i have a bad ball joint and need to remove the front upper control arm. Is there any tricks i should know before starting the job?

 

Never did it myself but my mechanic says there is an important line up you do when the car is back on the ground. He says many shops dont do this and it leads to premature failure. Sorry if that wasnt much help but at least you know to ask around! Good Luck!!

 

The upper links don't fail because of the ball joints, the rubber bushings do fall apart though. The upper links aren't very hard to change, you just have to take out the 16mm pinch bolt that hold both of the links to the steering arm, then bang the links out with a hammer. Now you have to take out the three green bolts that hold the strut housing to the car, let the strut hang down and swing it out towards you, this gives you access to the links without having to take the strut out of the car. You may have to loosen the 18mm nut holding the bottom of the strut in order to swing it though. Make sure to check exactly where the control arms are placed, you have to put the links exactly back to where they were before, if you don't do this you can wear the bushings out in a hurry. Like a6xlr86 said, but he was reffering to torquing the bolts under load, which is when the car is on all four wheels, this isn't needed for the upper control arms, just the lower links, so thats not a problem.