So I was driving the gf's car sat night to dinner and we hit a patch of ice and slid into a cub, pushing the front left wheel back about 3 inches. After looking at it yesterday, it doesnt look like the strut is bent, and it still turns fine until the wheel hits, so I'm thinking and hoping that the only damage is the bent control arm. I've found some used ones nearby for cheap ($35) I've looked at the Haynes manual and it looks like a fairly straight forward job. Has anyone had this happen before? What was damamged? How much did it cost to repair? Is this something I can swap out myself with some help?

 

The only sticky part of a straight control arm swap is seperating the ball joint. The rest is cake.

 

Ya I noticed that too. They said not to use a "picklefork" becuase you'll damage the boot, but to use a crowbar or big screwdriver....

 

If you aren't concerned with preserving the joint on your bent control arm, there's no reason not to use a pickle fork to seperate it.

 

Dumb question, but I asume that the other control arm will have a ball joint already on it?

 

The trick to seperating a ball joint is to hit the sides of the receiver nice and hard with a hammer. That will squeeze the joint slightly and push the tapered shaft out. Do that while applying force to seperate the joint and it should pop right out easily.

 

for the hammer and not the picklefork advice.

 

The new control arm with have a new ball joint. Forget about babying the old one....

 

$35 for a control arm is ridiculously cheap. Something's up with that. I'd get one from pinnacle nissan just to make sure you're not driving down the road and your wheel flies off like you see with a lot of fords. A decent aftermarket control arm should run about $70. You pay for what you get and a control arm is not where you should try to cheap out. In my opinion of course

 

Well, its a used control arm, not new, and they have 5 or 6 of them.

 

Put a new ball joint on. Best to do now. Consider a new tie rod also. Also maybe consider pressing in new bushings for the control arm.

 

just hit the side of the ball joint reciever with a metal mallet a few times it will come loose.

 

just buy a new arm, it's a few bucks more but they will normaly come with a new ball and new bushings.
at least the ones I sell do

 

Get a new assembly with new ball joint and bushings