty good whack, but it will pop. Same with tie-rods, just apply some pressure to them with a prybar since they don't have a spring helping you.

[mrolds88]

Here is a way I normally do this. After removing the normal stuff, caliper, sway bar, shock, remove the cotter pins from both ball joints. Back off both ball joint nuts about a ¼”. Make sure you have the jack out from under the control arm now. Take a large hammer and hit the top of the spindle horizontally and that usually gets one of them to break free. When that one hits the nut, it usually shocks the other one enough to pop it loose too. If I have to take the spring out, I run a chain through the spring and wrap it around the control arm or crossmember, then let the lower control arm down. That way if it decides to take off, it won’t go anywhere.

[74 stepside]

It appears that you have taller than stock coil springs because your truck is sitting pretty high. The coil is going to need some help getting out, but be careful as it will have more pressure than a normal lenth spring.

[frog210]

Ok well got some progress done,
just came inside for like a hour ive been outside since like 10 and its 2pm and the sun is hot lol tried to mess with the driver side upper ball joint and nothing so, went to the passenger side, i couldnt break the lower ball joint, but i was able to break the top one lol
managed to drop the passenger lca and uca man what a pain.
After my 1hr break im going to work on the Driver side
All i need to do is break the uca stud loose on driver side
break the lca stud loose
HERE some PICS











Man can I personally say it was scary lowering the control arm, to release the spring, the lca literally had the arm on the ground before i was able to get a long pry bar and pop it out whew
If you can see from the shadows in the pictures there aint no tree for shade so im sweating like a dog lol, wanted to keep my compressor cool and make it last, so i put the fan on it and not on me

[frog210]

VVVV Video of one of my ball joints scary


VVVV Video of trying to remove the bottom nuts on the lca PAIN


Pic of the spring


How it looks when i got done


It was stuck on the dust shield like you said LONGHAIR


Just a pic i took to remeber the spacers


Since today was sunday i couldnt take my arms no where to get pressed in(ball joints, bushings)
I just need to get the rod from the old lcas to put into my new lca, but didnt see no easy way of doing them, anybody have any tips to take out the lca bushings to get the rod out to use with the new ones
Thanks For All Yalls Help

[Sodell]

You can burn the rubber out...

[frog210]

What would be the easiest way of doing that and safest like put the nudging area in the fire or like a torch?
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[Sodell]

Use a torch. Heat the rubber and then the outside of the bushing until red, and the rubber will catch on fire. Be careful the rubber will shoot out when you get the metal bushing really hot. Once you get the rubber out you can hit the bushings and they will bend, making them easy to get out.

[frog210]

Well since I nor anyone i know had a torch i took them to a shop up the street they charged me $30 bucks to take out the bushings to get to the shaft, i got home and noticed one of the shaft ends where the nut goes, appeared to be a little mushroomed out, like if they hit it with a hammer, i checked all of them with the original nut and 3 of 4 went on easy, I dont have a threader so i might see if i can maybe impact it on
Kinda mad, but aint at the same time, im mad that they mushroomed it a little, but it was only $30 bucks I dont know

[frog210]

Well since it has been raining its been putting me off from doing any work
heres a pic of my mushroomed lca shaft
auto zone wanted like 120 for just the shaft
rock auto wanted 60 = shipping and waiting
went to a junk yard and they wouldn't separate the shaft from the arm so i had to buy the whole lca for 40 no bad, lets see what i can do today, hopefully it dont rain



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I found this western hauler at that junk yard for sale, 454 only $2000
wish i had the money

[Sodell]

I would make that shop take it out for free