me again still with the bent knuckle issue. quick question. someone mention to me some alignment shops can actually heat and bend it back to close to spec. is their any truth to this and if so would anyone recommend it? if not im gonna be stuck giving 330 bucks to midus for a used knuckle and labor to fix my car and re-align it.

 

Why dont you do this yourself? Its so easy, and you can find one on ebay or buy one from gmpartsdirect.com

I dont understand why people want to throw their money away =(

 

umm. its easy you say? mabe if you have all the tools you need. i have the GM esi tech manual program. i know exactly how to do it. thats not the prob. seems to me their are alot of specialty tools you need. mabe you thinking of something else. what im talking about is not easily found and if you do find o on ebay its form a wrecked car. not real smart to buy frame/suspension parts from a wrecked car. and brand new is $200+ from GM im talking about the upper a arm knuckle/ some people call it the spindle. if infact this can be done with no special tools please let me know how this is done then because noone else seems to know how its done from my previous post

 

I don't know if I would call it easy, unless you've done it before or are just mechanically adept, but it really doesn't require a lot of specialty tools to change out the spindle/knuckle. I'd say that the trickiest part would be separating the upper & lower ball-joints, and outer tie-rod ends from the knuckle. The tool you need is called a 'pickle fork' and you insert it inbetween the knuckle and ball joint in order to "pop" them out. You just have to be careful to not tear the ball-joint boots if you don't plan on replacing them. You apply pressure with the pickle fork by hammering it inbetween the ball-joint and knuckle, and you can also tap the knuckle if necessary where the ball-joint stud goes through. On some knuckles, they sometimes forge in a "pad" where you're supposed to strike the knuckle - I can't remember if this exists on the 4th Gen spindles or not.

The reason you need this tool is because both the knuckle and ball-joints are machined with a specific taper. Once tightened, the receiving hole in the knuckle actually expands slightly (measured in thousandths of an inch) around the ball-joint stud to form an interference-type fit. Now that I've mentioned that, it is actually possible to get them apart without using a pickle fork too - You could substitue another pry-bar type tool instead, and I've even been able to seperate the ball-joints by using only a hammer... It all depends on how well the machined fitment was.

Everything else involved would just unbolt with 'standard' tools. If you want, I could outline the steps that I'd take to replace them, but you really just need to unbolt everything off the knuckle which means the brakes (don't disconnect the lines), wheel hub and the joints mentioned above. You don't need to unbolt shock/springs and just be sure to support the car & lower control arm when you're changing them out.

 

BTW, you can pick up used knuckles for A LOT cheaper... I think one of the sponsors can get them for you. Try here: http://www.jskauto.com/ (Which is Tennesee Auto).

 

You dont even need to use a pickle fork......all ya gotta do is use a prybar and a good size hammer. Pry up on the upper a-arm with the prybar and give the knuckle a couple good smacks with the hammer. the ball joint will pop right out of the knuckle. This saves you the oh **** i screwed up my grease boot problem.

 

Good comments. I have popped my spindles off before, on a front shock/spring install that got way out of hand. No special tools required. All you have to do is take off everything that connects to it, smack it off as described above and put in your replacement.

Just spend some time looking for a good replacement and you should not have to pay $300. Put it all back in and drive it up to the shop and say "alignment please."

 

Let us know how it goes in case we convinced you to do it yourself. Also Autozone Loans out the tool incase you need it. You get your money back when you return it.

 

bah. well i wish i would have waited but i wound up letting midas fix it. im not a really good mechanic yet im 25 but other than changing oil/tires intakes and i helped put on my headers and exhaust i havent dont any suspension/ work or anything. and ive never been comfortable messing with the brakes i dunno call me a worry wort lol. but thanks for the help guys. its a used car and ive had it for a year and ive neglected fixing all thes probs its had for a while.

i also have a broke poly trans mount. the power steering is forming around the hmm not sure what you would call it the bar that pushes the wheel left or right right at that seal. power steering drive shaft bar i dunno ahah. and my car is not leaking but forming a leak around the shaft that goes into the rear differential i think it is?. so i have alot of things to fix. and im trying to learn as i go. and even with the GM esi techline software. its just tough to work on things if your not 100% confident that you cant get the car back into one piece lol

 

np, just remember you will never learn unless you try it. Yes ive done things i had no clue about, and had to take things apart 2x before getting it right. But now i know it like the back of my hand.

 

We all did these projects the first time and thought, oh hell here I go.
I had to put my last steering rack in twice AND I had already done it before. Live and learn.

The thing you are speaking of that is leaking- does it come out of the steering rack, have a black boot on it and end at the steering knuckle on the spindle with a rubber boot thing with a bolt that points up?

The second leaky object is the pinion seal - ALL of our cars leak there. Keep it topped off on diff fluid for now - that is a crazy project, though it seems demure.

And unless you like your trans to beat you up when you drive, you might consider replacing that mount with an OEM one - it is less likely to break, and more likely to smooth out the roughness and shocks the transmission encounters. But if its worth that extra little bit of torque to ya, leave it.

I hear you on that getting it back together thing...some of us around here still daily drive our Fbodies.