lower control arm/ball joints

Last time my ten year old Saturn was inspected they said the ball joints were borderline. I've asked before if any do-it-yourself types have been able to successfully get the ball joints/control arm replaced and only one person replied who said he ended up having to cut up the lower control arm to get it out and that the inner bushing had fused to the thru-bolt making the job a freakin' nightmare. Having been staring at this Haynes picture, I can see access to the business end of things is, well, enclosed, like really boxed in. Also I live in the snow belt and so the corrosion had probably done it's thing making the job way harder than it ought to be.

If anyone can suggest anything that might make this somewhat easier I'd really appreciate any tips, or advice. Saturn wants ~$600 to do this and that does include the subsequent 4 wheel alignment. Two, left & right lower control arm units will cost me approximately $140. Being poor, I need the money and hope to do this myself and save as much as I can. Also hoping a bad shoulder doesn't fly apart on me when trying to do this.

Would 'liquid wrench' work it's way in deep enough to free up a fused bushing/sleeve from the thru bolt? Would using an impact driver on the end of the bolt drive it back out to free up the bushing? Just trying to sound out my only meager ideas from staring at the picture. The Saturn guy did say it is a quite a tough job to get them out. Probably using an impact driver might wreck the mounting box-like part of the under frame.

Thanks, I hope!

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If you remove the entire strut and front hub assembly as one piece, you won't need to get the car re-aligned. In order to do so, it's three nuts on the strut mount under the hood, the big axle nut, the tie rod end castle nut, and the lower ball joint castle nut on the end of the lower control arm. You'll need a long 2 x 4 or prybar to pry the control arm down enough to get the hub assembly off of it, and it sure helps to have a second person to help out.

The nut will probably come off the sway bar end pretty easily. But it will probably be difficult to get the bolt out of the lower control arm where it attaches to the cradle. You can buy a torch for $20 if you need it, and the blue-tipped wrench does wonders. Otherwise, an air hammer with a chisel bit pressed against the back of the bolt head will help back it out.

This is definitely a job that most driveway mechanics could do, assuming they have access to a decent set of tools and have a bit of patience.

Lane [ l a n e @ p a i r . c o m ]

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Lane

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