Control Arms/Ball Joint Change?
 

I just finished changing the upper and lower control arms on my drivers side. I also changed the ball joint for the upper control arm. It was a major PITA. Took me 6 hours. The lower control arm was a breeze. However the upper was a pain. The bolt that connects it to the frame is a PITA. I had to drill a hole in a plastic piece to get the bolt out. Then getting in back in was just as big of a PITA. All in all I was able to get almost all the bolts to tighten to specs except one.

This is the problem. The nut that goes on the ball joint for the upper control arm will not tighten to torque specs (40 ft/lbs I believe). On inspection it appears that it is designed that way, there is a small cap on the top of the nut. On the drive after I could notice a small clunking noise coming from there. I am almost sure this is the source of the clunk.

I went all OEM on the parts. They all came with new nuts to use. The ball joint I noticed has a hex nut in the bolt. I cannot figure out what it is for and think this may be my solution.

Can anyone help with this.

hi pal, im not sure why u cant tighten the ball joint up ? is the hole joint just turning with the nut ?

you need a special tool - the ball is probably just spinning inside it's joint, there is a very slim flat section that you can get a spanner around but you need to figure out what size spanner it is and grind it down so that it is about 2mm thick (I forget what size spanner it is), Or you can push the rubber boot out of the way and stick a pair of robogrips on it, I recommend only using the robogrips on the teardown rather than the install though......

Get an Allen key that will fit in the hex in the bolt and hold the allen key while you use a wrench to tighten the nut.

if its spinning and its the upper arm then hit it with a hammer while you tighten it this will work perfect i changed mine 2 days ago dont hit it to hard but one quick hit will grip the ball joint onto the arm then you can tighten up

This, I think its 5mm or so which holds the bolt, and 22mm for the nut on the ball joint which tightens to the knuckle

I will try that, thanks a a lot.

I am tackling the passenger side today. I got the nut tightened on the ball joint for the upper control bar.

Does anyone have the correct torque specs for the ball joint nuts?

I have found conflicting info on this. One post said 100 ft/lbs for the lower control bar ball joint, and another said only 49 ft/lbs for the upper control bar joint.

if you are tightening the ball joints on the steering knuckle, the ball joint for the thrust arm is tightened to 45 lb ft, the ball joint for the straight wishbone control arm on the knuckle to 59 lb ft (this is taken from the CV boot DIY thread)

If I overtightened them, should I loosen them and re-tighten? Or since they are locking nuts should I leave them alone? I tightened the lower control arm to 100ft/lbs and the upper to 60 ft/lbs.