Control Arms/Ball Joint Change?

[Ricky Bobby]

i would loosen and torque to spec.

also in case you didnt know, the thrust arm and wishbone control arm, at the frame side where the bushing is (not ball joint side), need to be torqued with the cars weight on the ground, not in the air, so there is no preload on the bushings. if you torque with vehicle in the air the bushings will fail prematurely.

[billdo]

Ricky,

I did tighten them while in the air, should I loosen them in the air, and then re torque on the ground?

In addition is it possible to tighten those by just turning the wheel to the outside?

[Ricky Bobby]

Yes definitely loosen a bit in air, put back on ground, and re torque so you dont fail the bushings prematurely.

What some of the members here do is drive up a ways onto a ramp or curb, or just lower the jack so that most of the weight is on the wheel but you have enough room to get your wrench in there.

I have air suspension so for me I just lower the car and raise the air to "offroad" mode lol

[billdo]

I was thinking about putting some wood on the ramps and lowering it on the discs, but that probably would break the disc nuts off.

[billdo]

Thanks for the help Ricky.

[Ricky Bobby]

definitely not with the discs lol, do it with wheels on and just drive up one side on a ramp and then do the other, shouldnt be too bad, the one thing thats nice about an SUV is that I at least can go under the car and do some work on it! as opposed to my years of tucking fender and having to drive up on 2x4 just to get a jack under it lol!

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

definitely not with the discs lol, do it with wheels on and just drive up one side on a ramp and then do the other, shouldnt be too bad, the one thing thats nice about an SUV is that I at least can go under the car and do some work on it! as opposed to my years of tucking fender and having to drive up on 2x4 just to get a jack under it lol!

By driving one side of the car up on a curb or ramp you are introducing a pre-load from the sway bar to the other wheel. Either have both wheels on ramps or have both wheels on the ground.

[billdo]

I did it with both wheels on ramps. I loosened the bolts first with the wheels off the ground. Then I put it on ramps to tighten. I couldn't get my torque wrench to click at 100ft/lbs (using a 1/2", probably need a 3/4) therefore I just did it as tight as I could get it.

I also think I may have damaged the ball joint connected to the lower control arm. I originally tightened it to 100ft/lbs. Today I loosened it and tightened it to 59 ft/lbs. however you can see 1 or 2 extra thread popping through the top as compared to the other side where I did it correctly the first time.

[Bulk]

Originally Posted by billdo

I also think I may have damaged the ball joint connected to the lower control arm. I originally tightened it to 100ft/lbs. Today I loosened it and tightened it to 59 ft/lbs. however you can see 1 or 2 extra thread popping through the top as compared to the other side where I did it correctly the first time.

Get a new one

[billdo]

Bulk, what is the worst that can happen? It appears to work now?