How do the lower A-Arm bushings look?

If you have a camber bushing coming apart that woud account for the whel leaning in. Also, it would make some nois when it gets loaded and unloaded.

Gentlypry angainst the A-Arm using the K-Member as leverage

 

what is the a-arm? sorry that is probably a dumb question, but i'm not sure where the a-arm is.

 

The lower ball joint is at the point of the "A" arm. The lower shock maount attaches to the A-Arm as does the sway bar end link.

There are 2 pivot points where the lower A-Arm attaches to the K-Member. These pivot points have rubber bushings. While the A-Arm should easily pivot, there should be no vertical or lateral "play".

 

Okay, so if he is asking what is the A arm, I don't think he is going to be able to diagnose a bad lower control arm bushing.
Working from the most obvious culprit to the most unlikely, given you've ruled out the wheel hub assemblies, and also unless he's running 17x11's with 315's, it's unlikely. The second most likely item is the ball joints which he CLEARLY described as the noise they make.
His question is how to replace them. Usually it's the uppers that go out first. I would get a good set of upper ball joints and have a freind help you if you've never done it before. If you have no friends (lucky you) and you have to do it your self, get out the old chiltons manual and have at it. You can find some shops that will do it for a fair price. If they've never been changed before, they're kinda of PIA cause of the rivets holding them in.
Either way, get them changed and it will be solved.
With some basic handtools, a ls1tech.com "how to" write up, and a little patience and beer, you can do it. Getting the rivets out are the hardest part. Some people use an air chisel, sound use a sharp cold chisel, some just pay a shop $10 to take them out. whatever works.
Good luck, and keep asking questions.

 

You make valid points.

When I trashed the caster bushing, it was making a really loud banging sound when slightly loaded, like easing around he paddock heading to grid. But when I was going straight or in a hard turn at speed, it wouldn't make the noise.

Forces were jamming the inner sleeve into what was left of the rubber bushing material.

I saw some shards of rubber hanging out of the A-Arm and thought it was a snot ball of rubber from R-Compound tires. But it was attached and thats when I realized what the noise was.

I inserted a pry bar between the K-Member and outer shell of the A-Arm and I could move the joint 1/4 inch. If I got a little violent with it, I could recreate the noise.

Ball joint is definitely the first place to look.

 

i think the biggest difference between mitch's diagnosis and racin's diagnosis is that regardless of the name racinz28 i know for sure that mitch does auto-cross racing and that in fact could cause some unusual, or rather, seldom occurrences of some problems you've experienced before. i think the ball joints, as both of you indicated, is more likely on a car that is just a daily driver and not used for anything else. also the fact that my car is in the 60-80k mileage range means it's more likely. i will give those a shot and report back once i change them out. thanks for all the help.

 

just out of curiousity, can you drill the upper rivets out, like with an electric drill?

 

Yes, that's exactly how one removes the rivets from the stock upper a arm.

 

thank you. if i find out the lower one is the problem, i've heard pressing it on is pretty tough and if you don't jack the car really high and if you don't put it on exactly straight, you can mess up the a-arm. just looking at labor does 100 for the upper and 166 for the lower seem like a bad deal?

i'm convinced i can jack the car up later today, take the wheel off, and see which one looks bad and which one doesn't. honestly i wish i had a diagram though, as i have had the wheel off many times and in my head i can't think what/where the ball joint actually is? i've seen pictures of the part, but not of the part on the car. maybe it will be self-explanatory when i get the wheel off...

 

I prefer to remove the arms from the car when replacing the ball joints. It makes it just that much easier to do correctly. And you are right, if you don't press the bottom Ball joint out correctly you can damage the arm and the new joint won't seat properly, or at all.

Some shops will let you bring in just the lower arms and will press out the old and press in the new ball joints for less money than doing the whole job. Some will do it for a case of beer!

 

how difficult is it to take the a-arm off if you are doing it?

is the upper ball joint on the a-arm?

maybe you could help me by identifying those parts on this diagram? haha sorry i'm dumb.

http://www.ls1howto.com/howto/fbody/...s/IMAGE001.jpg
http://www.ls1howto.com/howto/fbody/...s/IMAGE003.jpg

 

The ball joints are at the outboard end of the A-arms. I personally think it's really easy to take the whole front suspension off the car, but then again, I do it every winter LOL!

 

well, looks like you guys got it figured out.. FYI a noisy bearing will not always have play in the wheel when you "shake down" the front end.. AND a bearing will lots of play is not necessarily going to make noise.. ALSO the guys who did your alignment are idiots unless your car was in a serious front end wreck... You CANNOT do a proper alignment with play in the ball joints, witch they probably did not check, or check incorrectly (suspension should be loaded to check them) They probably did not have the "fbody" alignment tool, specifically for our cars..... but yeah, Id say ball joints

 

and the a-arm is basically where the shock connects at the bottom area right? where the rotor is attached to?

 

The Ball joint connects the A-Arm to the upright. That's the big black metal part that connects the upper and lower A-arms. It is also the part that the wheel hub and the brake caliper are bolted too.

 

alright guys, so i think mitch might be on the right track after all. i went out there and had the car on and stuck my head under there while a friend turned the wheel. anyway the noise i would say with 85% certainty is coming from the AREA wherever the a-arm connects to the k-member (they do connect yes?).

now there are a lot of parts in the car that i don't know what are called so i will describe to the best of my ability. in front of the a-arm/k-member connection is an accordion like rubber boot. i believe the tie rod goes through here? could that be the cause of the problem?

now i don't know where the ball joint is exactly but i think it's going to be under the outermost part of the a-arm, and i feel really confident that the noise is not coming from there. but it's super loud under the car.

i will also restate that the driver's side tire is leaning--the top of the tire is leaning in to the car towards the passenger side. i hit a curb about a year ago. soon after the lean was obvious and the alignment guy told me something was bent under the car but he couldn't see it. well about 3 months ago this popping noise started.

what do you guys think it could be???

 

an A-Arm

a balljoint

gnarled up caster bushing

Depending upon how bad the bushing is, it can move in any direction. But once the rubber bushing material is gone, it is metal on metal

 

the CAMBER bushing is what i think is making the noise. can all the problems i speak of be the camber bushing? or maybe i am hearing noise in the camber but it's actually the castor bushing?

 

Possible.

I was using Caster as an example because its what I had go away on my car.

Also, if you hut a curb hard enough to destroy tires, I would think you have a bent knuckle. Measuring camber sweep will reveal if something is bent/

 

i don't know why i didn't think of this earlier, but i uploaded a video. i think the video will be very helpful. sounds to me like it's coming from in the accordion thingy, because the camber part of the a-arm isn't moving a muscle so don't know how the hell it could be causing this noise. however, the front camber bushing does look pretty bad, and the castor area of the a-arm does look a little bent maybe? let me know what you think.

camber frontside:



camber backside:



castor:



on the video, i basically was turning my wheel back and forth very little. the independent creaks was when i was turning the wheel very slowly, the series of fast clicks was when i was turning it quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peiZYUlleJ4