front shock/spring removal
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Teching In
Joined: Aug 2006
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front shock/spring removal everything i have looked at on the internet said to seperate the upper ball joint to remove the front shock/spring assembly. my haynes manual says to seperate the lower ball joint and remove it that way. why would i want to seperate the upper instead? I will be replacing the lower ball joints at the same time, so what is the advantage seperating the uppers instead? will i need to seperate both? 
Originally Posted by littlebird
everything i have looked at on the internet said to seperate the upper ball joint to remove the front shock/spring assembly. my haynes manual says to seperate the lower ball joint and remove it that way. why would i want to seperate the upper instead? I will be replacing the lower ball joints at the same time, so what is the advantage seperating the uppers instead? will i need to seperate both?
Don't fully remove the nut...leave a few threads on so it doesn't fly off the balljoint. You can do either upper or lower. I did upper on mine since it's easier to whack the top of the spindle with a hammer. When you put a floor jack under the lower A arm you're adding pressure, not releasing it. When it's not supported it's at full droop with no tension on the ball joints. It helps having pressure on the ball joint so it helps pop it loose. And always hit the spindle and not the ball joint. It's easy to ruin a ball joint whacking it with a hammer!
