Upper Ball joints

[edwards54 15]

I am a trying to do more on my own and had the car on a hoist today. As I was looking at the ball joints there was too much play and they need to be peplaced. Is this an easy task without a hoist? I also noticed that the drivers side was a 3 bolt and the passengers side was a 4 bolt. Is this uncommon?

[JayEstes 172]

Its not a trivial job, but you can do it with the car on jackstands. You will need a special tool to wedge into the suspension to unload the ball joints. It's a simple but special tool shown with dimensions in the 1969 shop manual (I can send you the pic/dimensions if you need). You will have to remove the tire, but can possibly do with the rotor/caliper (assuming disc) left on and connected to the ball joint you are not replacing.

 

As for 3 bolt vs 4 bolt, I suspect it is fairly common to get a mix. My uppers are 4 bolt, (but they can be the 3-bolt style) but I believe just about all lowers are 3 bolt. My 3-bolt lowers are riveted in, if yours are like that - it would be easier to just replace the whole lower control arm (not cheaper unless you count time).

 

If you have one side UCA with a 3-bolt and the other side with a 4-bolt, I suspect at some point the UCA was replaced, and they got the different UCA. I wouldn't worry about which it is, and just buy the part that fits - I don't think there is any functional difference between 3 & 4 bolt balljoints.

 

When you get in that deep - be sure you grease the zerks on the ends of the UCA mount to the shock tower - these joints frequently get neglected being back behind those springs. When I got my UCA's off recently , I thought the shock tower mount rotation joint was in good shape until I disassembled them from the UCA. I then found the UCA threads which hold the ends of the rotation mount were stripped, and wallowed-out. Now I am buying new UCAs.....(Note: you can only check this joint if you take the springs out which is not required to change the ball joints - but you can lube the joint since the zerks are accessible all the time).

 

well. That was probably more than you wanted to hear.

Hope it helps though.

Jay

[Lemon Owner 11]

As Jay said it is not a trivial job if you have never seen the method of removal. You can do it on jack stands. You will need two good hammers and maybe a ball joint fork. But usually the hammers will do the job depending on how stubborn it is. Once you get the spindles off the ball joints it is most likely that the joints will be riveted to the control arms. The best method I have found to remove those is with an air chisel. As jay said the bottom ball joint will most probably be spot welded to the arm. You will need to drill out the spots to remove it. Then of course just bolt the new ones into place.

 

Personally if you can afford to just replace the entire upper and lower control arms as a single unit. It will even take less time than just doing the ball joints.

[harlan69mach 21]

I'm just finishing up the front suspension on our Mach 1. I went with new upper and lower control arms. One ball joint was loose and the others had the rubber boots split and were rusty. Also the rubber bushings were hard and cracked. Replaced the rubber bushings on the strut rods and all the connections on the sway bar. 43 year old rubber isn't very flexable. I set the spindle, hub and brake drum assy on an inverted bucket while replacing the arm so I didn't have to disconect the brake lines. Have that all back together and replacing the tie rod ends now. I agree that a ball joint removal tool is a big help and not very expensive. Hope to be headed to town for a front end alignment soon.

[PaleRider 12]

http://www.mustangsplus.com/catalog/2012/Mustangs%20Plus%202012%20Catalog.pdf

 

Take a look at mustang plus catalog gives good illustation on loosing bal joints from spindles page 171. You really don't want to use a pickle fork. A BF hammer is what you want. Removing coils is probably the part that you need to be most concerned about. can be dangerous if not handled right.

[purple69 10]

Not my favorite job to do.

Here is a picture of the special tool.

The manual to do this job are in the members section.

Good luck.

[PaleRider 12]

if you remove the coil dont need the tool.

[Lemon Owner 11]

I have never ever used that tool and I have jacked up all my fords so many time I can't remember. I wonder what I have damaged on my car from not using it?

[JayEstes 172]

you probably haven't damaged anything.... but you've got to hold back the tension of the coil spring if you are replacing an upper ball joint. To take that ball joint out would mean the spindle is no longer transferring the load down to the LCA, and so the UCA would be pushed lower by the spring, and the coil spring could pop out at you. Not sure if it really would, but it could.

 

They also recommend using an odd little compression device, applied to the ends of each ball joint bolt (where the castellated (sp?) nuts are) to apply pressure and then tell you to whack the spindle to break the bolts loose. When I took mine apart I did something similar using some all thread, but I don't know what most folks do. I think the bulk of people just go drive a pickle fork in there and be done, but that tool also has a bad reputation for ruining equipment with a lot of good mechanics, so I avoid using it where I can.

[Lemon Owner 11]

So it is really just a safety thing. Well OH&S has never been big in my garage.

 

I have luckily never had a problem removing the upper ball joint as it is easy to get both hammers around the spindle. The bottom one however always requires some manoeuvring to get it there and give it a good smash.