ok, ive been working on this all weekend. i have everything out and trying to put it back together.

Is there a trick to getting everything to line up? if i have the knuckle bolted up, i cant get the ball joint in, if i have the knuckle bolts out i can get the ball joint in but i cant get the top knuckle bolt in. Am i doing anything wrong? i'm about fed up with it..

please help

 

Bolting the knuckle to the strut is the last step. It takes a lot of pushing and pulling in three dimensions, but eventually you'll figure out how to get it to line up. An alignment punch, sometimes called a line-up tool, helps a lot. You can get one at Sears. After I get the bolt holes approximately lined up, I shove an alignment punch in the lower bolt hole and use it like a lever to align the top hole. After the top bolt is in, I put the bottom one in and wiggle the knuckle around while shoving the bolt through with the other hand.

 

+1. That is the best explanation one can give. There is no other shortcuts.

 

I've never ever had trouble aligning the spindle/knuckle until the day I had my axle separate causing things to be really tight. If you're having trouble, look into your axle, you may have "dislocated" the joint

First put the ball joint in the spindle and tighten it and make sure you put a new cotter pin

Second, get the axle in there CAREFULLY so you dont strip the threads on it

Third, get the spindle in the strut and if you have to, just use a long screw driver to get one of the holes aligned but you shouldn't have trouble unless the axle snapped out of place.

Fourth, put the tie rod end into the spindle and tighten nut along with new cotter pin. Dont forget to tighten your axle nut and also use a cotter pin.

 

+1 on the CV joint seperation. If it's popped out within the boot, your going to have one hell of a time getting everything to line up. It should all go back together very easily.

Are both front wheels off the ground? If not, your fighting the sway bar too!

 

it the axle is separated can i just pop it back in?

 

The drive shafts easily pop back into the transaxle. When I replaced my LCAs a few months ago I had to remove the drive shafts to saw off the rusted cotter pins and nuts.

If it's only a CV joint seperation then that also just pops back into place.

 

ok, i will have to look at that tonight to see if it has separated, that would make sense.

It aught to drive like a new car when im done, or at least it better! New inner/outer tierods, new balljoints, new endlinks, and new LCA bushings

 

it will drive like a$s until you get an alignment unless you really matched to the old tierods. When I did my inner/outer tierods, I matched completely and it was still screaching tires like crazy

 

I am very curious how this turns out for you. I am about to undertake a similar situation. I am wondering how much it improves your ride.

 

ok, the driver's side was EASY very easy.

the passenger side is still giving me hell!

i cant get the strut assembly to go in at all, there is plenty of side to side movement but no inward movement. Is there a easy way to tell if the CV axle has come apart in the boot? i visually inspected both boots and they look fine, would it be a noticeable thing to see? this is the only thing i have left to do is get the ball joint lined up!

any suggestions are very welcome!

thank you

 

You should be able to freely move and rotate the very end of the axle. In fact the boot should look very accordion-like instead of looking stretched. You can probably try and compare the boot with the one from the driver side and see if the spacing is similar.

Just by your description though, it sounds like your axle is not in all the way

 

it's very tricky at first but you gotta struggle a bit and play around with moving everything. I did the same and eventually got it

 

ok, how easy is it to pop the axle back together? i feel some bulges in the boot, hopefully i can just push them back in instead of getting a new axle.

 

boom sucka, it was out. so with a "little" finesse it popped back in, all i had to do to is talk "sweetly" to it lol

but for real, i had to knock the **** out of it!

 

damn I'm good

Now just pray that it isnt clicking when you turn... they dont like to be hammered/knocked/slammed in

 

I popped the outer CV apart once.I had to cut the big clamp, take it apart and realign everything correctly to get it together. No way could I have done it with the boot on. They have replacement clamps but I used a worm gear dryer clamp. Its been fine for at least 5 years.

 

I also did that but I didn't cut the clamp.. I just used needle nose to apply pressure and release the clamp, readjusted joint and put everything back with the same clamp. And then I warrantied the axle anyway just in case

 

Yea, thats the only thing im worried about now. need to get it aligned now

thanks for the fix!