Help!!
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 180
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From: Lebanon, Ohio
Help!! So me and my friend tried lowering my car last night, we spent 3 hours looking for a damn torque bolt wrench, finally found one and got everything off the front drivers side (It was a BITCH, the bolts were so rusted) anyways we got all the bolts off but couldn't get the Spindle arm disconnected for ANYTHING. We tried hammering and prying it apart with no luck, it didn't even budge. Anyone else have this problem? If so how did you get it disconnected?
This is what Ls1howto.com says to do...what the hell is a pickle fork
Now take a look at what we have under here. The big rusty arm is what I call the Spindle arm. At the top of this arm, it connects to a ball joint on the upper control arm. We need to disconnect this connection. To do this, un-bend the cotter pin that is holding the nut on, then use a 15mm socket to remove the nut.
Get a hammer and try tapping upwards on the end of the stud (where you took the nut off) being sure not to accidently hit the threads. You can also try tapping the spindle arm a bit up at the top and see if that helps. Hopefully, the spindle arm will fall free and come totally disconnected. When it comes disconected, dont let it hang by the brake line!!! If tapping didnt work, read on.
Now, if your car is like mine, the tapping with a hammer did you no good. I tried wedging a huge prybar in between the upper control arm and the spindle...this resulted in me breaking small bits off the iron spindle arm. This was no good. I then dug around and found a pickle fork. Rather than hammering this "wedge" fork in the joint and possibly damaging the rubber boot in there, I decided to try to use it as a prying device. I used a 4 foot hollow pipe, put it over the end of the fork and wedged it in good and started prying! About 2 seconds later *POP*, the arm came disconnected off the joint. Whew.
If I can't get it disconnected tonight, I'm taking it to a shop. Any idea how much that will run me? It's just for the springs. Thanks for any help. -Rachael
This is what Ls1howto.com says to do...what the hell is a pickle fork
Now take a look at what we have under here. The big rusty arm is what I call the Spindle arm. At the top of this arm, it connects to a ball joint on the upper control arm. We need to disconnect this connection. To do this, un-bend the cotter pin that is holding the nut on, then use a 15mm socket to remove the nut.
Get a hammer and try tapping upwards on the end of the stud (where you took the nut off) being sure not to accidently hit the threads. You can also try tapping the spindle arm a bit up at the top and see if that helps. Hopefully, the spindle arm will fall free and come totally disconnected. When it comes disconected, dont let it hang by the brake line!!! If tapping didnt work, read on.
Now, if your car is like mine, the tapping with a hammer did you no good. I tried wedging a huge prybar in between the upper control arm and the spindle...this resulted in me breaking small bits off the iron spindle arm. This was no good. I then dug around and found a pickle fork. Rather than hammering this "wedge" fork in the joint and possibly damaging the rubber boot in there, I decided to try to use it as a prying device. I used a 4 foot hollow pipe, put it over the end of the fork and wedged it in good and started prying! About 2 seconds later *POP*, the arm came disconnected off the joint. Whew.
If I can't get it disconnected tonight, I'm taking it to a shop. Any idea how much that will run me? It's just for the springs. Thanks for any help. -Rachael
You don't need to separate it. Remove the swaybar end link and the assemble will drop down out of the wheel well. Un bolt the lower part of the shock and the shock assembly will drop down and you can remove it. I just did mine last night and changed 4 shocks and springs in 2 hours.
Originally Posted by jd13
It's much easier if you remove that arm.
I'd say soak that thing in wd40, some degreaser, or whatever you have for a little while, then come back and hammer at it again.
I'd say soak that thing in wd40, some degreaser, or whatever you have for a little while, then come back and hammer at it again.
No it's not. I always do them "hammer free". This removes the risk of destroying a ball joint boot, etc. Once you drop the suspension down, you can simply lift the upper control arm off of the shock. If you seperate the ball joint, you have the upper A arm "loose" once the shock is free. That is not necessary.
http://home.columbus.rr.com/trackbir...stallation.htm
That may help.
My thoughts.
Last edited by trackbird; Jun 4, 2004 at 01:04 PM.
