Lower Ball Joint Broke

[MSM0075]

My car has been making some weird rocking/knocking noises when I hit bumps, I figured its just bad strut mounts or something. Well today I noticed they were getting REAL bad. Comming back from the inspection station getting my car re-checked after exhaust problems. I'm driving down the street and the knocking was getting real real bad. Next thing you know, my car dips down alot and my front drivers side wheel was sitting in the wheel well. So I try to get as far as I can home as possible, Im crusing at like 5MPH, 5 seconds later, BANG, wheel pops of, fender sits on the wheel. UGH. I was in a bad section too, WITH NO cell phone... It looks like the lower ball join broke right off the lower control arm. Guess I'm going to be doing some MORE front end work....It never ends...I could have been doin 85MPH on the highway like I do everyday...

Thank god..

 

[140cilx]

sorry it happened Mike, but like you said, Thank God, you were only going 5 mph. Maybe you'll just need to go get an a-arm from the yard. If so, maybe you should do both sides now.

-glad you are ok dude!

 

[MSM0075]

You do one side, you gotta do the other, and if im going to be doing all this work I might think of other things I can do in the process just to be on the safe side.

 

[Red_LX]

When I got my '90 lx I had to replace one of the ball joints. The car kept making these weird creaking sounds whenever I went over bumps but we couldn't figure out what was causing it. Me and my dad were under the car one day and saw that the a-arm on the driver's side, when the car was sitting at ride height, was scraping the inside of the rotor. We jacked the car up and found out there was all kinds of play in the ball joint. I took it to a local guy, he pressed out the old ball joint and pressed in a new one for me....that was 5 years ago, and it's still good

 

[MSM0075]

Hmm. You say pressed out. Now does the lower control arm have a hole in it for the ball joint...or is the ball joint connected perminatlly to the control arm? Beacuse mine is cracked almost flush with the 'a-arm'. Does that mean I need new 'a-arms' or I have to have that broken peice taken out and replaced with new ball joints?

 

[MSM0075]

I gotta get this spring out, The only thing holding the spring in and the control arm up is the sway bar end link...and eventually that is going to snap...I have no spring experence, How should I go about doing this? I know its very dangerous and I've read about people dying from it... :\

 

[MSM0075]

Wonder if I can avoid taking the spring out, Just keep the control arm supported and rent a ball joint pressing tool perhaps? Never done a job like this.