Well ... I replaced ball joints yesterday ... which didn't go very smooth.

I had to cut off nuts because there was no other way to unscrew 'em - bolts were spinning together with nuts, and bolts are attached to the plate on each side (bolts are with round head - original I guess).

Question is ... are these plates critical to have in place (structural, reinforcement ... or whatever)? Because for now I bolted BJ without these plates.

Thanks,
Alex

 

Does anyone have the write up for the ball joint replacement. Been looking for it cant find ...hehe

 

hmmm ... that's not an answer I was looking for.

Somebody is too lazy to look around. Here is a write up from Maxima.org:

"Tools needed:
22mm open end wrench
17mm socket with a breaker bar.
needle nose plyers
Pickle fork
hammer
small screw driver.

How it:

1. Jack the car up and remove the tire and place the car on a jack stand.
2. take the small screwdriver and bend the cotter pin on the top spindle nut so that you can remove it. Pull it out with the needle nose pliers.
3. Spray all nuts with a penetrating oil to make your life easier. (this is a 10 year old car we are talking about here)
4. Loosen the top spindle nut but you can't remove it yet because the CV joint is in the way.
5. remove the lower 3 bolts that hold the ball joint to the lower control arm with the 17mm socket and breaker bar. They will be tight so give um a good tug.
6. Now, place the pickle fork into the joint and give it a good wack with the hammer until the ball joint seperates.
7. Remove the top nut completely and wiggle the old joint out.
8. Place the new joint into the hole and tighten the top nut as much as possible.
9. Now the fun part. Push the lower control arm down while lining up the three holes. (a helper would be handy at this point.) Thread one of the nuts and tighten till you can thread the other two.
10. tighten all of the nuts and insert the cotter pin on the top nut."

 

Get a repair manual.

 

Buy the complete arm with ball joint
problem solved!

 

The three nuts on the ball joint are all t different angles. If you are using floor jack there isn't much space to give good tug..
I ended up with rounded off nuts. So hold the rachet tight at the correct angle..
Good luck

 

how on earth do you round the nuts off?? get the right fitting socket and you shouldnt have any problems..

pics would be a lot more explanatory...I'm not sure what plates you're talking about....

 

And don't use cheap tools and sockets made in taiwan. they're crap.

those nuts even have hardened points on them to keep them from rounding off. I've pulled them off my car AT LEAST 40 times and haven't stripped one.. then again, I use good tools.

 

I hope "snap-on" tools are good enough for this job

Plate I was talking about is called "bolt assembly" in the manual
And not nuts got stripped but bolts in this plate ("bolt assembly")

 

ok..I still don't know what "plate" you speak of (manual didnt say anything about a plate..)...i'll take a pic of a ball joint I have lying somewhere and you can point it out. If the bolts were spinning, then I understand why you cut the nuts off. The rounded-out comment was for maximalover.

 

the plate he's referring to is probably the piece that on the top side of the control arm. the 3 studs are on there and it holds the actual ball joint to the control arm.

u can have the most expensive tool money can buy...if you don't know how to use it...it's as good as using a rock as a hammer.

if it's still "saveable" then try to get a die on there and cut the threads again...if not then a trip to the dealer is in order. don't rig this piece...there's a lot of energy/mass/weight riding on it.

 

I just bothered to reread this thread.
Pic of ball joint :
what plate are you refering too?

 

Haven't been looking that hard then
http://www1.autozone.com/servlet/UiB...3d801f58ea.jsp

 

 

see those studs sticking out...find out what's on the other end of it...there's a triangle shaped plate.

 

I forgot about that. it's been a while since I had f-ck with *****

 

I was talking about this plate:


As you can see one of the bolts is not there - I had to cut it off because there was no other way to unscrew nut from a a spinning bolt. Second bolt is spinning too but I was able to unscrew a nut. And the third one is just fine.

Hope the "picture" is much more clear for everybody now.

PS: ... and I'm not going to comment on a "tools in right hands" expression ... ("guns don't kill people, people kill people" ... right? )

 

I would highly recommend replacing it, as the end of the control arm isn't that strong- just two pieces of 10-12ga sheet metal welded together. that piece is definitely there for a reason, and they're not too expensive from the dealer.